I’m writing this late on Thursday evening, full of turkey and stuffing and good will toward my fellow man. And I’ve been thinking that I don’t have any theme to unify them – I almost had three books starting with “G” and then almost had three volume twos  — but a theme just jumped out and poked me. Today is Black Friday, and these three books all fit that theme: they’re all pretty black. (Yes, I know that’s not what “Black Friday” means, but humor me.)

Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo, Vol. 1
Manga by Mahiro Maeda; Scenario by Yura Ariwara; Planning by Mahiro Maeda and GONZO
Del Rey, November 2008, $10.95

Gankutsuou is the least dark, at least at this point, but it clearly is going to get darker and bleaker. For one thing, it’s explicitly a retelling of Dumas’s novel The Count of Monte Cristo (“Gankutsuou” means “The King of the Cave,” and was the title of the first Japanese translation of Monte Cristo), which is not a tale of sweetness and light. And, second, our young hero Albert is the son of one of the men who schemed to put Edmond Dantes – surely you remember Edmond Dantes? – away for good, and, even worse, he’s the son of Mercedes, who was supposed to be Dantes’s wife.

Gankutsuou updates Monte Cristo to the kind of unlikely aristocratic interplanetary future that we don’t see much of any more; it never made a whole lot of sense as a setting, but I must admit that I missed it, and so I’m happy to see it come back here. Monte Cristo is a story that must be told in an aristocratic society – the Count himself only makes sense in such a world – and so it works; it’s a big, gaudy world, with extremes of wealth and poverty – just like the world Dumas wrote about.

This first volume is mostly set-up; we start with Albert and his friend Franz in the midst of a Grand Tour of sorts – of the major planets of our solar system, apparently. They’re just coming to Luna for its fabled Carnival, where the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo meets, befriends, and helps Albert. (Albert, in that all-too-typical manga style, is an overly innocent, puppy-dog-ish young man with boundless enthusiasm and utter lack of guile. I’m afraid he’s in for it, and equally afraid that Gankutsuou’s creators have been utterly innocent of the knowledge of real young aristocrats to think that type is even possible.) (more…)

The CGI-animated Igor, telling a monster story from the point of view of the mad scientist’s erstwhile assistant, may have done poorly at the box office, with just under $20 million earned to date, but should make for fun winter viewing when MGM releases it on DVD January 20.

Igor features a stellar ensemble voice cast including Golden Globe nominee John Cusack (Being John Malkovich, High Fidelity), Academy Award nominee John Cleese (Shrek The Third, A Fish Called Wanda), Golden Globe nominee Steve Buscemi (Fargo, The Big Lebowski), Sean Hayes (The Bucket List, Will & Grace), Emmy Award winner Jay Leno (Ice Age 2: The Meltdown), Jennifer Coolidge (American Pie, Joey), Christian Slater, Emmy Award nominee Molly Shannon (Kath And Kim), Emmy Award winner Eddie Izzard (The Riches) and Arsenio Hall.  

Synopsis
This hilarious animated twist on the classic monster movie is must-see family fun!  Determined to prove he can create his own diabolical invention, a mad scientist’s (John Cleese) nice-guy assistant, Igor (John Cusack), creates a female Franken-monster.  But his creation, Eva (Molly Shannon), is sweet and sings show tunes!  That is, until she falls into the clutches of Dr. Schadenfreude (Eddie Izzard) and his shape-shifting girlfriend (Jennifer Coolidge).  Now it’s up to Igor and his sidekicks (Steve Buscemi and Sean Hayes) to save Eva – and their country – from real evildoers, including sneaky Prince Malpert (Jay Leno)!

The Igor DVD is presented in widescreen and full screen with English Dolby Surround 5.1 sound and includes bonus features such as deleted scenes, bloopers and “Be An Igor” featurette.  Entertaining for children and adults alike, the IGOR DVD will be available for a suggested retail price of $17.99 U.S.  The IGOR Blu-ray Disc is presented in widescreen and features an alternate opening scene and commentary by Director Tony Leondis, writer Chris McKenna and producer Max Howard and will be available for a suggested retail price of $39.99.

