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Are you Prepared for ‘Lesbian Vampire Killers’?

  • News
  • December 14, 2008

Imagine being two lost Welsh men on holiday wandering into a town and selected to become sacrifices to the local lesbian vampires in order to keep the town’s women safe.

That’s the premise behind Lesbian Vampire Killers, a comedy from director Phil Claydon (Alone) working from a script by Paul Hupfield and Stewart Williams (Balls of Steel). James Corden and Matthew Horne (the stars of the BBC series Gavin and Stacey) topline as the would-be victims.

The project has been kicking around for some time, at one point being considered for Hammer Films before it was picked up by Momentum Films.  At the Cannes Film Festival in May, Claydon described the film as a comedy horror in the style of an old Hammer classic and told BBC News, “It will have you laughing and screaming in the auditorium.”

Associate Producer Rob Lewis told Fangoria, “I can’t quite believe that what started out as a drunken pub dare is going to be an actual film, with proper actors and everything. Thanks to Momentum, it’s going to be a decently budgeted slice of Brit comedy/horror—with one hell of a ‘come-on’ title.”

The film will open in the UK on March 20 and we will have to patiently wait our turn.

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‘Green Hornet’ Already Prepping for San Diego

  • Uncategorized
  • December 14, 2008

green-hornet2-op-800x798-2-8208890"Comic-Con is my favorite event of the year," Seth Rogen told Sci Fi Wire. "It’s more fun to me than the movie premieres, than anything. I love Comic-Con. All of our friends come down for it, and we just have a really good time, and it’s always a lot of fun. I would love nothing more than to be able to show something at Comic-Con."

Rogen is meeting this week with Sony executives and director Stephen Chow to begin planning how best to promote Rogen’s Green Hornet feature film at next July’s event considering little footage will be ready.  Filming doesn’t begin until May presuming the actors do not strike in the meantime. The actor has begun exercising and dieting to prepare for the part of Britt Reid, the newspaper executive, who becomes the notorious crime fighter, aided by his chauffeur, Kato (Chow).

"The process has been very collaborative and very good," Rogen said about working with Chow. "He’s given us a lot of ideas. His English is …well, we keep saying when we all come out of this, we will be great communicators. He’s made great strides, I will say. It presents its own challenges at times. We get along really, really well. We are really just starting the process, very little has actually been done. … We’re actually in the very preliminary stages right now."

The movie is slated for a summer 2010 release, in between Iron Man 2 and Thor.

 

Writer’s Guild Nominates Best Writing

  • News
  • December 14, 2008

fringe-2-4265107Genre vets Marc Guggenheim (Eli Stone), Drew Goddard, Brian K. Vaughan (Lost), Marti Noxon, Zack Whedon, and Danny Strong (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) have been nominated by their peers. The Writers Guild of America, West and the Writers Guild of America, East announced their nominees for outstanding achievement in television, radio, news, promotional writing, and graphic animation during the 2008 season to be honored at the upcoming 2009 Writers Guild Awards on February 7, 2009, in Los Angeles and New York.

TELEVISION NOMINEES

DRAMATIC SERIES

Dexter, Written by Scott Buck, Daniel Cerone, Charles H. Eglee, Adam E. Fiero, Lauren Gussis, Clyde Phillips, Scott Reynolds, Melissa Rosenberg, Tim Schlattmann; Showtime
Friday Night Lights, Written by Bridget Carpenter, Kerry Ehrin, Brent Fletcher, Jason Gavin, Carter Harris, Elizabeth Heldens, David Hudgins, Jason Katims, Patrick Massett, Aaron Rahsaan Thomas, John Zinman; NBC
Lost, Written by Carlton Cuse, Drew Goddard, Adam Horowitz, Christina M. Kim, Edward Kitsis, Damon L. Lindelof, Greggory Nations, Kyle Pennington, Elizabeth Sarnoff, Brian K. Vaughan; ABC
Mad Men, Written by Lisa Albert, Jane Anderson, Rick Cleveland, David Isaacs, Andre Jacquemetton, Maria Jacquemetton, Marti Noxon, Robin Veith, Matthew Weiner; AMC
The Wire, Written by Ed Burns, Chris Collins, David Mills, David Simon, William F. Zorzi, Richard Price, Dennis Lehane, George Pelecanos; HBO

