Author: Robert Greenberger

The studios and networks are asking their producers to save money on their shows.  ABC yesterday ordered a 2% across the board cut for all their prime time programming.  Other networks have ordered similar trims as the economy makes the advertising revenue iffier.

The alphabet network also trimmed their orders for two midseason replacement series indicating they have excess inventory for the second half of the current season.  Rather than the usual 13 episodes, Castle, with Nathan Fillion as a crime author, and The Unusuals have had their orders cut down to ten.  This follows Samantha Who?’s order being cut to 20 rather than the normal 22 episodes comprising a full season. They also canceled the midseason comedy Single With Parents over creative problems.

ABC is negotiating to sign actress Reiko Aylesworth (24) for a “major recurring role” on Lost, according to The Hollywood Reporter. If signed, she would portray Amy, described as a smart and successful professional woman with a love for the outdoors who is looking for the right man.” The role is envisioned as a four-episode assignment.

Amy Price-Francis (Californication) has also found a recurring role but on Fox’s 24. The six-episode story arc would have her playing a ruthless attorney working for Jonas Hodges (Jon Voight).

Director Sam Mendes chatted briefly with Empire Magazine about adapting Preacher for the screen.

He is a lot less far along than one would imagine based on his comments. “This is a typical Variety announcement,” Mendes told the British publication. “‘Mendes to direct Preacher’ – I wish! Basically they should have written, ‘Mendes in development with Preacher’. What I’m doing is, I’ve gotta find a script. I’ve just got to get it written.”

Mendes is drawn to the story of Jesse Custer, a Texas preacher who was given the Word of the Lord but seeks out the Creator who apparently has abandoned his post in Heaven. He’s accompanied by a former killer, Tulip, and Cassidy, an unrepentant vampire. The series ran over five years for Vertigo, written and drawn by the team of Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. All the covers were painted by Glenn Fabry.

A feature film or television series has been in development for years and recently HBO dropped their plans which allowed Columbia to obtain the rights and sign the director of American Beauty.

“It’s brilliant, it’s an incredible twisted vision,” he said. “There’s so much of it you couldn’t possibly fit it all into one movie. It’s just about what you keep and what you leave out, and how you structure the story. But just to have that toy set again, being able to paint on a big canvas and to say ‘I am gonna do crazy crane shots and massive action sequences again because I want to,’ it’s exciting.”

Sylvain White (Stomp the Yard) replaces Tim Story (Fantastic Four) as director on the Warner Bros. adaptation of Vertigo’s Losers.

He inherits a script from James Vanderbilt (Zodiac) as production responsibilities move from a Warner Bros./Legendary Pictures co-production to one managed by Joel Silver’s Dark Castle Entertainment. Production is expected to begin in early 2009 according to Variety.  No casting or release date have been announced.

The Losers lasted 32 issues from 2003-2006 and was written by Andy Diggle and illustrated by Jock.  The story told of “band of black ops commandos who are set up to be killed by their own government. They barely survive and set out to get even.” The title derives from a feature that ran in Our Fighting Forces from 1970-1985, mostly handled by writer Robert Kanigher and artists Russ Heath and John Severin although a memorable run was done by Jack Kirby.

White is also attached to the film version of Frank Miller’s first creator-owned property, Ronin, which DC Comics published in the early 1980s, and Castlevania, a live-action version of the popular video game. Vanderbilt also wrote an early draft of Spider-Man 4 before being replaced.
 

Fox announced a dramatically restructured midseason lineup, radically different than the schedule they outlined over the summer. They have revived the Friday night science fiction dumping ground, placing Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse on that evening, beginning February 13, the beginning of a three-day weekend when viewership tends to drop anyway.

Other shifts sees House slip to Mondays, allowing the return of the American Idol juggernaut on Tuesdays, which makes for a marvelous lead-in to Fringe. Bones shifts from Wednesdays to Thursday pitting the series against Ugly Betty and Smallville.

The Friday night curse began with the genre-related The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. in 1993 and was following in subsequent years by MANTIS (1994), Strange Luck (1995), VR.5 (1995), Sliders (1996), Millennium (1996), The Visitor (1997), Harsh Realm (1999), Freakylinks (2000), Dark Angel (2000), The Lone Gunmen (2001), John Doe (2003), and Firefly (2003). (more…)

The announcement that Fangoria was returning to comic books came as a bit of a surprise so we decided to go right to the source.  Associate Editor Troy Brownfield chatted with us this week on the whys and wherefores.

ComicMix: Hey Troy, welcome to ComicMix.
 
Troy Brownfield:  Thanks, Bob.  It’s great of you to have us.
 
CMix: Fangoria Graphix failed last year and Scott blamed the lack of support from the magazine and website.  Since it was all owned by Tom DeFeo, how’d that happen?
 
TB: Love the easy questions first, Bob.  Let me first clarify a few things for everyone.  Fangoria Comics never failed; Fangoria Comics was ended.  How is that different?  Well, Fangoria Comics was performing at a sustainable level in the Direct Market, at a terrific level in mass market bookstore chains, and very well at conventions.  However, as anyone in comics knows, there is a certain cost associated with paying talent, printing, producing books, etc.  While we would have been doing fine as our own entity, by the end of summer 2007, it was apparent to all that the larger Fangoria Entertaiment was in financial trouble.

Tom DeFeo, who was merely a co-owner at the time (via Creative Group), tried his best to keep us going.  In fact, it was Tom, with our Executive Editor Scott Licina, who put together the comics line in the first place.  It essentially came down to a vote, and Fangoria Comics, along with other facets of the group’s operations, was simply shut down.  By March 2008, the entire conglomerate of interests (Creative Group, etc.) entered bankruptcy proceedings.  What came from that is that Tom DeFeo’s new company, The Brooklyn Company, emerged as the sole owner of Fangoria Entertainment.  Creative Group is no longer involved.

One of Tom’s first orders of business was to call Scott and get things back on track.  Since we’ll be doing more than just straight comics, it was decided to rename the segment Fangoria Graphix.

As to Scott’s remarks citing lack of support, that goes back to things that existed in the previous configuration.  The important thing now is that there is direct, daily communication between Scott, Tom, and Fangoria Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Tony Timpone.  Managing Editor Mike Gingold, myself, and James Zahn from our New Media Development segment are involved with things as needed.  Scott, James and I talk frequently about what needs to be done with the comics, etc., and we’re all working on various ends of that. (more…)

After visiting Camelot, director John Boorman (Excalibur)  has decided to take a trip to see the Wizard.  He has signed to direct a CGI-animated adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

The film is budgeted at $25 million, according to Variety, and marks Boorman’s first animated project. The script will be a collaboration between Boorman, Rom Mita and Jim McClain. The project is already in development and they anticipate inviting audiences along for the ride during the summer of 2010.

Adaptations of the children’s book series have been around since the first motion pictures, best known for the 1939 musical starring Judy Garland. The adventures of Dorothy Gale and her companions have been continued in countless novels, comic books, movies, and television.  The most recent incarnation was Sci Fi’s celebrated Tinman miniseries last December.

A new comic book adaptation is coming in December from Marvel, written by Eric Shanower, who has previously adapted the material, and illustrated by Skottie Young.