Category: News

JOHN OSTRANDER: Star Wars C4LA

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I just got back from Star Wars Celebration IV in Los Angeles and, boy, are my X-wing tired. (Bada-bump)

What follows are my impressions and meandering thoughts of the event and of Star Wars as well as the thirtieth anniversary of the first movie (now, perversely, Episode IV – A New Hope) is, well, celebrated. I came out as a guest of Dark Horse comics because my artist (and partner in crime) Jan Duursema and I have just completed the first 12 issues of our new SW comic, Legacy. Jan and I have worked other SW projects for DH for maybe seven years now and have managed to attract our own following.

The thing is – as I’ve written/said elsewhere and, if you’ve heard this before, feel free to skip this paragraph – I was a SW fan from before the first movie came out. I’d seen the novelization on the counter at my local comic book shop and decided to pick it up. It was a good, fast paced, fun read and I thought if they could get maybe half of what was on the page up on the screen, it would be a fun movie. For those of you under 30, this was back when the height of sci-fi special effects was 2001 or Dr. Who. Yeah, the stone age.

George Lucas, of course, got 200% of what was on the page up on the screen and melted my widdle mind. He changed not only sci-fi films and special effects, he changed summer releases, he changed the technology in the making of the films and invented modern movie merchandising. I mean, the studio gave those to him because they saw very little use to them. Today, the merchandising of the film rakes in more bucks than the film itself.

Every few years, a Star Wars Celebration takes place and they switch locales around the country doing it. This year the place was LA (appropriate perhaps considering the 30th anniversary) and the venue was the LA Convention Center. The place is huge but C4 bid fair to fill it. I was only out there two days so I can’t claim to have caught more than a sliver of it. I was doing several signings and a panel and the news I learned is closer to what I was involved in. End of caveats.

The Con was organized to a fare-thee-well. The staff knew what they were doing and, while friendly enough, stayed firmly in charge. Despite all that, there was a bomb scare during the opening ceremonies on Friday night. Oddly enough, the corridor in which people were standing to get into the ceremony space was evacuated but not the room itself. Of course, it turned out to be nothing but you almost can’t have an event like this without having something like that these days, can you?

The Con itself was the almost the size and density of the San Diego con and yet, at the same time, more intimate. I chalk that up to the fact that Celebration has a single theme/topic – Star Wars – and everyone is there because they love SW. They’d better; C4 admission wasn’t cheap and there was plenty of things inside on which to spend more money. Some of the media coverage was, predictably, condescending (along the lines of “Get a life!”) but within the Con was safe harbor. You could dress up and become an instant celebrity; if your costume was good, people would stop and want your photograph or to have their photograph taken with you. It was a large family.

There were some costumes that I saw or heard about that had a sly sense of humor. There was a Wookie about five foot tall, wearing a bright Hawaiian shirt and a cap, taking pictures everywhere as he went – Tourist Wookie. There was a stormtrooper who wore all the armor except the helmet. Instead, he had on a big plastic Burger King head like they use in those commercials of which I’m so fond. There was Stormtrooper Elvis – again, no helmet and the white spangled half cape Elvis wore along with the pompadour, shades, and sideburns from the 80s.

There was a lovely young lady in Slave Leia get-up who I saw in the lobby with a baby stroller. No, I don’t think the stroller was part of the look she was going for, but it was an interesting look nonetheless. (more…)

Did Pirates really beat Spider-Man worldwide?

I held off on the breathless reporting on Pirates breaking all the records claimed in many weekend stories because I heard the numbers might be a bit suspicious, and it seems I had good reason to wonder. Nikki Finke has all the details:

First, I received a statement from Sony Pictures Entertainment, and then later today, a statement from Disney. Sony’s first: "While Disney and the filmmakers of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End deserve their due on a remarkable opening worldwide, there are some irregularities in their claim regarding record-setting. There are at least two territories, Italy and France, where Buena Vista International opened the film on Tuesday —  in essence adding a seventh day of  grosses into Pirates‘ “six day record." While there may or may not be other territories that opened prior to Wednesday, we believe that as more and more day-and-date releases enter the marketplace, there should be a consistent standard in international box office reporting. This issue is larger than an opening week box office statistic. For the record, Spider-Man 3 grossed $418.1M in its first seven days of release worldwide with $256.7M generated from territories overseas and $161.4M accumulated in box office receipts from North America."

