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‘Mad About the Movies Directors’ Cut’ Coming Tomorrow

  • News
  • October 27, 2008

Mad Artist Tom Richmond wrote on his blog about a new Mad book, due out tomorrow.

He wrote, “Back in 1998 Mad published MAD About the Movies, a collection of movie spoofs from over the years. It was in part to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of Warner Bros. (WB owns DC Comics which in turn owns MAD) and all the movies in the book were Warner Bros. films.

“10 years later Mad is coming out with a new version of the book featuring parodies of films from other studios as well as some from WB. MAD About the Movies: Director’s Cut weighs in at a whopping 400 pages and contains not only 60 movie parodies from films of the last 60 plus years, but other goodies as well. Here’s a short list of some of the included parodies:

•    Gone with the Wind
•    Bonnie and Clyde
•    A Clockwork Orange
•    Brokeback Mountain
•    Spider-Man
•    Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
•    The Lord of the Rings (all three films!)

“Obviously there are both black and white and color pages in the book. I was told I have several parodies in it myself, although I don’t have a full list. I’m pretty excited about being in the book, as it will be the first book I really have a presence in. My parody of “Traffic” was in Mad About the Oscars, but I believe that is my only contribution to a Mad book.

“The book is part of an exclusive agreement with Barnes and Noble, so that is the only place you’ll be able to get a copy. It’s dirt cheap at only $9.98 for an online price.
“I have not as yet seen a copy, so I have no idea what kind of stock it’s printed on. It’s listed as a “hardcover” but at less than $10.00 I think that might be a mistake. Still this would make a great stocking stuffer. It’s supposed to be released tomorrow, according to the Barnes and Noble website.”

Review: ‘Dexter’ Episode #305

Note: Click here for last week’s victim!

The Crime Scene: “Turning Biminese”
From [[[Showtime]]]: “While Dexter struggles with how to handle Rita’s desire for them to move in together before they get married, Miguel tells Dexter about a husband who has gotten away with killing two of his wives for financial gain. For Dexter, this seems like the perfect candidate to satisfy his dark urge and his need, like every man under relationship pressures, to get away. Dexter tracks the murderer to Bimini. While on the hunt, Rita has a medical emergency and he is nowhere to be found. Meanwhile, Debra works with Anton, her confidential informant to track down one of Freebo’s criminal confidants. But Debra finds herself oddly (and disgustingly) attracted to Anton.”

Blood Spatter Analysis
“Turning Biminese” is a weirdly unfit title for one of the most defining moments in [[[Dexter]]] history. The whole hour focuses on just how drastically Dexter’s life has and will continue to change by the impending birth of his child and his newfound engagement to Rita, among a whole slew of other things. By episode’s end, it’s very clear that Dexter’s life is about to get very, very different.

(more…)

I am Spartacus!

  • News
  • October 27, 2008

The cry of “I am Spartacus!” will once more resound, this time weekly. Starz will air a new 13-episode series from executive producers Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert and Joshua Donen.

The premium movie channel has already produced Crash, a weekly series based on the Oscar-winning film, which began airing several weeks back. This will be the first in-house production for the channel. Steven S. DeKnight (Smallville) will be the head writer and showrunner.

Raimi, Tapert, and Donen developed the series and intend to produce the series in New Zealand in time for debut next summer. Each episode is likely to have a budget in excess of $2 million, surpassing their other series, Legend of the Seeker.  The world of ancient Rome will be digitally rendered, a first for a weekly TV series.

No casting has been announced as yet.

The real story of the slave who led a rebellion against his Roman captors in 73 A.D. was immortalized in the 1960 movie starring Kirk Douglas which won four Academy Awards. It was most recently retold as a 2004 miniseries starring ER’s Goran Visnjic and Rhona Mitra.

"This is not going to be at all like the 1960s Kirk Douglas film," Starz Entertainment executive vp programming Stephan Shelanski told The Hollywood Reporter. "We didn’t want your typical sword-and-sandals. It’s going to be fun, fast-moving, full of action and interesting characters and have a little more depth to it than the 1960s film."

