Category: News

Starz Entertainment and Sony Pictures Entertainment have signed a multi-year extension of their existing agreement which grants Starz the exclusive pay TV rights to all Sony Pictures theatrical releases into the next decade.  Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Under the deal Starz has the exclusive pay TV rights to exhibit the Sony Pictures films on all of its platforms.  Additionally, Starz continues to have the rights to interviews with talent and use behind-the-scenes material from Sony’s releases that can be aired on its services while the films are in theaters.

Films under this deal should include The Grudge 3, 2012, and The Green Hornet. It’s unclear to me if this will affect movies that Sony is only listed as distributing, like Dan Milano’s Me And My Monster;  Flash Gordon, due out in 2010; and Spider-Man 4, due out in 2011, or films that they’re helping to fund, like Tintin. As we know more, you’ll hear more.

Start the week off by dumping a few friends on Facebook and getting a free Whopper (no kidding) and then adding some big time celebs to your Twitter account (like maybe some of the Cool People on HEROES).  We tell you how to do both, plus the five cool things in comic stores this week and the Countdown To NY ComicCon begins.|

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From the creators of the Harvey-nominated EZ Street comes a hero for the ages, in the thrilling pulp adventure Lone Justice: Crash!

Lone Justice: Crash! is the new graphic novel from the Harvey award nominated team of Robert Tinnell and Mark Wheatley.  It’s the sideways sequel to the Harvey Award nominated EZ STREET graphic novel, also perpetrated by the Tinnell and Wheatley team. Why sideways? In EZ STREET, the central characters Scott and Danny Fletcher are attempting to create a graphic novel.  And LONE JUSTICE: CRASH! is the graphic novel they create.

First Savage Dragon went in with the endorsement. Spider-Man followed up with the inauguration appearance. Then Mad. Now we have the upcoming Captain Action #5 from Moonstone, where the hero actually becomes Obama.

For a hero who is already known for becoming Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Captain America, Aquaman, the Phantom, The Lone Ranger, Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Sgt. Fury, Steve Canyon, and the Green Hornet, putting Obama in that pantheon is pretty darn awesome.

In a somewhat off-the-usual track for news of this type, Michael Jensen at AfterElton.com cornered BBC America president Garth Ancier and asked him about Torchwood: Children of Earth, and Ancier dropped a few tidbits:

He didn’t yet have a firm air date as BBC America is waiting for the BBC to finalize their date, but he was fairly certain that it was going to be the first part of this summer, possibly late June or early July. 

He also said that not only would BBC America air the five episodes on consecutive nights as they are doing across the pond, but that they would also air in th U.S. the same day as they did in the U.K. meaning American audiences will have almost no lag time in seeing the series. (The U.K. is five hours ahead of the east coast of the U.S meaning the delay should be about that give or take). Ancier said the series might also air in High Definition, a first for BBCA.

Nice catch, Michael!

(By the way, the image is from the marvelously warped Torchwood Babiez.)

A quick wrapup of the mix of comics and politics:

• Obama meets Spidey. Yeah, yeah, everybody’s covered it by now. But most people haven’t seen Mad Magazine asking what Barack Obama will do during his first 100 minutes in office. Indecision 2008 has the sneak peek. Hint: lots and lots of cigarettes in the Rose Garden.

• And while we’re on the subject of Obama, one of his biggest boosters was Caroline Kennedy, who’s currently under consideration for Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat. And Caroline Kennedy’s been in comics a lot longer than most.

• Editorial cartoons are getting endangered, with newspapers beginning to fold up shop. Tom Spurgeon has a very informative write-up (boy, that’s redundant) on the problems at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and what that means for comics.

You can now go back to watching Meet The Press.

Time Magazine reports on the latest victims of the economic downturn by reprinting this letter to the employees of Rich Enterprises, Inc.:

From:  Richie Rich, President and CEO

My loyal employees,

There is no other way to say it, so I’ll just say it.  We are broke.  I unwisely invested all our company’s funds with Bernard Madoff, and now the money is now gone, never to return.  As of January 1, 2009, Rich Enterprises is no more.  You are all without a job, healthcare and pension.  And for this I am terribly sorry.

I was always known as "the poorest little rich boy," but today, that is literally true.  I have nothing.  Every asset has been liquidated.  My gold racecar that runs on cash has been sold.  My dollar-sign shaped swimming pool filled with diamonds has been drained.  I have had to fire my beloved butler, Cadbury, and he is now the personal valet of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.  Such is my poverty that I have had to shave the signature dollar sign fur pattern off my thusly-named dog.

Believe me, I have tried every option to avoid this catastrophe.  I appealed to my cousin and longtime rival, Reggie Van Dough, for a loan, but he too was heavily invested with Madoff.  Tragically, Reggie took his own life by riding his emerald-encrusted skate board under the deadly tank treads of Irona, my robot maid.  Best wishes, Reggie.  I hope you’re with Casper now…

Luckily, Bruce Wayne is still doing fine. Nothing’s stopping that Dark Knight money.