Now Disney’s: "By any measure, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End clearly and deservedly holds the new record for a six-day opening at the global box office. A limited number of evening previews were held in Italy and France prior to the official opening day in those countries, but the grosses from those previews amounted to only $1.4M of the total. In the international marketplace, it is customary and common practice to include evening previews in the following opening day numbers. We are enormously proud of Pirates record-breaking worldwide opening gross of $404M. We look forward to the film’s subsequent openings in China and India."

But the Disney statement still leaves a lot of questions unanswered: Did they hold previews in other countries? (Sony didn’t do previews for Spider-Man 3). How many screens in Italy constitute "limited". (It’s believed that P3 was on a "substantial" number of the top national screens.)

Sony’s anger comes after Disney announced its Pirates 3 "shattered" global box office records with an unprecedented 6-day opening of $404M and claimed a record international opening gross of $251M in 102 international territories on an unprecedented 17,500 screens as well. Disney reports record-breaking industry openings in 17 territories: Argentina, Ecuador, Holland, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Malaysia, Norway, Panama, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Taiwan, Ukraine, Venezuela.

Sony isn’t questioning P3‘s new domestic milestone of the all-time biggest 4-day gross for a Memorial Day or any holiday weekend of $139.8M. Just the foreign and global #s. (Domestically, the Jack Sparrow third romp lagged behind the Peter Parker third thriller: P3’s 4-day gross didn’t even beat SM3‘s 3-day weekend gross.)

Will anyone in the news media correct the misinformation they reported? Right after they report that Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11, I’m sure.

(Oh, and speaking of accuracy and disclosure, my wife is an employee and shareholder of the Walt Disney Corporation.)

Trailers, trailers everywhere…

The trailer. A long seen but woefully underappreciated art form. Now, they’re not only getting the recognition they deserve, but they’re becoming the movies they deserve.

First, we have the Golden Trailer awards, being held Thursday in New York (at NYU, no less, indicating what a lot of the Tisch Film School graduates are actually going to be doing with their degrees).

But now we’re talking about an entire movie of trailers. Eli Roth (Hostel) has anounced plas to do an entire movie filled with nothing but trailers for non-existent movies. The film would be called Trailer Trash and, like the segments directed by Edgar Wright and himself for Grindhouse, be fake trailers for fake movies. No main feature. “I want to make a movie like Jackass or Borat or Kentucky Fried Movie that’s just totally ridiculous, absurd and silly”, Roth told Rotten Tomatoes. And theoretically, it might even have– well, plot might be too strong a word, let’s try theme.

He might have a point. For years, ComicMix regular Robert Greenberger has been running his travelling trailer show at conventions, with nothing but trailers for upcoming films, and he’s gotten strong audience reactions every time– the trailers are often better received there than the movies are in theaters.

David Kelley, Thomas Schlamme on Mars

Variety reports today that David E. Kelley, creator of Ally McBeal, The Practice, and favorite among many ComicMixers, Boston Legal (among others) has hired Thomas Schlamme to direct the pilot for the American version of Life on Mars.

Schlamme previously worked on Sports Night, The West Wing, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, and Jack and Bobby, written by comic book guy Brad Metzler.  He also once inspired New York Times writer Joyce Wadler to devote an entire paragraph to how much fun it was to say his name ("Tommy Schlamme!").

The show is based on the BBC series about a time-traveling detective who gets stuck in the 1970s. 

Anakin diagnosed with borderline personality disorder

A team of researchers declared this week that Anakin Skywalker, aka Darth Vader, suffers from a controversial mental condition and could use some time in a shrink’s office.

