Author: Robert Greenberger

DelRey Books made a splash in 1977 when it published the novelization to s mall little film called Star Wars.  Ever since, they have been mining the Lucasfilm Universe with great success, regularly landing on the best seller lists and making stars out of their authors.

It’s no surprise then that DelRey and LucasBooks announced a renewed agreement, continuing the publishing line through 2013 with the promise an additional 35 novels and 10 nonfiction titles.

"Our relationship with Lucasfilm is treasured," said Gina Centrello, President and Publisher of the Random House Publishing Group in a press release. "We are extremely proud of our Star Wars publishing program, which is the cornerstone of the Del Rey list."

Howard Roffman, President of Lucas Licensing, said in the same release, "The legacy of Star Wars publishing began with Del Rey. "For more than 30 years they have been a superb partner with an unflinching commitment to keep Star Wars fans informed, entertained and enthralled.

Among the titles launching in 2009 are the first three in a new Star Wars multi-book, multi-author story arc following directly in the footsteps of the Legacy of the Force series. The nine-book, three-author series, Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi, will break new ground by being the first multi-book Star Wars series to be published all in hardcover. The series, which will be published over the space of three years, will launch in April 2009 with Outcast, by Aaron Allston; the other two authors planning and penning the nine novels will be Christie Golden, known for her Star Trek fiction and Troy Denning. Also to come is The Making of The Empire Strikes Back, to be released in 2010 in conjunction with the 30th anniversary of that film, along with a continuation of the hugely successful series of Star Wars Essential Guides.

TV Shows on DVD reports A fifth volume of Space Ghost Coast to Coast is now available for sale, but only through special sales channels.  The 1999 episodes had the intergalactic rival to Larry King chat with Conan O’Brien, Sarah Jessica Parker, Tenacious D, Hanson, and Willie Nelson.

Just like Volume 4’s 1998 episodes, the collection will retail for $15 and boasts two hours of extras including:

•    Table Reads, Raw Interviews, and More
•    Mommentary – episode commentary from the creators’ mothers
•    Commentary on Mommentary – from creators on their mothers’ aforementioned commentary
•    Mommentary (Jellybean) – we think it’s commentary on the commentary of the commentary.

Director Marc Abraham (Flash of Genius) told Latino Review that progress has been slow but steady on his prequel to John Carpenter’s The Thing.

"This is more of a prequel than a sequel, there is your exclusive. Its going to be taking place in the same time frame,"he told the site. These are the events leading up to the 1982 film.”

The Thing from Another World was originally a novella by the great science fiction author and editor John W. Campbell.  Published as Who Goes There? in 1938, the novella was adapted into The Thing by Charles Lederer, Howard Hawks, and Ben Hecht into the 1951 thriller.  While the film was credited to Christian Nyby, Hawks did a great deal of unaccredited work behind the camera as well.

Carpenter remade the film in 1982 sticking closer to the original story and it starred both Kurt Russell and the effects from wizard Rob Bottin.

The story tells of a shape-shifting alien freed from its icy prison near a scientific research station in the remote Antarctic. After it killed a Norwegian team, an American team is sent in to investigate what happens and the story begins.  The new film looks like it will go back and explore what happened first.
 

The Coen Brothers’ Burn After Reading captured the box office crown this weekend, netting the duo a record setting opening of $19,404,000 according to estimates from Box Office Mojo.

The top five slots were a mixed bag with Tyler Perry’s The Family That Preys in second place with $18,020,000; the Al Pacino/Robert DeNiro drama Righteous Kill took $16,500,000 despite tepid reviews; and The Women  nabbede $10,088,000 and mostly negative buzz  with the comedy The House Bunny banking $4,300,000 (totaling $42,154,000).

After that, returning films were all up and down the charts as people turn their attention to more serious fare, the new television season and the local and national elections.  As a result, holdovers such as Tropic Thunder, Death Race, Traitor, and the like were seeing 40-50% decreases in audience.

In the genre, The Dark Knight topped the list with an additional $4,015,000 boosting the total to $517,680,000 while the next top performers included Rogue’s Death Race lapped up another $2,017,000 and Vin Diesel’s  Babylon A.D. banked just $1,770,000.
 

Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer is a new kind of movie hero and he’ll be making his home video debut after playing to a limited number of screens in the coming weeks before its DVD release from Anchor Bay on October 7 retailing for a mild-mannered $26.97

Jack Brooks: was directed by Jon Knautz (Moment of Truth), and produced by Neil Bregman, Trevor Matthews and Patrick White. John Ainslie and Jon Knautz wrote the screenplay from a story by Ainslie, Knautz, Matthews and White.

Anchor Bay says, “Yesterday, he was a plumber. Today, he’s trying to save the world. Meet Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer. The legendary Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger of A Nightmare on Elm Street) stars along with Trevor Matthews (who produced the film, in addition to playing the title role) and Rachel Skarsten (Birds of Prey).

“As a young boy, Jack saw his parents brutally murdered by monsters. Now he toils as a plumber, is saddled with an annoying girlfriend (Skarsten), attends therapy sessions that accomplish absolutely nothing, and is enrolled in night classes where he barely manages to stay awake.

“But when his professor (Englund) accidentally unleashes an ancient curse and begins to transform into a hideous monster, Jack must put down his plunger, prepare to do battle with the forces of evil, and confront his destiny. All Jack wants to do is put his past behind him, but some things just won’t stay buried …”

Robert Englund, at Comic-Con International, told ComicMix, “I’m here with the company Anchor Bay which really responds to the kind of horror-comedy kind of stuff that people like Sam Raimi with the Evil Dead films used to do. I don’t know if it’s a response to the number of big-budget horror failures of late or that there’s so much homemade stuff on YouTube now, but fans really seem able to watch something like a Hellboy 2 or a Dark Knight, which I love, but they also have room for movies like the ones I’ve been involved with lately such as Zombie Strippers, Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer or Hatchet.

“It seems they can tune into a big $200 million blockbuster film one day and then also enjoy a little $2 million film we made mostly for fun. They’re what I like to call “cheap thrills.” I think there always has to be room for cheap thrills. I don’t know if it’s political or if there’s too much CGI or something but maybe that’s what movies like Saw or Hostel are tapping into — people’s need for something more simple and fun.”
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Coming to stores next month, BBC Video offers a 19-disc Michael Palin Collection – on October 7, 2008.

All of eight of Palin’s fascinating travelogues — Around the World in 80 Days, Pole to Pole, Himalaya, Sahara, New Europe, Full Circle, Hemingway Adventure, and Great Railway Journeys – will be included, the last three new to DVD.  The box set contains 36 hours of content and over seven hours of bonus features, include interviews with Palin, behind-the-scenes featurettes, outtakes, deleted and extended scenes, as well as Polish and Russian subtitles on New Europe. The box set will retail for $249.92.

Michael Palin: Full Circle ($49.98) and Michael Palin: Hemingway Adventure with Great Railway Journeys ($34.98) will also be released individually.

Also being released on October 7 will be The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Complete First Season. This Doctor Who spin-off provides science fiction adventure for the whole family by melding the same mystique and wonder featured in the contemporary Doctor Who series with fun-filled hilarity. Elisabeth Sladen reprises her role as the investigative journalist Sarah Jane Smith — one of the classic Doctor Who‘s most beloved companions. Accompanied by a fresh, young team including 13-year- old next door neighbor Maria Jackson (Yasmin Page, The Mysti Show), Sarah Jane sets out on a whole new round of escapades ranging from discovering mischievous alien plots to helping lost extraterrestrials return home. Boasting six hours of content, this four-disc set features all 10 episodes as well as cast and crew interviews, a Sarah Jane Smith video timeline, behind the scenes footage, and character and alien profiles. The box set will retail for $49.98. (more…)

Marc Guggenheim, Greg Berlanti and Michael Green are just about done with a rewrite to their Green Lantern feature film script and told Moviehole they anticipate turning it in this coming week.

One of the things that excited Warner Bros. about the proposed project were the production drawings from former comic book artist Brian Murray.  He based Hal Jordan on actor David Boreanez, known for Angel but also was Jordan’s voice on the New Frointier animated movie released earlier this year.  Carol Ferris was modeled after Sin City’s Carla Gugino.

Boreanez, currently starring on Fox’s Bones, has tested for super-heroes before, first as The Thing in Fantastic Four and later as Superman for Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns.

Now word is bubbing that he may be considered for the live-action version as well.

For George Miller’s stalled Justice League film, GL was going to be John Stewart and played by the rapper Common.