Category: News

Marvel has increased its original online content today, announcing six new initiatives with the first of these titles debuting next Wednesday. Once they are on all online, fans can expect three or more web-exclusive stories each Wednesday.

The details, according to a press release:

Marvels Channel: MONSTERS, MYTHS and MARVELS
Coming up on Marvels Channel: MONSTERS, MYTHS and MARVELS: Galactus… devourer of worlds… embodiment of a cosmos… oldest being in the universe… totally made up? Join reporter Gordon Allsworth as he ventures to expose the lies and unearth the truth about the foremost foe of the Fantastic Four. Prepare for your world to be turned upside-down as experts de-bunk Galactus and explore the financial motivations for creating such a being. With limited (fake) commercial interruption, from writer Frank Tieri and artist Juan Santacruz

Halloween Special Issue
Frankenstein might be one of the most misunderstood monsters out there… so it’s just his luck when an overprotective mother temporarily blinds him, thinking he was attacking her daughter. Fortunately, Frankenstein stumbles into Jack Russell, a.k.a. Werewolf-by-Night, a friend who understands Frank’s plight. That is, until the full moon comes out… Make sure you sign-on for this special Halloween Monster Mash, from writer/artist Dean Haspiel!

American Eagle: Just a Little Old-Fashioned Justice
Leaping out of the pages of Thunderbolts, Jason Strongbow aka American Eagle, tribal leader and former super hero, keeps the peace throughout Navajo lands. So when a super villain on the run crosses onto the rez, pursued by one of Tony Stark’s Initiative teams, Strongbow must give them all a hard lesson in down-home justice in a story from red hot scribe Jason Aaron and superstar artist Richard Isanove!

FIN FANG FOUR
There was a time when giants walked the Earth! Monstrous creatures! Products of science gone MAD!!! But what happens when some of these terrible titans try to play nice?  Find out as Googam, Elektro, Gorgilla and the purple-pantsed Fin Fang Foom himself do the unthinkable and become functioning members of society. Well, not TOO functional…creators Scott Gray and Roger Langridge welcome back Marvel’s favorite enfants terribles in five gut-busting stories sure to unleash the Marvel Monster within!

Kid Colt
Tom DeFalco saddles up for a four-part western adventure featuring the classic Marvel western hero. Wanted by the law for killing a man in cold blood, Kid Colt thunders through the Wild West with guns blazing while trying to prove his innocence.

Amazing Spider-Man
Peter Parker’s life is very involved and even with three issues a month, there’s just not enough time to touch on everything or everyone. So to help solve that, Spidey Brain Trustee Bob Gale brings you an ongoing collection of stories taking place within and around current Spidey continuity, exploring his supporting cast and missed adventures. A lot can happen to a web-head in any given day…And it’s time you found out what’s missing!
 

James Bond and Batman may rival one another for who has the best gadgets, but the British espionage agent bests the Caped Crusader where it really counts.  In the current issue of Condé Nast Portfolio, on sale today, an article calculates how much the franchise has earned since its inception. Ian Fleming’s literary creation has generated $13.8 billion in business from the first novel through the most recent film, Casino Royale. His next film, November’s Quantum of Solace, will only add to those numbers.

The article breaks down the categories and estimates that the original 14 Fleming books in addition to the 30 authorized sequels and related titles have brought in a cool $1 billion on their own.  The article notes that Sebastian Faulks’ novel, Devil May Care, released earlier this year became the fastest selling hardcover fiction title in Penguin’s history despite poor reviews. The appetite for Bond fiction remains large.

The film series, from Albert Broccoli and his heirs, began in 1961 with Sean Connery portraying the spy in Doctor No.  The official 21 films alone have brought in $11.6 billion plus whatever the original Casino Royale and Connery’s return in Never Say Never Again added to the totals.  Home video sales are estimated to have generated $400 million before the Blu-ray releases coming shortly from Fox Home Entertainment.

Bond remains a licensing machine with video games accounting for $812 million alone plus other toys and games in the mix.

The article notes that other huge money machines include Harry Potter, Frodo Baggins, and Batman.
 

Bones McCoy might not be a magician, but someone at Paramount is casting a spell over the internet as the studio unveils several new photos from the upcoming Star Trek reboot. The photos were divvied out by the company to different Web sites, and are also featured in the recent issue of Entertainment Weekly. The magazine has an exclusive cover depicting James Kirk (Chris Pine) and Mr. Spock (Zachary Quinto), the stars of the upcoming film.