According to the authors, who reported their findings at the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting in San Diego, Skywalker meets the criteria for the condition: He has difficulty controlling anger, stress-related breaks with reality (after women in his life die or leave), impulsivity (dangerous pod racing), obsession with abandonment (those darn women again) and a "pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of ideation and devaluation" (hello, Obi-Wan).

In another sign that he’s borderline, the authors argue that Skywalker suffers from an "identity disturbance." After all, he did become Darth Vader after being "very unsure of who he was and what he wanted."

Personally, I suspect that when he was in such an unsettled condition, this didn’t help matters either…

ELAYNE RIGGS: On owning one’s errors

elayne200-8887329“Sorry seems to be the hardest word” – Bernie Taupin

As I alluded to in last week’s column but didn’t have the space nor desire to go into at length, the comics blogosphere isn’t the only place wherein disagreements among feminists have cropped up lately.  From time to time debates occur as well amongst political liberal and progressive feminist bloggers who otherwise agree on many major principles and actions.  The latest example is the talk about whether blogger Jessica Valenti’s new book Full Frontal Feminism is inclusive enough of the experiences of women of color (certainly not an unfamiliar argument in the comics scene either, as Cheryl Lynn ably demonstrates).

The discussion is a bit involved for anyone coming into it without any background, although Feministe blogger piny has a helpful collection and timeline of sorts here), but I mainly wanted to talk about how Feministe’s Jill Filipovic posted to the critiques of her glowing review of Jessica’s book, as I think it’s a good example of how to graciously acknowledge when one realizes one has wronged others, and apologize accordingly.  You know, what we used to call civility.  The relevant excerpts appear at the end of this column — and that’s just her introduction! (You can read the whole thing here.)

Now granted, Jill is fairly well known and respected in the feminist blogosphere, but at the moment her real-world influence is somewhat limited. Can you imagine anyone in an actual position of power and privilege crafting that kind of a response? (more…)

Family Guy does Star Wars full length

Man, those Seths (Green and MacFarlane) just can’t get enough. First it’s the Robot Chicken Star Wars on June 17…

…and now word comes down that Family Guy will kick off its fifth season this fall with an hourlong episode that retells the "Star Wars" saga using "Family Guy" characters.

Lucasfilm has blessed the event, which has the Griffins acting out all the key scenes and narrative from Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope, or as we call it, Star Wars. Peter Griffin will play the role of Han Solo, Lois will appear as Princess Leia. Brian the family dog will serve as Chewbacca, while son Chris is Luke. R2-D2 and C-3PO will be handled by Cleveland and Quagmire, respectively, while creepy old guy Herbert plays Obi-Wan Kenobi. Stewie will be Darth Vader, of course.

But wait– shouldn’t Meg be playing Leia? I mean, Chris-Meg is creepy enough, but Chris-Lois… ewwww.

Back To Da Grind With Mix #46

Let us help you slide back after the holiday with a nice pile of new comics & DVDs to ease the pain – plus news on DC’s plans for the fall, George Lucas encourages to do you own STAR WARS sequel & a little ditty from a guy who had The Beatles as his opening act!

If you PRESS THE BUTTON – Rosie will never come back to THE VIEW – we promise!

 

 

Comics borrowing TV production styles

The New York Times has an article about the new trend in comics of TV writers coming in and acting as producers, with the series development being more like what comes out of a writer’s room. Focus is given to Paul Dini, TV and animation vet and currently big kahuna behind Countdown:

Mr. Dini was a writer and story editor on Season 1 of “Lost” and a consultant on Season 2, and says that the same skills will come into play in the comics. “As a story editor in television, whether it’s live action or animation, I’m really the one responsible for the overall direction of the story,” Mr. Dini said in a telephone interview. In “Countdown,” he said, “each week I go over the beats of the upcoming issue with the editor and the writers.”

If new ideas arise, he amends the series’s outline before writing the script. He then reviews the final script before it is sent to the artist. Once drawn and given dialogue, it is reviewed yet again. “We have to make sure the tone is right and that we’re keeping the ultimate vision of the story line,” he said.

