Author: Robert Greenberger

Apparently, Japanese audiences are more interested in the works of Hayao Miyazaki than Bob Kane and Bill Finger. The Dark Knight is performing under expectations in Japan with just $8.7 million in box office receipts after three weeks based on figures at Filmjunk.com.

Compare that with the $93.2 million Miyazaki’s Ponyo on the Cliff has earned in just four weeks.

Film critic Chika Minagawa suggests, "The story is very pessimistic. It has a dark and gloomy texture that Japanese movie fans do not find appealing in a ‘comic hero’ film… Japanese movie fans expect such films to be fun and action packed, for the hero to be attractive, for the villain to be loud and outrageous, and for the movie itself to be easy to understand and light."

The Dark Knight will break the $900 million worldwide gross receipts benchmark over the weekend and is likely to break the $500 million domestic mark in September, although possibly fall short of the $550 million Warner Bros. estimated.
 

The expected anime-to-live action parade continues in the wake of last year’s success with Transformers.  The stalled Voltron film was picked up by Relativity Media, grabbing it from New Regency which had been trying to mount the production. Latino Review now reports that Max Makowski has been signed to direct the film.  Makowski is not known for his genre credits but instead directed Taboo in 2002 and is attached as director for the feature film version of Kung Fu.

Word is, Relativity intends to use the green skin/CGI-heavy (and cheap) approach that worked so well for 300.

The film was first optioned back in 2005 by Mark Gordon and by the end of 2006, suddenly über-hot screenwriter Justin Marks delivered a screenplay. New Regency got interested last August based on the Michael Bay Transformers mega-hit. After spending a year on the project, New Regency gave up and put it into turnaround with Relativity snatching it up on August 18.

A 2010 release is expected although that is merely speculative given the lack of cast and shooting schedule.
 

My Toons is a website featuring all manner of animated works from amateurs to the classic days of animation.  They have just partnered with Vuze, one of the new online video hot spots to offer a MyToons Cartoon Classics channel featuring Popeye and Betty Boop cartoons from the Fleischer Studios.  No Koko cartoons as yet, but you can’t go wrong with this sampler of terrific cartoons.

The deal will have My Toons creating additional fare for the website in the months ahead including international fare and HD offerings.
 

“Superheroes in Asia” is the theme for eleven films to unspool at the Pusan Festival in Seoul, Korea. The event, running from October 2-10, will also feature other themes including "Ani Asia! A Leap of Asian Feature Animation 3”, “Romanian New Wave” and “2008 Asian Omnibus Collection”

According to the festival’s website, “It seems that Hollywood created super heros like Superman and Spider-Man are the only superheroes who protect our planet from the evil forces since we have gotten used to Hollywood blockbusters too much, but there are many unknown superheroes who are working double shifts for the world peace every country in Asia. Through 11 Asian superheroes in 11 films, audiences understand how the new Western genre ‘Superhero’ was introduced in historical, political, cultural and social part of Asia, and traces its transformation into Asia’s own superhero. Asian superheroes will bring not only the peace of the world but also clues about the modernization of Asia.“

Among the films will be director Bhandit Thongdee’s Mercury Man, described as a Thai take on Spider-Man; Yuri Abdul Halim’s Cicak-Man, Malaysia’s first superhero effort; and India’ s Rakesh Roshan-driected Krrish.
 

At the Toronto FanExpo this past weekend, Laura Vandervoort confirmed she would appear in a single episode of the eighth and final season of the CW’s Smallville. Television’s Supergirl also made mention that there had been talk of her character once being considered for a spinoff series.  She merely said it didn’t pan out without providing any details.

She did admit to being a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan so working alongside Spike, James Marsters, was a thrill.  When she was just beginning her career, she wrote series creator Joss Whedon about wanting to audition for the show, something he remembered when they finally met.

Smallville, with new villains and the same old romantic triangles will return September 18.