COMEDY SERIES

30 Rock, Written by Jack Burditt, Kay Cannon, Robert Carlock, Tina Fey, Donald Glover, Andrew Guest, Matt Hubbard, Jon Pollack, John Riggi, Tami Sagher, Ron Weiner; NBC
Entourage, Written by Doug Ellin, Jeremy Miller, Ally Musika, Steve Pink, Rob Weiss; HBO

The Office, Written by Steve Carell, Jennifer Celotta, Greg Daniels, Lee Eisenberg, Brent Forrester, Dan Goor, Charlie Grandy, Mindy Kaling, Ryan Koh, Lester Lewis, Paul Lieberstein, Warren Lieberstein, B.J. Novak, Michael Schur, Aaron Shure, Justin Spitzer, Gene Stupnitsky, Halsted Sullivan; NBC
The Simpsons, Written by J. Stewart Burns, Daniel Chun, Joel H. Cohen, Kevin Curran, John Frink, Tom Gammill, Stephanie Gillis, Dan Greaney, Reid Harrison, Al Jean, Billy Kimball, Tim Long, Ian Maxtone-Graham, Bill Odenkirk, Carolyn Omine, Don Payne, Michael Price, Max Pross, Mike Reiss, Mike Scully, Matt Selman, Matt Warburton, Jeff Westbrook, Marc Wilmore, William Wright; Fox
 Weeds, Written by Roberto Benabib, Mark A. Burley, Ron Fitzgerald, David Holstein, Rolin Jones, Brendan Kelly, Jenji Kohan, Victoria Morrow, Matthew Salsberg; Showtime

NEW SERIES

Breaking Bad, Written by Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould, Patty Lin, George Mastras; AMC
Fringe, Written by JJ Abrams, Jason Cahill, Julia Cho, David H. Goodman, Felicia Henderson, Brad Caleb Kane, Alex Kurtzman, Darin Morgan, J.R. Orci, Roberto Orci, Jeff Pinkner, Zack Whedon; Fox
In Treatment, Written by Rodrigo Garcia, Bryan Goluboff, Davey Holmes, William Meritt Johnson, Amy Lippman, Sarah Treem; HBO
Life on Mars, Written by Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec, Scott Rosenberg, Becky Hartman Edwards, David Wilcox, Adele Lim, Bryan Oh, Tracy McMillan, Sonny Postiglione, Phil M. Rosenberg, Meredith Averill; ABC
True Blood, Written by Alan Ball, Brian Buckner, Raelle Tucker, Alexander Woo, Nancy Oliver, Chris Offutt; HBO

(more…)

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‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ Reboot Moves Forward

  • Uncategorized
  • December 14, 2008

freddy-claw-buckle-6428884Warner Bros. has given a green light to Platinum Dunes’ reboot of A Nightmare on Elm Street according to Shock til You Drop. Rumors about the proposed fresh start have been circulating since Michael Bay’s production entity shot its remake of Friday the 13th, which Warner Bros. will release in March.

Wesley Strick (Cape Fear) has been at work on a screenplay with many actors, including Billy Bob Thornton, mentioned as a possible successor to Robert Englund’s Freddy Krueger. The producers, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form, are hopeful Englund will at least make a cameo.

"It’s like what we’re doing to Friday the 13th," Fuller said. "It’s not Freddy cracking jokes. We want to make a horrifying movie. The concept is so scary, don’t fall asleep or you’ll die. This guy gets you when you’re most vulnerable, in your sleep. We love that. That’s the basis of the movie. It’ll be most similar to the first one but in terms of kills and dreams we’ll borrow from the entire series."

Shooting is expected to begin in the summer, most likely in Chicago.

BBC Plans New ‘Day of the Triffids’ Adaptation

  • News
  • December 13, 2008

With the global ecology a hot topic these days, it’s little surprise the BBC is planning a new version of the classic tale The Day of the Triffids. It all started with the 1951 post-apocalyptic novel by John Wyndham.

The story, according to the BBC tells of “Bill Masen, who awakes in a hospital after treatment for temporary blindness caused by a sting from a genetically modified plant, a triffid.”

"The first 45 minutes of 28 Days Later are the first three chapters of The Day of the Triffids, marginally modified with the addition of zombies," said Dr Barry Langford, senior lecturer in film and television at Royal Holloway, University of London.

The novel received immediate acclaim was first adapted for BBC radio in 1953, 157 and 1958 before the 1962 feature film.  The BBC did subsequent productions in 1971, 1973 and 1980.

It was also adapted by Marvel in 1975 for an issue of their Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction while a British television series was produced in 1981. The new production is being written by Patrick Harbinson (ER).

