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‘Spartacus’ Prequel Announced with Lucy Lawless and John Hannah

  • Uncategorized
  • May 13, 2010

spartacus-lawless-2-thumb-550x305-32042-1335810While we eagerly await next week’s upfront announcements to see which of our favorite genre shows survive or vanish, one series has figured out their next step. During production of Starz Network’s Spartacus: Blood and Sand, its title star Andy Whitfield was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. As he undergoes treatment in New Zealand, there remained question as to how long it would be before the second season could begin production.

The producers came up with a clever filler by striking a deal to produce a six-part prequel that would require no more than a cameo from Whitfield. Instead, the focus will be on the randy pair played by Lucy Lawless and John Hannah as the story chronicles the rise of the House of Batiatus in the days before Spartacus arrived as a captured Thracian slave.

The producers, writers, and production crew will continue with their roles while a new actor will be added to play the pre-Crixus champion. Production will start this spring with Starz scheduled to air the series beginning in January 2011.

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‘Human Target’ gets second season

human-target-full-cast-1178189With the upfront announcements for the major networks rolling out starting Monday, pick-ups and renewal notes have been arriving all week. This morning, it appears Fox has given a green light to a second season of Human Target.

The series, starring Mark Valley, Chi McBride, and  Jackie Earle Haley, debuted to positive reviews and middling ratings this spring. The first season ended on a cliffhanger with the producers hoping for a positive response. Instead, the origin story garnered the lowest ratings to date but still received the thumbs up.

While the show bears little resemblance to the Len Wein/Carmine Infantino character, it remains an enjoyable hour drama. The show will evolve a bit now that Matthew Miller, formerly co-executive producer of Chuck, will be joining the team as co-showrunner with Jonathan Steinberg.

Fox also announced a new series pick-up to Wilde Kingdom from Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz. The series will star Keri Russell, in her return to series television, alongside Will Arnett. Steve Wilde is a wealthy, self-centered Beverly Hills playboy who falls for a selfless humanitarian and hilarity ensues.

Chuck, one of our favorite series, is on the bubble but all signs point to its return to NBC. On the other hand, Greg Grunberg, one of the stars of that network’s Heroes, tweeted this morning, “The ‘Fat Lady’ is doing her vocal warm-ups!!” There had been talk of a thirteen episode wrap-up mini-season but that seems less likely now.

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‘Three Musketeers’ 3-D Film Builds Cast

Now that the Robin Hood legend has been mined once more for the screen, attention has pivoted from England to France as director Paul W.S. Anderson has begun casting for The Three Musketeers, a 3-D extravaganza.

To date, he has envisioned Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief) as his D’Artagnan with Ray Stevenson (The Book of Eli), Luke Evans (Clash of the Titans) and Matthew Macfadyen (Robin Hood) as Porthos, Athos and Aramis, respectively.

For the villains, it’ll be Academy Award winner Christoph Waltz (Inglorious Basterds) as Cardinal Richelieu and Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale) as Rochefort.  Orlando Bloom (Lord of the Rings) has been offered the role of the Duke of Buckingham. Milla Jovovich, Anderson’s wife, will portray Milady de Winter, Athos’ former lover.

The Alexander Dumas novel has been adapted for movies and television dating back to 1903 and was most recently seen in the crowd-pleasing 1993 Disney attempt. The Alexander Salkind two-film production is being dusted off for a Blu-ray release on June 1 from Lionsgate.

Anderson cowrote the script with Andrew Davies and the filming is expected to begin in September. Summit will release the film domestically but has yet to announce a date, which is likely to be in 2011.

This is the second modern adaptation with the other being mounted by director Doug Liman (The Bourne Ultimatum) and Warner Bros. with a 2012 release planned. No casting has been announced and this too will start shooting in the fall.

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Review: ‘Elektra: Director’s Cut’

elektra1-6100608The idea of Jennifer Garner playing Elektra to Ben Affleck’s Daredevil may have seemed a great idea at the time, given her athletic prowess in [[[Alias]]]. And unlike so many supporting characters who get eyed for spinoff movies (Jinx from the [[[Bond]]] series, [[[Silver Surfer]]], etc.), she actually got featured in a 2005 feature from director Rob Bowman.

The movie was a critical and financial disaster, performing worse than Mark Steven Johnson’s [[[Daredevil]]] feature. Now, Elektra: Director’s Cut
is out on Blu-ray from 20th-Century Home Entertainment and the three minutes added do not make it a substantially better experience.

The problem with the Zak Penn, Stuart Zicherman and Raven Metzner screenplay is that it never tells us anything about Elektra Natchios as a person. We’re shown flashbacks to her upbringing without detailing why her father was so hard on her. We’re shown she has OCD but where it comes from and why it’s even mentioned is never explored since it never plays a part in the film.

The story is a muddled mess with too many things going on at once, little of making any sense. The Hand, an evil organization of black-clad ninja controlled by business-suited masterminds, and the Kimagure, which is more of a martial art and philosophy as embodied by Stick (Terence Stamp). You know they’re the good guys since they dress in white.

Caught in between is the Treasure. We’re led to believe it was likely to be Elektra herself but no, the treasure turns out to be Abby Miller (Kirsten Prout), a 13-year old who has already lost her mother to the battle between forces and is on the run with her father Mark (Goran Visnjic). Elektra is lured into their world through needlessly complex ways and then has to defend Abby from a quartet of barely named super-powered assassins.

There’s plenty of fighting and plenty left unexplained. And frankly, as the film ends, we know nothing more about Elektra or the real struggle between Roshi (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) and Stick.

