Category: News

Following the events of Secret Invasion, darkness has fallen upon the Marvel Universe, and the great Nation of Wakanda will never be the same again.  When his Majesty, the King of Wakanda, T’Challa, the Black Panther, falls in the line of duty, a new Black Panther must rise—but who is she?

Before Black Panther #1 hits stores this February, learn the character’s history in Black Panther Saga, a free feature available at Marvel’s digital comics website.
 

Brad Fuller and Andrew Form, the head o f Platinum Dunes, spoke with Collider to update information about their many projects.  Platinum Dunes is the genre division of Michael Bay’s  production outfit and are making a big splash in 2009 with the February 13 release of Friday the 13th. While they have scads of other unnecessary remakes in the works, they also yearn to produce original fare. Their next project happens to be an original, David S. Goyer’s The Unborn, which opens in January.

Fuller said Friday tested well in Long Beach. “I would say that for us, the two of us, our greatest test screening…our first test screening for Texas Chainsaw Massacre was kind of a magical thing.  We kind of had no idea what we had and then we’ve been jaded by all the other ones we had and then this Friday the 13th test screening came and it took us right back to where we were with Texas Chainsaw.  It was crazy.”

It was recently confirmed that Warner had given a green light to their planned remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street.  Fuller kiddingly suggested, “Well, we want to put Freddy in a hockey mask and we don’t know how people feel about that but we’re excited about it. I think that every iconic horror character you have to take on their own and kind of figure out what is appealing about that character and for Jason Voorhees, it’s one thing because for the most part in all the movies….

“It’s something that we are treading very lightly on and I can tell you for sure that we don’t’ have the answer yet.  That is something that we’re going to work very hard to figure out just how much of the Freddy that you might know from the later movies as opposed to the Freddy from the earlier movies.  I mean it’s a balance and we don’t have that answer yet. “

As to their other remakes, Form said, “We are not doing Rosemary’s Baby.

Fuller explained, “Rosemary’s Baby was announced and it’s like a little bit like we’re taking about with Freddy.  We went down that road and we even talked to the best writers in town and it feels like it might not be do-able.  We couldn’t’ come up with something where it felt like it was relevant and we could add something to it other than what it was so we’re now not going to be doing that film.”

Martin Campbell, though, continues to prep his new version of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic, The Birds.   “We’re expecting a script in the next 2-3 weeks,” Fuller said, :but that’s another one where it’s not like Drew, Michael and I think that we’re just going to crap all over Alfred Hitchcock’s movie.  I mean, Alfred Hitchcock in a company wide opinion is probably the greatest director of what we do and other things too.  And as someone, that at least Michael and I studied in college and there’s a reverence for him.  So that’s not a movie that we’re just going to step up and just go have birds attacking people and trying to throw that into the box office.  If we can’t make that movie unique or add something to it, I don’t think we’re going to make it.”

Funimation Entertainment announced this week that it has acquired broadcast, digital, and home entertainment rights to the 13-episode Ikki Tousen anime series, which was produced by J.C. Staff and broadcast in Japan in 2003.  The Ikki Tousen anime was previously released in the domestically by Geneon, but Funimation’s announcement clearly stated it had licensed the series directly from Enoki Films.

Tokyopop is publishing Yuji Shiozaki’s original Ikki Tousen manga series under the English title Battle Vixens.  The 14th and final volume in the series is due for release here on February 10.  Shiozaki’s seinen manga followed the martial arts adventures of a number of well-endowed high school girls who are possessed by the spirits of warriors from the bloody Three Kingdoms period in China (roughly184 AD-280 AD). 

A second anime series, Ikki Tousen: Dragon Destiny, aired in Japan in early 2007.  In 2007 Media Blasters announced that it has acquired the rights to the 12-episode Dragon Destiny, but has not released any DVDs from the series.  A third Ikki Tousen series aired in Japan from June to August last summer according to ICv2.

Funimation also announced the test launch of its new streaming video service (funimation.com/video), which will offer hundreds of high quality, full length episodes, including many full series.  Episodes of Aquarion, Black Blood Brothers, Darker Than Black, Guyver, Gunslinger Girl II, Negima 2, Ouran High School Host Club, Romeo x Juliet, Sigurui: Death Frenzy, and STRAIN: Strategic Armored Infantry are currently available and new episodes will be rolled out each week including examples of series currently airing in Japan.  The videos can be streamed for free or downloaded for a fee.

The new site features a higher-quality video player, both subtitled and English-dubbed episodes, Flash video streaming, same-screen video playback (without a pop-up window), an expandable video player, and a lower lights feature.

On Friday, Cartoon Network’s The Brave and the Bold returns with a new episode, “Day of the Dark Knight”. The guest stars include Guy Gardner, Green Arrow, and Etrigan the Demon with David McCallum voicing Merlin.

The synopsis:

In this episode, the evil Morgan Le Fey has taken over Camelot and turned everyone to stone! To thwart her plans, Merlin transports Batman and Green Arrow back in time to retrieve Excalibur, defeat Etrigan, battle dragons and return King Arthur to the Throne!  In the teaser, Guy Gardner teams up with Batman to stop a criminal riot at Green Lantern Corp.  

More images after the jump.

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FUNimation announced three more licensed anime properties, one new and two previously released domestically. Slayers Revolution is a 26-episode series following the three previous series (Slayers, Slayers Next and Slayers Try); FUNimation will release the complete series on DVD.  
 
FUNimation also acquired the rights to the 24-episode Gankutsuou:  The Count of Monte Cristo series from GDH. 

The 26-episode Gungrave joins the for previously announced Geneon titles Ergo Proxy, Hellsing Ultimate, and Black Lagoon.