"The triffids are perhaps to us a more potent threat than even in Wyndham’s time," Dr Langford added.

Andy Sawyer, librarian at the Science Fiction Foundation Collection at the University of Liverpool, told the BBC. "It has become relevant. There is a lot more anxiety about bio engineering now."

The images of empty cities was a haunting one in the book and one which continues to resonate in post-apocalyptic fiction including next year’s adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.

‘Boldly Going Nowhere’ Expects Pickup from Fox

  • News
  • December 13, 2008

fox-logo-6376523Fox’s Boldly Going Nowhere is being seriously considered for a midseason series pickup according to The Hollywood Reporter. The sitcom received a pilot order plus request for scripts meaning it can swing into production quickly, filling the network’s needs.

Boldly Going Nowhere is produced by It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia‘s Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day and Glenn Howerton. The show focuses on the day-to-day events of an intergalactic spaceship. McElhenny, Day and Howerton do not consider the series as a science fiction, but rather a unique twist on the workplace sitcom. Wayne McClammy (I’m F–king Matt Damon) directed the pilot.

The cast includes Lennon Parham, Chad L. Coleman, Ben Koldyke, and Tony Hale.

Darren Aronofsky Envisions Violent ‘RoboCop’

  • News
  • December 13, 2008

Darren Aronofsky spoke with reporters about his plans for RoboCop while promoting the release of The Wrestler. He warned that he intended to return to the ultra-violence found in Paul Verhoeven’s first feature.

"If we do it, it [can] definitely be rated R," Aronofsky said. "I mean, [it won’t] necessarily, but we have that freedom."

He acknowledged that David Self is at work on the screenplay and until that’s finished everything has to wait. "So until there’s a screenplay, there’s nothing to really talk about. Until we’re going, it just doesn’t exist for me. It’s just like we’re trying to get something good, and we’ll see what happens."

His interest in cyborgs, such as RoboCop, began from a routine examination. "Before you get an MRI, they give you a list of like 38 different things, how you can have metal in your body. From a shutter in your eyelid to a pacemaker, screws and all this stuff you can have in your system. I realized, ‘Wow, we are cyborgs.’ I mean, everything’s not inside us, but the way we’re connected to the technology and everything is right there."

Aronofsky expanded upon the comments he first made on MTV about re-editing his film The Fountain in hopes of gaining a new release. He calls the new version a “redux” and said, "It’s something more for fans. I worked on the film for six years, and it went through a lot of versions. There was one version that was much closer to one of the scripts that we had, and we chose between which way we would go with it. They both are interesting, so I always was curious for myself to see what that alternative version would be.

"It’s very similar but looking at a few things in a few different ways, and it answers a few questions for people and raises some new questions in other ways, so it’s kind of cool."

The troubled film actually first saw light as a Vertigo graphic novel in 2005 and he may return to the format once more for his still-developing Noah project.  He admitted to being somewhat obsessed with the biblical figure since, as a 13-year-old, he won a United Nations poetry competition for a poem about the end of the world as seen through the eyes of Noah.

He previously had told Slash Film, “It’s the end of the world and it’s the second most famous ship after the Titanic. So I’m not sure why any studio won’t want to make it,” said Aronofsky. “I think it’s really timely because it’s about environmental apocalypse which is the biggest theme, for me, right now for what’s going on this planet. So I think it’s got these big, big themes that connect with us. Noah was the first environmentalist. He’s a really interesting character. Hopefully they’ll let me make it.”

Although he’s admitted to some he has an actor attached to star, he still may go the graphic novel route first.

Spirit Stories You Should Read Before The Movie

  • Uncategorized
  • December 13, 2008

spirit-for-gold-4506607So Brother Glenn e-mails me with “…we do real well with those ‘stories you should read before you see the movie,’ and if anyone else but you did The Spirit list, you’d probably be insulted.” Maybe.

I’m a bit ambivalent towards this movie. I haven’t seen it, but like most of you reading this, I’ve seen the trailers. I’ve loved The Spirit ever since Jules Feiffer turned me onto the character, back in a 1965 article in Playboy magazine. My appetite completely whetted, the good folks at Harvey Comics stoked me up a year later with two “giant-sized” reprints that still remain the best of the many compilations of the character.

