Author: Robert Greenberger

These days, a convention isn’t worth attending unless you can buy show exclusive merchandise.  The 9th annual Baltimore Comic-Con is offering the following for fans this weekend:

•    Aspen – Michael Turner variant cover for Fathom 2.

•    Marvel
   o    Frank Cho Secret Invasion 6 variant cover
   o    Mike Wieringo HERO Initiative:  Marvel Apes cover
   o    John Romita, Jr. U.S. Exclusive Amazing Spider-Man 568 variant cover

•    PopFun – Exclusive Batman Toon Tumbler

•    Top Cow – David Finch Dragon Prince 1 Baltimore Comic-Con variant cover

•    3 Finger Prints – The 3 Geeks:  Can Anyone Stop the Slab Madness?! variant cover

And of course, there are the recently announced show exclusives from ComicMix.
 

Just the other day we were mentioned that Hammer Films is back in action and now the trades report that Matt Reeves has signed with them to write and direct the English language remake of Sweden’s smash hit Lat Den Ratte Komma In (Let the Right One In).

Reeves, who earlier this year, helmed the hit Cloverfield, is expected to direct the project in 2009 for 2010 release. Before that, Reeves is at work on Invisible Woman, a non-fantastical drama about a desperate housewife.

The internationally acclaimed vampire film will have a brief run this fall in the states before being released on DVD in January. The film tells of a young boy who befriends a woman who comes to town but when you’re telling a vampire story you know things won’t end well.
 

Will Smith will return as Robert Neville in a prequel to I Am Legend.  The movie, based on the classic Richard Matheson novel, did well enough at the box office, earngin $584 million worldwide, and in home entertainment sales to merit revisiting the bleak world of the near-future.

Director Francisd Lawrence is expected to return to the Warner Bros. film announced yesterday. Akiva Goldsman and James Lassiter will also be back as producers. D.B. Weiss (The Game) will provide a new script that will likely deviate further from the novel.

Disney announced at their major presentation on Wednesday that they have accelerated the production of Cars 2 and have rescheduled its launch to 2011.

John Lasseter told the rapt audienced that the idea for the story developed as he did worldwide publicity for the first film.  The international settings got him to wondering how the Cars themselves would react to the exotic locales. Mater and Lightning McQueen will be in a global road trip as a result.

Additionally, a series of shorts, Mater’s Tall Tales, will be produced by Pixar in additional to the full-length theatrical sequel. The shorts will first be seen on the Disney Channel and will front feature films in movie theaters.

Cars, released in 2006, earned $462 million worldwide, but despite middling reviews, became a merchandising bonanza for the studio.

As a result, look for a 12-acre Cars Land at the revamped California Adventure in Anaheim, California.  The attraction is scheduled for 2011 opening in time for the film.
 

Given the success of Pirates of the Caribbean, other pirate films were expected to come roaring onto screens but surprisingly few have gotten out of development.  The first to actually make it to the cameras may be the DreamWorks production of Blackbeard, a biopic of Edward Teach.  Mania is reporting that Bourne Supremacy director Paul Greengrass is likely to sign on to direct.

The screenplay is by David Franzoni (Amistad) which Variety has reported would take a more real world view of buccaneers complete with their treacherous ways.  Pat Croce, who wrote Pirate Soul, about the 1690-1730 era, was on board along with producer Barry Josephson.

According to Mania, the plot goes something like this: “Edward Teach is in the employ of Britain’s royal navy and fought for the queen in the War of Spanish Succession.  During that time he had a protégé who served with him as his first mate.  When Britain withdrew from the war in the early 1700’s, many men of the royal navy were disavowed.  Teach, feeling betrayed and without a country to call his own, turned to piracy.  With many of his disavowed sea fairing comrades, he took a ship and using his honed skills and intimate knowledge of the navy’s shipping routes and pots, began exacting his revenge.

“Becoming an increasing threat, the British navy directed Teach’s old protégé, now a captain, to hunt down Blackbeard and put an end to his tyranny.  For the most part the story will be based on some truth but the protégé subplot is completely made up and, if successful, will be used again.”