Shelanski says the channel acknowledges the storytelling has to be done for an audience primed by movies like 300.  Being a premium channel, they can go for R-rated violence and storytelling. "It will bring the younger audience who has grown up on graphic novels and video games this heightened reality; it’s not going to look like anything you’ve seen before, especially on TV," said executive vp original production William Hamm. Hamm has previously worked with Raimi and Tapert at Universal TV to produce the similar Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.

Whedon Gives ‘Dollhouse’ Update

  • Uncategorized
  • October 27, 2008

dollhouse-cast-photo-whedon-4437903When it comes to Joss Whedon’s new television series Dollhouse, "playtime" is the last word on anyone’s lips.

The upcoming Fox show has experienced some pretty serious road bumps since its inception. A reshoot of the series pilot was ordered, shifting the originally shot first episode into the second episode slot. Soon after, a filming hiatus was announced to refocus the tone and direction of the series. Most recently, the full season pick-up of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has left some Whedonites wondering whether there’s an adequate prime time slot for Dollhouse.

Now, Joss Whedon’s breaking the silence about the mishaps on his blog, Whedonesque.

"Basically, the Network and I had different ideas about what the tone of the show would be," Whedon writes. "Their desires were not surprising: up the stakes, make the episodes more stand-alone, stop talking about relationships and cut to the chase. Oh, and add a chase. That you can cut to. Nothing I hadn’t heard before on my other shows (apparently my learning curve has no bendy part) but frustrating as hell given our circumstances – a pilot shot, scripts written, everybody marching together/gainfully employed… and then a shutdown."

Despite the hardships, Whedon states that "nothing essential has changed about the universe [of Dollhouse]. The ideas and relationships that intrigued me from the start are all there (though some have shifted) … and the progression of the first thirteen eps has me massively excited."

Whedon also writes that Eliza Dushku’s performance is nothing short of "strong, radiant and unmistakable," calling her an actress "who could coast on talent and never ever does."

"Some things I’d intended to hold back are laid out much sooner," Whedon continues about the show’s pacing, "and some are rolling out more slowly." Part of these pacing issues, he clarifies, include the full scrapping of the original pilot in favor of the reshot version. He doesn’t say whether or not the original pilot is still set to be the series’ second episode despite previous reports.

Other than that, there are some casting changes, as the Dollhouse head of security, Laurence Dominic (Reed Diamond), is sticking around the show longer than the single first episode he was originally planned for.

"Most of my problems seem to involve my actors making themselves indispensable," Whedon concedes, then clarifies: "This is the good problem kind."

The first promos for the series, marked only as "coming soon", began airing during the World Series broadcasts and looks pretty cool.

Growing Out Of Comics, by Mike Gold

  • News
  • October 27, 2008

It was the very end of summer, I had just turned 11, and – heaven help me – I was just beginning to tire of comic books.

Not that I was considering getting that four-color monkey off of my back. My enthusiasm was waning. The Superman books were beginning to get silly, the Batman titles had already become silly, and Julie Schwartz’s books like The Flash and Green Lantern were beginning to feel repetitious. I had exceeded the five-year point in my comic book reading life, that moment when the publishers felt you were on your way out, trading comics for sports, girls, and/or life. Being a precocious reader, I was at that portal at an age somewhat younger than the norm, but there was no doubt about it, comics weren’t quite as exciting to me as they had been.

At that time, DC had the market on super-hero titles lock, stock and barrel. Few new titles were launched; indeed, DC’s two debut books – Showcase and The Brave and the Bold – often recycled previous unsuccessful attempts like Cave Carson: Inside Earth and the original Suicide Squad to give them another shot at the marketplace. Each run generally consisted of three issues, so at best there would be four debuts each year, and most of those (like Cave Carson and Suicide Squad) were not of the super-hero genre. Today, of course, we get four such debuts a week.