So now Frank Miller, a cartoonist known to be quite the Spirit fan (he even worked a reference to creator Will Eisner into RoboCop II), has directed the big Spirit movie that’s coming out any day now. It was co-produced by another comics fan-turned-writer-turned-movie powerhouse, Michael Uslan, of Batman and Swamp Thing movies fame. And those trailers – well, damn, they don’t look like Will Eisner’s creation at all. They look like Sin City with one extra color added. I try not to judge movies by their promotion (outside of triage), but this stuff’s been a bitter disappointment.

So, perhaps, this list should be perceived as “stories you should re-read after you see the movie so you remember why you went in the first place.” I hope not; I’ll be there to see the movie with the greatest hope.

Either way, coming and/or going, here’s ten of the original, truly worthwhile Spirit stories, as written and drawn by Will Eisner with the assistance of such folks as Jules Feiffer, Jerry Grandinetti, and Wally Wood. Ask me again tomorrow, and I’ll bet I give you at least five different stories.

Yep, The Spirit was that good.

These stories have been scattered among numerous reprint collections. The really cool part is, you can’t go wrong with any of them. However, for those of you who remain both employed and financially flush, I’m including The Spirit Archives volume numbers. If you want to pick up just one volume, I recommend volume 19.

1. Ten Minutes (September 11, 1949; volume 19)

2. The Story of Gerhard Shnobble (October 16, 1949; volume 19)

3. Plaster of Paris (November 7, 1948; volume 17)

4 & 5. Sand Saref and Bring In Sand Saref (January 8 and 14, 1950; volume 20)

6 & 7. The Name Is Powder and The Fallen Sparrow (January 4 and 11, 1948; volume 16)

8. Fairy Tales For Juvenile Delinquents: Cinderella (October 5, 1947; volume 15)

9. A DP On The Moon (August 10, 1952; volume 24)

10. The Story Of Rat-Tat, The Toy Machine Gun (September 4, 1949; volume 19)

 

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‘The Zeta Project’ Comes to DVD in March

  • News
  • December 13, 2008

zetaproject-s1-early-1975746Warner Home Video has announced a March 17, 2009 release for the first season DVD collection of The Zeta Project.  The animated series was loosely connected to the futuristic world of Batman Beyond, with the character making guest appearances after setting up the premise during the “Zeta” episode. It ran from January 27, 2001 through August 10, 2002 on the KidsWB.

Voices on the series included Diedrich Bader, Julie Nathanson, Kurtwood Smith, Dominique Jennings, Eli Marienthal, Scott Marquette, Michael Rosenbaum, and Lauren Tom.

The 2-disc set will come with the 11 first-season episodes (per the studio’s "production season"; note that not all online episode guides agree with this count!).

Bonus material includes both cross-over episodes of Batman Beyond, and an all-new Featurette about the origins of The Zeta Project.  Cost will be $26.99 SRP.

Here’s the breakdown of episodes on each disc for the first season set:

•    Disc 1
1.    The Accomplice
2.    His Maker’s Name
3.    Remote Control
4.    Change of Heart
5.    The Next Gen

•    Disc 2
6.    West Bound
7.    Hicksburg
8.    Shadows
9.    Crime Waves
10.    Taffy Time
11.    Kid Genius
12.    Ro’s Reunion
 

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Joss Whedon is OK With Friday Nights

  • News
  • December 13, 2008

sooliviawilliams1-2-2513472Joss Whedon told the Los Angeles Times that if he were running Fox, he would also have scheduled his new series, Dollhouse, on Friday nights. It will debut on February 13, paired with Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

"It’s not a slam dunk, ‘We love everything you’re doing’ slot. Everybody knows that," he said. “The executives I’m dealing with are canny guys."

The current executives at the network are not the same ones who played games with his last series, Firefly, and then summarily dumped it when the show was slow to find its audience.  The new execs have shown a willingness to let the series be sampled. “They’re bringing down expectations regarding how big of an audience they think it will bring in the beginning, and then as the show progresses. They need to do that."

"If I were an executive, I would have put it on Friday too, honestly,” Whedon added. “And not as a dig. The people who want this will find it, and hopefully more will as well. Fox is aware that TV just doesn’t exist the same way. People watch it online, on DVD, on their TiVos. It’s not the end of the world, but of course everyone’s been predicting the end of the world for Dollhouse‘since it was announced."

Whedon also noted that while Fox executives will likely have to wait patiently for building returns on the show, he hopes fans will be just as patient with the story line. "We’re trying to create something that’s more than the sum of its parts. And not just in an ‘Oooh, we’re heavy with mythology’ way. Dare I say we’re reaching for something more philosophical? Am I allowed to say philosophical? Or does that just mean my show will fail?"

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