Category: News

Al Gough and Miles Millar are experienced writers and producers but now will make their directorial debut on Disney’s Salisbury from their own spec script according to Variety.

Since leaving Smallville, they have been active including signing a first-look deal with Disney, where they just produced Hannah Montana: The Movie for the studio.  They also wrote draft scripts for Iron Man, Spider-Man 2, and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. They are at work on a movie based on the Jungle Cruise theme park attraction. For Warner, they are adapting Robotech for the big screen.

Salisbury is the name of a fictional town where the story takes place but the studio is keeping the plot to themselves after acknowledging there will be supernatural elements. The projected budget is $40 million with casting about to begin. Production should begin in 2009 with a 2010 release date anticipated.
 

We swing over to DC’s Zuda Comics site for a talk with the guys who brought The Black Cherry Bombshells on line and to the top of Zuda’s Must Read List, plus:

• Dark Knight already the best selling movie and it isn’t out yet
• NY ComicCon salutes more comic greats
• Judge Dredd lives on as an RPG

All that and more – but only when you Press the Button
 

And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via or RSS!

Casting continues for Flash Forward, the proposed ABC series based on Robert J. Sawyer’s science fiction novel.

The novel is being adapted by David S. Goyer (Blade), who will likely direct the pilot, Brannon Braga (Enterprise) and ABC Studios. The trade says the novel “chronicles the chaos that ensues after everyone in the world blacks out for two minutes and 17 seconds and has a mysterious vision of the future that changes lives forever.”

ABC has high hopes for the pilot which may become a companion series for Lost for the 2009-2010 television season according to the trade.

Joseph Fiennes (Schindler’s List) is set to play Mark Banford, “an FBI agent who is patching up his life and his marriage after winning a long struggle with the bottle. Disturbed by the harrowing premonition during his blackout, he races to unravel the mystery, fearful of the murky future that might spell disaster for himself and his loved ones,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

John Cho (Star Trek) will play “Dominic Witten, a dedicated FBI agent who is Mark’s partner and friend. His experience while unconscious was an absolute blank, which doesn’t bode well for his own future as he realizes he might be murdered.”

They join the previously announced Courtney B. Vance (Law & Order: Criminal Intent) and Jack Davenport  (Pirates of the Caribbean). Vance will play Stan Wedeck, the Los Angeles bureau chief of the FBI while Davenport will play Lloyd Simcoe, who is trapped in Northern California when the event occurs and struggles to reach his son in a Southland hospital.

Eliza Dushku spoke with Sci Fi Wire, beginning the publicity drum beat counting down to the February 13 debut of Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse.  As most know, Whedon and Dushku were having a meal when inspiration struck and he conceived the show for her on the spot.

The Dollhouse refers to a government operation where the assets have their memories wiped with new personalities imprinted.  The series picks up when Dushku’s character begins to recall her past “lives”.

"Last episode, they surgically implant cameras into my eyeballs and send me into a cult compound as a blind woman," Dushku told the press. "I was playing this tripped-out blind woman. Then I’m playing a 50-something-year-old woman in my own body in this next episode. There are just so many stories.”

The series is shooting 13 episodes including a reshot pilot and once shut down production for two weeks in order to let Whedon retool.  As a result, it has picked up the label of a “troubled” show before it airs.  On the other hand, the stylish promos have generated good word of mouth.

"I think [the way] he also originally had outlined it, we had the 13 episode pickup, but he wanted to gradually play out stories and do a lot of setups," she said. "[The network] wanted more payoffs early on to hook people, I think, so we made that adjustment. I think it’s been really successful. The scripts are tight, solid, fast, action, drama, comedy. It’s really great."

When asked about the Friday night “death” slot for SF on Fox, she scoffed and said, "Dude, we’re in the age of DVR. People watch what they want to watch."

Pinup queen Bettie Page is in a coma following a heart attack on Tuesday. "She’s critically ill," Mark Roesler of the Curtis Management Group told The Associated Press.

Page’s girl-next-door looks and comfort with nudity and bondage made her a star among photographers in the 1950s. She was even a coveted playmate for January 1955’s Playboy. Those photos proved influential to a generation of artists, notably Dave Stevens, who revived interest in her after basing a character on the model in his acclaimed Rocketeer comic book.  Other artists piled on and she gained newfound celebrity.

By that time, though, she had dropped out of sight, having found religion an dpreferring her privacy.  Only in recent years has she spoken out about her career, her notoriety and the attention it has brought her.  Her life was the basis for the Grethchen Mol film, The Notorious Betty Page. At no time has Page allowed her picture to be taken in her later years.