Joe Johnston will be directing  First Avenger: Captain America for Marvel Studios. The director has signed a deal according to The Hollywood Reporter for the film which will open May 6, 2011 setting up the final pieces prior to that July’s Avengers film.

There is no casting as yet nor is there a screenwriter.

Johnston made his name as a special effects designer for George Lucas on the original Star Wars films prior to shifting to directing and his credits include genre fare such as the underrated The Rocketeer and next year’s Wolfman film with Benicio del Toro. Johnston met with Marvel Studio execs two years ago and hit it off so this is the culmination of that relationship.

Kevin Feige told the trade, "This is a guy who designed the vehicles for Star Wars, who storyboarded the convoy action sequence for Raiders of the Lost Ark. From Rocketeer to October Sky to The Wolfman, you can look at pieces of his movies and see how they lead to this one."

Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created the star-spangled avenger for Timely Comics in 1941 and produced ten issues prior to leaving for DC Comics.  The character, though, endured and became one of the three major stars of the comics line through the 1940s.  He was briefly revived in the 1950s but lay dormant until Stan Lee created the Marvel Universe.  For the fourth issue of the Avengers, he and Kirby told of how Captain America had been preserved in a state of suspended animation, trapped in a block of ice until the Sub-Mariner unwittingly tossed the chunk into the sea where the warmer waters melted the block. The Avengers found him and he returned to active duty. He has been a staple of Marvel Comics ever since.

Feige had previously indicated the film will be set during World War II and film students already saw a glimpse of the frozen form in an arctic sequence shot as an alternative opening for this summer’s Incredible Hulk.  We also saw Captain America’s fabled shield in Tony Stark’s lab in Iron Man and again, director Jon Favreau indicated Howard Stark had something to do with the shield as will be revealed in forthcoming films.

Captain America had been adapted twice before.  Once in two terrible telefilms for CBS and the aborted Captain America feature film from 1990 that never made it to theaters.  Matt Salinger portrayed the hero and was pitted against his immortal enemy the Red Skull, who was an Italian terrorist, not a a Nazi.
 

NBM reminds readers what the First Time was like, in an erotic hardcover anthology that will feature the works of Dave McKean.  The collection of ten tales comes from writer Sybilline, a French woman with decidedly spicy ideas.  The art is handled by a variety of talents including McKean, Cyril Pedrosa (Three Shadows), and Olivier Vatine (Aquablue). 

The publisher says: “10 hot stories about first times. From having sex to having a very different sexual experience such as going beyond the couple, or the woman strapping it on for her man, or… all from the point of view of women.”

The 112-page book will be released in January, retailing for $19.95 and is most decidedly hardcore so be warned.

Yesterday, we began a conversation with About Comics’ Nat Gertler, looking back over 10 years of existence.  Today, we’ll examine his best known project 24 Hour Comics Day as well as About’s future plans.

ComicMix: You’ve also nurtured talent through your books on comic book writing.  Will there be other such projects?

Nat Gertler: Right now, Steve Lieber and I are in negotiations for doing an updated edition of our Complete Idiot’s Guide to Creating a Graphic Novel, so that’s likely to come out next year. There are a couple other such projects that I’ve got on my "someday" file, but nothing I’m ready to announce.

CMix: Are you writing anything currently?

NG: I just got the rights back to a graphic novel script that I wrote for Platinum, and I’m in the midst of updating that and fixing an ending that I didn’t get right the first time. After that, I’ll be focusing on completing The Big Con, my graphic novel looking at various folks attending a major comic book convention. Folks who’ve read the Idiot’s Guide have seen one chapter from it, and I had planned on having that book out when the Idiot’s Guide hit… but the one-two punch of the first 24 Hour Comics Day and the birth of my daughter wiped that from the schedule. (more…)

Sheri Kaplowitz, a.k.a. Tia Cultir, consultant for Lucasfilm, passed away today after a long battle with complications from multiple strokes.

She often couldn’t talk much about the work she did for Lucasfilm, due to the incredibly comprehensive non-disclosure agreement. I always envisioned her as part of George Lucas’s personal Jedi Council, and for all I know, she was.

Services will be held next Sunday in Boston. Our deepest condolences to her family and friends.

For years, in television, many hybrid series involving both science fiction and comedy have come and gone. It’s a fine line to juggle the fans of a pretty strict mythos (whichever that may be, they are all pretty strict) to also keeping the show fresh and witty for people who may not be into the science fiction or fantasy element. Reaper happens to be one of those shows that has walked the line successfully for a season and is already planning on doing it again in season 2. We got a chance to grab Ray Wise, who plays the show’s antagonist—the Devil himself—about his role in the show and some things to look forward to.

ComicMix: With the WGA strike hitting Reaper mid season last year, do you think it effected the story of the overall season, much like it did other shows that were effected?

Ray Wise: While it didn’t effect the story, it did however effect the logistics on when we would be able to come back and start shooting. We do know that the network [CW] had some decisions to make as a result of the writers’ strike which lead to coming back for a second season in doubt for a time, but I’m happy to say that we’re currently on episode 9 of a 13 episode pickup. the current plan is to air those news episodes either in January of March of 2009, and once those are on the air, we think we may be able to do some more.

CMix: Speaking of season two, can you give us any kind of hint on what The Devil might be up to this season?

RW: Well we’re going to be more character relationship oriented this season. We plan to delve a little more into each of the characters’ relationships with one another. We plan to find out a little more about the hierarchy of Hell, and even some more appearances from the Nether region will be arriving here on Earth. There will be plenty of conflict, and to sum it all up; all hell is going to break loose!

CMix: There was an interesting relationship in the first season between your Devil and Bret Harrison’s Sam, almost a love/hate relationship. Are we going to continue down that road this season?
(more…)

After expressing interest in directing everything from the an adaptation of Valiant’s Harbinger to a feature film based on Guitar Hero, director Brett Ratner has finally chosen his next projects.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Rater is about to sign a deal to direct a new Conan the Barbarian film.  The film will be co-produced by Nu Image/Millennium and Lionsgate Films. Conan was the subject of two films starring Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1980s and has been a frequent candidate for additional features ever since but the rights went from studio to studio with no traction.  John Milius, who cowrote the first film with Oliver Stone, has had a much admired King Conan script in development for years now.

Fans of Axel Foley can rest assured that the fourth film in the Beverly Hills Cop series is still likely to hit the cameras first for Paramount Pictures. Screenwriters Michael Brandt and Derek Haas (Wanted) have been working on a script as the studio tries to get everything lined up to meet the next hole in Eddie Murphy’s schedule.

Joshua Oppenheimer and Thomas Dean Donnelly (Sahara) have written a screenplay that was intriguing enough to get Ratner to commit but now the duo is working on a polish based on Ratner’s notes.  The story is inspired by the original Weird Tales stories of Robert E. Howard and none of the pastiches and interpretations that have followed in prose and comic books. It’s said to be a tale that introduces audiences to who Conan is and sets the stage for the inevitable sequels.

Lionsgate intends to release the $85 million film in 2010 the same year Paramount hopes to release BHC 4.