Igor
DVD Price:                              $17.99 U.S.
Blu-ray Price:                          $39.99
Street Date:                             January 20, 2009
Total Run Time:                     87 minutes
Rating:                                     PG
Screen Format:                      Widescreen and Full Screen
Subtitles:                                 English
Closed Captioned:                Yes
 

Big Finish Productions has revealed the cast for  The Three Companions, the 12-part Companion Chronicles miniseries that will be included as a bonus feature on monthly Doctor Who audio dramas starting this Spring. Anneke Wills returns as Polly who, in the present day, tracks down Jo Grant (Katy Manning), and realizes their past adventures with the Doctor have actually intersected. Meanwhile, as the planet Earth faces environmental catastrophe, a third companion is observing them from afar… A certain Thomas Brewster (John Pickard), who is in possession of a stolen TARDIS.

The Three Companions is written by Marc Platt, and directed by Lisa Bowerman.

Fangoria is reporting that the Joe Johnston-directed remake of Universal’s classic The Wolfman may miss its April 3 release date. Benicio Del Toro stars as Lawrence Talbot who is bitten by a werewolf and endures the agonizing transformation every time the moon is full and the wolf’s bane bright and now may wait until fall.

The movie was written by Andrew Kevin Walker and David Self with make-up effects from Oscar-winning monster maker Rick Baker.

This was Universal’s first step in freshening that brand following their success with The Mummy films starting Brendan Fraser.  The studio intends to patiently wait for Guillermo del Toro to finish The Hobbit before he takes on a remake of Frankenstein, the one that started it all back in 1931.
 

Cherry Lane Music Publishing Co. entered into a long-term worldwide music administration deal with Marvel Entertainment according to Variety. They will oversee the lucrative music publishing from the Marvel movies starting with Iron Man and Incredible Hulk and extending through the 2011 live action releases. The deal also covers the currently in production animated series Wolverine and the X-Men, Super Hero Squad, Thor and The Avengers."

Cherry Lane also reps music for DreamWorks and Lakeshore Entertainment.

Fox’s Arrested Development may be dead as a television series, but a feature film version is closer to reality. The Hollywood Reporter sais that Fox Searchlight is just about ready to sign a deal with Ron Howard’s Image production company.

The director told Ain’t it Cool News, “Yeah, we’re closer than ever. Mitch [Hurwitz] is really focused on it, the cast seems really interested, the studio seems to be on board, and God know they’ve got a narrator who’s just chomping at the bit. [laughs] So we don’t have a script yet, but we all want it and we want it to be good. We’re pushing in that direction and all really pushing together for the first time in ages. So, I think we’ve got a very good chance of it happening.”

Members of the cast, including Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Jeffrey Tambor have been publicly talking about a movie and they always made it sound like it was more than wishful thinking.

Hurwitz would write and most likely direct the feature film version.

The series ran a total of three seasons and 53 episodes between November 2, 2003 and February 10, 2006. Despite being a critics’ darling, it never found an audience. It did, though, win five Emmy Awards including the validating Outstanding Comedy Series in 2004. Time Magazine named it one of the 100 Greatest Shows of All Time.

Freema Agyeman, who debuted on the UK’s latest genre series, Survivors, on November 23 said, “I couldn’t have wished for a better start to my career than Doctor Who. It was like a rocket that blasted me up and as a consequence I have all these opportunities presented to me. It feels like it would be rude to say no.”

The 29-year-old told the London Telegraph that she plays Jenny Collins, “a teacher trying to escape a population-killing virus in a six-part remake of the 1970s cult drama.” Survivors.

“Jenny is bright and capable but in this situation she is overwhelmed,” she described. “Looking after her sick flatmate gives her a purpose to get through the situation. The whole thing is about trying to find hope.”

“Doctor Who was a good warm-up,” Agyeman admitted. “You’d be running around on the edge of cliff, chased by someone holding a fake monster on the end of stick. At first you would feel silly, but you quickly learn to go for it, to feel the terror of the moment. In Survivors, although it is much more serious, I tried to imagine the loss and loneliness Jenny is feeling in that moment.”

Agyeman will also be seen in the BBC’s new adaptation of Charles Dickens’s Little Dorrit, followed by playing a government prosecutor Alesha Phillips on Law & Order: London. “There’s so much I want to learn and these three [roles] were all extremely different from each other and from what I had done before,” she said.

For Little Dorrit, the attractive actress will play attention-seeking orphan Tattycoram. “Tattycoram’s race wasn’t specified but in Victorian London if you weren’t upper class, you experienced prejudice, so race transposes beautifully,” she said. “Up until Doctor Who I was happy in my career but I was being cast as gangsters and suchlike, which was a frustration for me. Now I get parts that could have been cast to any color. I am aware that I have this huge platform and I am proud to represent the black community but I am also proud of being able to show that I can do other parts.”