And of course we have an even more extreme example in Joss Whedon doing what he calls Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season Eight in comics:

The origin of the series is simple enough: “I had an idea for an eighth season and I knew they wanted to start the comic,” said Mr. Whedon, who created Buffy in a 1992 film that preceded the television series.

“I knew there wasn’t going to be another venue for it, so I started to work,” he said.

The series was originally planned for about 24 issues, but will now be closer to 40 or 50. Mr. Whedon is writing the opening story line, while other writers will step in for smaller story arcs, but everyone will be working toward an already planned ending.

“They all have my sort of manifesto, which I update constantly,” Mr. Whedon said. “And I’ll sit down with the writers so that I can fold their stories into the bigger picture.”

This control over the series’s overall vision is why he is billed as executive producer. “It’s a nonexistent title in comics, but it best fits what I’m doing,” he said. “Everyone goes through me. It doesn’t take as many people, but it sometimes comes as down to the wire to produce a comic as it does a TV show every week.”

Not mentioned is how the show Heroes is borrowing concepts back from comics production, with their Origins series coming out shortly.

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DENNIS O’NEIL: Two-Fers, part one

dennyoneil10020-7843397Mr. Robert Joy, of DC Comics, informs me that Green Arrow and Black Canary are getting married this summer. Allow me to assume a Victorian mien and sniff, “About time.”

How long have they been “going together” anyway? I guess that depends on whether we’re talking about the first Black Canary, Dinah Lance, or her daughter, Dinah Laurel. I confess: I’m no longer sure who was involved with whom, or when, which may mean that senility is knocking at my door, or that the continuity has become a tad confusing.

Well, I am sure of one bit of Black Canariana, and that’s that the hot mama, Dinah Lance, the original Canary, was an alien – even more alien than Superman or the Martian Manhunter. At least The Man of Steel and the green detective from the red planet were of this universe. Not so, Dinah: In one of Julius Schwartz’s annual teamings of the forties superheroes, whose club was called the Justice Society, and the new superheroes, whose club was The Justice League, we saw Dinah’s husband, Larry Lance, die. So grief-stricken was the Canary that she followed the Leaguers into another dimension to insure that she would be free of anything that could remind her of her late spouse. I mean, think about it: another dimension! That makes Superman’s migration from (I guess) another galaxy seem pretty paltry. And the Manhunter’s trip from Mars? Another planet, not only in the same solar system, but one of Earth’s nearest neighbors? Pah! Hardly worth mentioning.

Those annual teamings of the superdoers of different eras is what’s really interesting (and, incidentally, the point of this blather, if it has one.) The reason is this: the stories ran over two issues. If you were born before, oh, say, 1966, you might be asking, so what? Because if you’re that young, you don’t remember a time when continued stories were rare. But until Stan Lee made them standard procedure at Marvel in the 1960s, they were next to unheard-of. The reason, someone back then told me, was that publishers couldn’t be sure that just because a certain newsstand had this month’s issue of Detective Comics, there was no assurance that it would carry next month’s. Comic book distribution was a hit-or-miss affair in which those involved paid attention to the number of comics entrusted to a given retailer, but none at all to individual titles. Funny animals, superheroes, wacky teenagers – made no difference. It was all just product.

How, then, was Mr. Schwartz able to perpetrate his annual continued stories? I once asked him this and his answer was that he just did it, and no one ever complained. Stan’s answer would be different. I remember that he said somewhere – in his autobiography? – that doing continued stories saved him the trouble of having to think of so many plots – and there, my friends, speaks a true professional!

I don’t think we’ve exhausted this subject so – you guessed it! – you can consider what you’ve just read as Part One, to be continued…

RECOMMENDED READING: God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, by Christopher Hitchens.

Batman, The Question, Iron Man, Green Lantern and/or Green Arrow, and The Shadow, as well as all kinds of novels, stories and articles.

Dennis O’Neil is an award-winning editor and writer of comic books like

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