In one sequence, Elektra turns on the gas stove, tosses a candle into the kitchen and causes a devastating explosive blast to stop the Hand from entering her ancestral home. With the gas still on and flames everywhere, one would think the house would catch fire but no, miraculously, we never see the flames or see anyone concerned about the fire. Its this sort of story illogic that mars what could have been an interesting story about a fascinating character.

The acting is stiff and we’ve seen better from the more familiar names, especially Garner who has range if allowed to use it. Stamp is appropriately gruff as the blind teacher but with the cap of white hair and black outfit, I mistook him for Marlon Brando.

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‘Swamp Thing’ Volume 3 due on DVD in June

Shout! Factory has announced a June 22 release for the third volume of the Swamp Thing television series on DVD. The set was being offered as part of their Shout! Select online exclusive line of product.

The first volume, comprising seasons one and two of the USA cable series, and volume two (beginning the third season) were released in 2008. This volume would complete the third season and series.

The series, featuring the character created by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson, debuted on July 27, 1990 with a total of 72 episodes. The series largely followed the continuity of the horrid film adaptation by Roger Corman and starred Dick Durock who portrayed the misunderstood creature in both feature films.

While the show was once a top-rated hit for the fledgling cable channel, it was poorly received by critics and fans of the source material.

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‘Captain America’ Will Likely Sling Shield in 3-D

Marvel’s super-heroes continue to dominate the headlines as Iron Man director Jon Favreau told MTV he imagined it was time for the Mandarin to step front and center in Iron Man 3. After setting up the Ten Rings in the first film, it was clear he was already heading in that direction.

Meantime Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige confirmed to the Los Angeles Times that they were studying 3-D technology and were likely to let Captain America: The First Avenger be the first film in the new format. With Thor already shooting, an up-conversion was not ruled out.

“The team has been doing a lot of research into 3-D processes, and we’re looking at it on future films when we have the time. We will be doing it at some point,” Feige told Geoff Boucher.

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Judge Dredd Ramps Up Towards 3-D Production

Judge Dredd’s return to the silver screen has accelerated with DNA Films cutting a deal with India-based Reliance Big Entertainment and IM Global to finance a 3-D film. The 2000 AD star last was seen in the movies via the 1995 Sylvester Stallone bomb.

According to an exclusive report at Deadline, the movie has a new script from Alex Garland (The Beach), and will be directed by Pete Travis (Vantage Point).  The report indicates the film creators are going back to the original 1970s adventures as envisioned by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra.

This version is budgeted at under $50 million which will be stretched by the needs of 3-D production.

One of the reasons the first film failed is that the vision of Mega City One and the world of Judge Dredd had been usurped years earlier by Ridley Scott in Blade Runner and had been oft-imitated, making the adaptation seem dated. Additionally, the things that made Dredd Dredd were largely absent.

No casting or release date for the new film was announced.

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Vaughn Reunites with Goldman for ‘First Class’

Marvel properties continue to dominate the media news with word out that Jane Goldman has been added to the writing staff of the 20th-Century Fox’s X-Men reboot, First Class. Last week, Matthew Vaughn signed to follow the delightful Kick-Ass with this fourth film in the mutant franchise. Writers Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz, who wrote Thor, were confirmed as being at work on the film, which has a relatively short production schedule.

Goldman’s involvement was announced via a tweet from husband Jonathan Ross. He posted, “Also, for those who need to know, my wife IS currently writing X men First Class. It’s just referred to as X men 4 around the house…”

Goldman and Vaughn have collaborated on several films in the past so having her on board is a natural step.

No casting has occurred but shooting is expected later this year.

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Luke Cage Being Eyed for the Silver Screen

luke-cage-super-9250762Geoff Boucher at the Los Angeles Times reports that Luke Cage is likely to be one of the first next level Marvel heroes to get the film treatment. Marvel Studios announced a few weeks ago that the time had come to look at the smaller characters for lower budgeted films but no formal announcements had been made.

Marvel continues to develop Ant Man with director Edgar Wright, which may also fall into this category and Stan Lee mentioned Doctor Strange as a strong candidate to perform film magic sooner than later.

Cage was first introduced in 1972 in Hero for Hire, from writer Archie Goodwin and artists George Tuska and Billy Graham. He’s been a fixture ever since and in the last few years has gained prominence under the pen of Brian Michael Bendis who featured him first in Alias then the New Avengers. As part of the Heroic Age refresh of the Marvel Universe, he takes center stage in Thunderbolts beginning with issue #144 with writer Jeff Parker and artist Kev Walker, on sale May 26.

“Speaking of Luke Cage, a.k.a. Power Man, I hear that there’s more talk underway about putting the urban hero into his own film and that a notable Hollywood star is now having (very) preliminary talks with Marvel Studios about the property and its potential,” Boucher wrote.

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‘Iron Man 2’ Trivia: Who Else Has Worn The Armor?

iron-legion-1-1310166Tony Stark is the man called Iron Man. For years, he has worn high-tech armor of his own creation in order to protect his interests or save the world as a whole. Over the years, he has altered and updated his suit time and time again.

But sometimes Tony has needed other people to wear the armor. Maybe so they can act as back-up. Maybe so they can help provide an alibi. Maybe because Tony himself just can’t do that job that time.

In Iron Man 2, the question comes up about who may be worthy to wear the armor and whether or not there shouldn’t be a whole army of Iron Men protecting the U.S. If a team of Iron Men sounds weird, You might be interested to know that years back there actually was a short-lived “Iron Legion” team formed by Jim Rhodes AKA War Machine and which included the various people who’ve worn the armor over the years.

So without further ado, here are the people who made up that Iron Legion and who’ve been an alternate Iron Man for different reasons over the years. (more…)

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