Author: Robert Greenberger

David Fincher, while promoting his next feature, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, told reporters that the film adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama was likely dead. Despite the most recent draft of a script being delivered in April, financing proved difficult for the classic novel.

"It looks like it’s not going to happen,” the director was quoted as saying over at First Showing. “There’s no script and as you know, [Morgan Freeman’s] not in the best of health right now. We’ve been trying to do it but it’s probably not going to happen."

The actor was the person to begin developing the property for much of this decade with Fincher coming on soon after. Freeman, though, was badly injured in a car accident back in August.

Freeman told the website last year, that "it’s a very intellectual science fiction film, a very difficult book to translate cinematically." A 30-mile long cylinder is found in the solar system and a crew of astronauts is sent from Earth to explore the extraterrestrial object. Published in 1972, it went on to win the Nebula, Hugo and Jupiter Awards.

Revelations Entertainment, Freeman’s production outfit, holds the screen rights and they contracted with Fincher in 2001.  The most recent screenplay was written by Stel Pavlou, a writer perhaps best known for his prose stories in the Doctor Who Short Trips anthologies.
 

Home Media Magazine has reported that Platinum Studios has formed an advisory board, featuring a dozen executives from print and mass media to help CEO Scott Mitchell Rosenberg guide their print-to-film projects.

“The vast experience and success with various forms of entertainment that each advisory board member brings with them will allow Platinum to access additional contacts in the film, television, online, retail and video game industries and in development of the 5,600 comic characters and storylines in the Platinum Studios portfolio,” Rosenberg said. “I am excited by each and every member’s willingness to join the Advisory Board and support Platinum in a more formal role.”

Rosenberg’s ambitious total includes Platinum-generated properties in addition to other comic publishers’ whose film rights they represent such as the forthcoming Witchblade film based on the Top Cow character.

The board is comprised of Richard Fowkes, head of business affairs for Legendary Pictures and former EVP in charge of business affairs for the motion picture group at Paramount Pictures; Andrea Hein, former president of Viacom Consumer Products and current EVP of First Wives World; Mark Canton, former chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment and current chairman of Atmosphere Entertainment; Michael Helfant, former president and COO of Marvel Studios; John W. Hyde, former president and CEO of Film Roman and current chairman of Rehab Incorporated; Gale Anne Hurd, chairwoman of Valhalla Motion Pictures; Jerry Katzman, former vice chairman of William Morris Agency; Steve Milo, former president of new media for Marvel Comics; Ed Dille, chairman of Fog Studios; Gareb Shamus, founder of Wizard Entertainment; Charlie Weber, former CEO of Lucasfilm; and Glenn Rigberg, president of Rigberg Entertainment Group.

Platinum has angered creators over payments and legal issues stemming form their recent purchase of Wowio.  While they continue to publish comics both in print and on the web, none have broken through as major creative successes. They do have numerous projects in various stages of development.  Most notable among the list is Cowboys & Aliens which DreamWorks is developing and has Robert Downey, Jr. attached to star.

Platinum was formed in 1997 after Rosenberg exited Malibu Comics in the wake of its purchase by Marvel Comics.  He has been slow to develop Platinum through the years and didn’t really begin releasing titles until late 2006 despite years of development. On September 25, 2006, Platinum pruchased DrunkDuck, a webcomics site and began a strong didigtal initiative that led to the purchase earlier this year of Wowio.

Their media initivative has been limited to the Showtime series Jeremiah, based on a European properrty licensed by the studio. Platinum Studios posted net losses of $4.3 million in 2006 and $5.1 million in 2007.
 

Torchwood Magazine has the first scoop on the newest members joining season three of the popular spinoff from Doctor Who. The five-episode serial, Children of the Earth, has been shooting since late August with a 2009 airdate to be announced,

Producer Peter Bennett walked readers through the four starting with Lucy Cohu (Cape Wrath) who will play Alice, "a woman keeping many secrets from the past".

Susan Brown (The Riff Raff Element) will be Bridget Spears – "a character vitally connected to the government, which plays an important part in this story".

First-time performers complete the cast: Cush Jumbo as Lois Habiba, "a secretary who hacks into some vital information", and Rik Makarem, playing Doctor Rupesh Patanjali, a "junior doctor at St Helen’s hospital who gets drawn into Torchwood’s investigations".
 

This week’s Mutts storyline takes a political tone as creator Patrick McDonnell campaigns in favor of California’s Proposition 2, which is aimed at curbing factory farm abuses. Mutts,  found in 700+ newspapers in 20 countries, is read by four million Californians no doubt distracted more by presidential politics than the proposition.

Michael Markarian spoke with McDonnell at the Huffington Post about this unusual activism for the one page of the newspaper that usually eschews offending anyone.

“In Mutts I try to see the world through the eyes of animals,” he told the site. “This has made me more conscious of how tough many of them have it on this planet. In 2000 I was asked to join the Board of Directors of The Humane Society of the United States, and became even more aware and involved. I felt that my strip could address (hopefully, for the most part, in an entertaining way) some of these issues and help give the animals a voice.

“Prop 2 is just too important to not tackle. Even though the reform will be modest, it puts a stake into the ground that the way we treat farm animals matters…20 million animals will be directly impacted, suffering less, if this measure passes. It will also send a clear message to the factory farm conglomerates that, once people are made aware, they will not tolerate the way most animals raised for food are treated in this country.”

We mentioned a rumor that the annual BBC charity special for Children in Need this year might feature a reunion of previous doctors along with the current Doctor, David Tennant.  Now London’s Telegraph is report that the seven surviving actors who have played the Doctor will be reunited for the special, to air November 14.

An insider at the BBC told the paper, "It’s a pretty ambitious idea and it’s still being finalized. Everything is being kept under wraps but Doctor Who fans are in for a big treat."

The Doctor has been seen on the special for the last several years and the producers have carefully woven his short escapade into the current dramatic series continuity.  Last year, for example, saw Peter Davison meet Tennant.

Reportedly joining those two will be Tom Baker, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann and Tennant’s predecessor in the current revival, Christopher Eccleston.

The first trio of performers to essay the role — William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, and Jon Pertwee – have all passed away.

Davison’s daughter, Georgia Moffett, has been seen on the current series and is currently dating Tennant.

In related news, Tennant and his most recent companion, played by Donna Tate, have been nominated for the National Television Awards’ Outstanding Drama Performance. Tennant has won twice before and will go head-to-head with Tate who played Donna Nobel.  There’ll be no Doctor Donna winner in this, the first time male and female stars will compete in the same category. The Doctor Who stars face competition from Ashes to Ashes’ Philip Glenister and The Bill’s Alex Walkinshaw.
 

One film Guillermo del Toro will not be directing for Universal is the adaptation of Hater, the film he will produce with Mark Johnson. Instead, Variety reports that Juan Antonio Bayona has been signed to direct the movie based on David Moody’s thriller and adapted to the screen b Glen Mazzara (The Shield).

Bayona is best known for The Orphanage, which del Toro also produced, and this will be his English-language debut.

"I like the idea of a movie that talks about the state of fear we live in nowadays," Bayona told  Variety.

The novel and screenplay tells of people suddenly committing random acts of violence with no provocation. “What I loved about Hater is it recognizes the reality that we live in, where it is incredibly easy to polarize, to hate for gender, race, age,” del Toro told the trade over the summer.