This is the second time this year that Paramount has deliberately distributed production stills online for their movies. Earlier this year, Paramount assigned different character portraits from G.I. Joe to carefully chosen Web sites, including IGN and Latino Review. (more…)

NBC has scored a pilot commitment to Jason and the Argonauts, based on the classic quest for the Golden Fleece in Greek mythology. Argonauts will mark the first-ever green-screen drama developed for primetime television. Films such as Sin City have made use of green screen, but this will be the first time the technology makes the leap to a primetime TV series.

The network secured the projected after a "fierce bidding war" with a rival network, believed to be Fox. Interestingly enough, Fox is developing The Argonauts as a feature film with Zak Penn (The Incredible Hulk) scripting. In fact, Tom Rothman mentioned the project as recently as today in his interview with IESB.net. Variety reports that DreamWorks also has a project titled The Argonauts. Their interpretation of the story would feature treasure hunters from today transported back to the time of Jason. This comes the same time that War of the Gods and the remake of Clash of the Titans are also moving into production.  And let’s not forget competing Hercules films having also been announced over the last few months.

This will be NBC’s second attempt this decade at getting the Argonaut mythology correct. A previous miniseries, from producer Robert Halmi, also titled Jason and the Argonauts (are you keeping track?) and starring Jason London, Frank Langella, and Dennis Hopper aired in 2000. The two projects will be completely unrelated other than in title and source material.

In Greek mythology, Jason was the leader of the Argonauts and their quest for the Golden Fleece, which belonged to the winged ram Chrysomallos. Members of The Argonauts include Heracles (commonly known by his Roman name "Hercules") and Castor and Pollux of Troy, both of whom were featured in John Woo’s Face/Off. (Just kidding, kinda.) During the quest for the Fleece, Jason meets and marries Medea the sorceress. In Euripides’ play Medea, Jason leaves Medea to marry King Creon’s daughter. Medea exacts vengeance by killing Creon and her own two sons in order to devastate Jason. Man, and you thought modern times were rough!

Of course, the best recalled version of this tale is Ray Harryahusen’s classic 1963 film, Jason and the Argonauts, compelte with the heroes fighting skeletons. One can only hope one of these projects has something equally thrilling in store.

Variety reports that Warner Bros. has acquired screen rights to Headshot, a three-book graphic novel series from Alexis Nolent. Alessandro Camon will write the script based on the French novel, with Alexandra Milchan and Smallville creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar on board to produce.

Headshot focuses on "an unlikely alliance between a cop and a hitman … after each watches his partner die. The new partners seek revenge and discover they have a shared enemy and much in common despite being on opposite sides of the law."

Nolent has written several comic books under the pen name Matz. In 2004, Headshot won Best Story Prix Saint-Michel comic awards in Brussels. Another of his comics, The Killer, was nominated for an Eagle Award for Favorite European Comic in 2007 and an Eisner for Best U.S. Edition of International Material in 2008. The Killer is also slated for a film release at Paramount with David Fincher (Fight Club) attached to direct. Nolent’s Cyclops is in development at Warner Bros. as a directing vehicle for James Mangold (3:10 to Yuma).

Two years ago, DC Comics announced that a new Terra series would be coming out, one starring a brand new character using the familiar name. This character debuted in Supergirl #12 and has shown up a couple of times since then, but otherwise has remained largely unexplored.

The series will finally be launching in November. It will be written by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti and illustrated by Amanda Connor. According to DC, the two-year delay has allowed more time to plan out the series and tighten up the stories. And the art has been given the change to be of a higher quality now.

As Justin Gray explained to ComicBookResources.com, "Time always helps and we try our best to have every project working well in advance. This kind of approach allows us to go back into scripts and tighten up and tie together all of the story elements. With Terra, it was a case of trying to have as much fun with the character and allow that to show through in every panel. Having Amanda with us allows for that to happen … the extra time gave Amanda and [colorist] Paul Mounts the most time to go in and add some extra juice to the book."

Of course, this new hero is the third person to call herself Terra. The first girl with that alias, Tara Markov, became famous when she betrayed the Teen Titans in the now-famous story "The Judas Contract." How will this past connect to our current character, who is noticeably more light-hearted and optimistic than either of her predecessors?

