Just weeks after signing Joe Johnston to direct First Avenger: Captain America, Marvel Studios has announced that Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely are likely to be the screenwriters. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the duo is in final negotiations to step in,

The film comes with many complicating factors starting with a locked in release date of May 6, 2011 and the need to include elements that have been established in Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk as well as setting up plot threads that will play out two months later in The Avengers film.

The movie will be set during World War II and feature scrawny Steve Rogers, denied enlistment in the army but invited to be a test subject for Project Super Solider.  He is then transformed into the star-spangled hero and issued a red, white, and blue uniform to inspire the troops and general public as Captain America.

Whether or not his sidekick Bucky will be included remains the one plot element not yet discussed by executives.  One can presume the Red Skull will be the villain along with hordes of Nazis.

The screenwriters have most recently handled The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian so they have experience with adapting works from others.  Much of their work will come from Captain America #1, published in 1941 by Timely Comics, now known as Marvel Comics. The character was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.

NBC may have been hasty. Apparently, the plans to shelve Lipstick Jungle were premature as it sparked an uptick in ratings last Friday night. Rabid fans have also been vocal about trying to salvage the female-centric drama starring Brooke Shields.

The series was shuffled from Wednesday nights to Fridays and in addition to the stronger overnight ratings, DVR usage show a stronger base of support than expected. In fact, the numbers jumped 50%; an indicator that delayed viewing is an increasing factor in judging how well any network show is performing.

Ben Silverman, the co-chairman of NBC Entertainment, told The New York Times that the network will now complete work on the 13 episodes ordered and they will all air.  There are currently four episodes yet to be broadcast. Should ratings growth continue, the back nine episodes may be ordered. He cautioned against exuberance, noting the serialized drama does not repeat well making it a costly acquisition.

While it’s not something we suspect most of our readers watch, we feel compelled to be thorough once a story starts.
 

P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast’s nine volume House of Night series has been optioned by producers Michael Birnbaum (John Tucker Must Die) and Jeremiah Chechik (Benny and Joon) according to Variety.

The young adult novel series is yet another to feature teens and vampires, a sub-genre exemplified by Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight. The conceit, according to the trade, "’vampyres’ are accepted in society; they possess a genetic anomaly that manifests itself in some people at puberty. Vampyres are ‘marked’ and sent to the House of Night, a school that offers training necessary to become an adult vampyre.”

The lead character, 16 year old Zoey Redbird, has just been turned into a vampire and switches schools with all the attendant teen issues plus the vampire factor.

The series kicked off just last year with Marked. The fourth book, Untamed, was released in September by St. Martin’s Griffin.

"P.C. and Kristin Cast created a thrilling world that juxtaposes teen drama with supernatural suspense, using the transition from human to vampire as a metaphor for the transition from adolescence to adulthood," Birnbaum said.
 

Universal Studios would like to revisit the Klumps once more and have put out an open call to writers for pitches for a third Nutty Professor film according to The Hollywood Reporter. Universal and Imagine Entertainment saw ox office success with two films based on the 1963 Jerry Lewis classic.

The previous two were tour de forces for Eddie Murphy and the studio would like the pitches to pick up on the threads from The Nutty Professor 2: The Klumps. The basic concept involved the overweight but kindly professor accidentally turning into a slim, obnoxious love machine and hilarity ensued.

The 1996 remake scored $270 million while the 2000 sequel found just $162 million in ticket sales.  However, the desire for familiar properties trumps concern over eroding interest in such humor or Murphy, whose box office draw has been diminishing with disastrous career choices (last summer’s Starship Dave was a new low).

He has not signed for a third film and would be approached only when there was something to show him.

Dark Horse Films is negotiating with Sammo Hung (Kung Fu Hustle) to star in, and Kevin Munroe (TMNT) to direct War Monkeys, described as a horror comedy. The script is from Cleve Nettles (All Over Again) and will be produced by Chris Patton (Destination Mars), who came up with the concept, and Robert Sanchez.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film “follows two janitors who, during a Christmas holiday, get trapped in an underground research facility after accidentally unleashing military-trained Rhesus monkeys. Hung is one of the janitors who battle the rabid simians.”

"Monkeys, guns, explosions. As a genre freak, I couldn’t ask for anything more," Munroe told the trade.

The independent film company hopes to begin production early next year and use live, animatronic, and CGI-generated monkeys. They recently earned their first Emmy for the John Landis-directed documentary Mr. Warmth and are about to release My Name Is Bruce, starring and directed by Bruce Campbell.
 

Nothing has the warm and fuzzies attached to it better than a classic Disney Christmas, just one of the titles we point to on this week’s tour of the comic and DVD shelves, plus:

• Pushing Daisies the comic!
• Are you geek enough for MTV?
• DC caters to the oldsters
   

 Stop humming “Jingle Bells”  and Press the Button!

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