Gray explained, "The challenge has always been to find a way to connect this Terra to the previous and with a few twist I think we’ve done that. You can’t stick too heavily to existing mythology when creating someone new because that lessens them as a character. [The new Terra] needs to stand out as her own girl and she does that … We wanted her to stand in opposition of the existing anti-hero mold and especially from Tara Markov in terms of personality and drive."

Jimmy Palmiotti added, "It’s easy to do dark characters all the time … we wanted to go back to the seemingly old-fashioned values of classic super-heroes and update them at the same time. There is heavy stuff in the series but it is balanced out by the lighter stuff as well. The scenes between Power Girl and Terra, for instance, are light and yet very revealing between them."

Power Girl isn’t the only one who will guest-star in Terra. The new hero has a high level of knowledge of the world of super-heroes and will be running across folks like Doctor Mid-Nite and Geo-Force AKA Brion Markov, brother of the original Terra.

Gray elaborated, "The reason [Terra] knows so much ties directly into who she is and why she exists. The previous incarnation  of Terra went a little crazy because she didn’t know everything about herself."

Palmiotti, Gray and Connor will also be working together on the all-new Power Girl ongoing series and have promised that the opening story-arc will serve as an introduction for readers who have not been following the character’s recent adventures or don’t know her whole history. The co-writers explained, "We are setting up her life as a civilian, as a super-hero, and the people and world around her that impacts her daily life."

So be on the look-out for the new Power Girl and Terra books coming soon.

And if you’re curious about the previous incarnations of Terra, keep on reading and we’ll give you the rundown.

  (more…)

Swedish director Tomas Alfredson, in America promoting the release of his acclaimed Let the Right One in, seems to have softened his stance against an English-language remake. As we reported last week, he was critical of the need to reinterpret his efforts.  Now, he told Sci Fi Wire that it’s okay for Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) to try his hand at adapting the novel his movie was also based on.

"Who knows? Maybe he sees something different in the source material," Alfredson said. "Maybe he will come up with something different. I don’t know. I am not involved with that, and I wish them well."

The “them” includes producer J.J. Abrams who actually purchased the rights to John Ajvide Lindqvist’s novel although it will be made under the Hammer Films banner.

The novel concentrates on the relationship between an adolescent boy and a vampire.  The director reflected on the world’s fascination with the genre. "It is a 360-page book, and there are a lot of subplots and characters that we had to take out," Alfredson said. "I decided to follow the love story. I fell in love with that part of the story.

"It seems like they come and go every 20 years, but, honestly, I cannot remember seeing a vampire movie," he said. "I think I did as a kid, see something with Bela Lugosi, but I never read Dracula. … I think that it has to do with the animals inside of us. They are very much an archetype. We have suppressed the animal part of ourselves, and maybe it’s a reaction to that, I don’t know." 
 

Neal Hefti, composer of the memorable Batman television theme music, passed away on October 11. He was 85 and had been in poor health for some time his son Paul reported.

In a career spanning many decades, the big band trumpeter was finally known for the theme in addition to other memorable film and television scores including The Odd Couple.

Hefti’s catchy “Batman Theme” was released as a single and went as high as #35 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. A version by the Marketts did better, cracking the Top 20 at #17.  The theme song has been covered throughout the years by the Who, the Kinks, and virtually every surf-band on Earth.

A 1966 episode of the television series Hullabaloo, hosted by George Hamilton, featured two dozen girls dressed in faux-Batman costumes dancing to the LP version of the theme song.

His career began with writing musical charts for Nat Towles before moving on to compose and arrange for Woody Herman.  Through the 1940s he had his own band from time to time but largely worked for other performers.

As live music waned in favor of recordings, Hefti changed gears and began writing scores for both television and movies.  His credits include Sex and the Single Girl, How to Murder Your Wife, Synanon, Boeing Boeing, Harlow, Lord Love a Duck, Duel at Diablo, and Barefoot in the Park.

He received Grammy Award nominations and prizes for "Jazz Pops" (Li’l Darlin’, Cute, Coral Reef) as artist, two awards for "Basie" (Li’l Darlin’, Splanky, Teddy the Toad) as composer, three nominations (one award) for the Batman TV score, two nominations for the Harlow movie score (Girl Talk), and two nominations for The Odd Couple TV score.