So when it came time to drive my sister to college, my father did something unique. He stopped at a drug store – one of those places that actually had a massive wooden rack plus two comics spinner racks exclusively dedicated to comic books – and told me to pick out a few for the ride, in the hope that I would not be a bother. He then dashed across the street to pick up a dozen bagels at Kaufman’s, the original one on Montrose and Kedzie in Chicago. They boasted the best bagels in the country, and they were right.

When he returned to the drug store, I had nothing. Absolutely nothing. I had read each and every superhero title in the vast expanse of rack space. Even Lois Lane.  Even the war comics, about which I was ambivalent at best, although I was not ambivalent about Joe Kubert’s art. (more…)

BBC Plans New Super-Hero Series

  • News
  • October 27, 2008

The Stage is reporting that the BBC has asked Doctor Who director Joe Ahearne to create Superpower, a fresh take on heroes. Ahearne has previously written episodes of This Life, Ultraviolet and the forthcoming Apparitions.

The Beeb has commissioned stand-alone scripts and turned production chores over to Impossible Pictures, the people behind Primeval.

Ahearne told the paper he is a major fan of Marvel’s line of super-heroes which will no doubt be a heavy influence on the series. Having said that, he stressed the new show will be set apart from NBC’s Heroes or the BBC’s spoof No Heroics.

“It is a new and original super-hero idea which is not a send-up. All the super-hero stuff that is on TV in this country – ITV’s No Heroics, My Hero – British TV is happy to do if it is a send-up, but no one has done it for real. There is a particular gimmick in mine, which I won’t give away, but it means it will be refreshed every episode,” he told the paper.

The BBC is said to be arranging the production schedule to take advantage of the Saturday night prime time slot currently being used by Merlin and then followed by the third season of Robin Hood, meaning the new show would not be running until, most likely, the second half of 2009.

Shyamalan Picks the Dowdles for First Project

  • News
  • October 27, 2008

After being critically drubbed for his last two films, M. Night Shyamalan has stepped away from directing in favor of producing for a while.  He announced in July his intention to produce a trio of thrillers, one per year.  The team of John and Drew Dowdle (Quarantine) has been tapped to bring the creator’s first notion to life.

Shyamalan partnered with Media Rights Capital to form a production company called Night Chronicles to produce these films.  He’s not entirely away from the camera, though, as he completes work on the live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, a popular Anime series now seen on Nickelodeon.  Paramount has announced a July 2, 2010 release date for the film titled just The Last Airbender.

Since opening October 10 Quarantine, a remake of the Spanish hit REC, has earned $25,819,614 as of October 22 according to Box Office Mojo.
 

‘Ender’s Shadow’ Debuts in December

  • News
  • October 27, 2008

Ender’s Shadow: Battle School will be Marvel’s follow-up adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game series of books, debuting December 3. The first issue will have variant covers by Timothy Green III and Jim Cheung.

Written by Mike Carey (X-Men: Legacy) with art from newcomer Sebastian Fiumara, readers will be introduced to Bean, the only one student at Battle School smarter than the famous Ender Wiggin.  Born in an illegal genetic engineering laboratory, Bean grew up an orphan living off the brutal streets of Rotterdam.  Now, he’s been recruited to Battle School, where he’ll make new friends, new enemies, and embark on the adventure of a lifetime—saving the Earth.

Ender’s Game began as a short story in the August 1977 issue of Analog, expanded to a 1985 novel, which found an audience and spawned a series that has included Ender’s Game, A War of Gifts: An Ender Story, Ender’s Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, Shadow of the Giant, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind.

Card has seen his series be embraced around the world and in 1991 he made modifications to the first novel in order to reflect changes in the real world.  The book has been recategorized as young adult fiction.

Check out the preview pages after the jump. (more…)

ComicMix Columns and Features for the Week Ending October 26, 2008

  • Uncategorized
  • October 26, 2008

Prepping this roundup a bit early this weekend, as I may be in transit from Los Angeles back to New York as it posts.  Seasonal decorations just don’t look the same in L.A.  Give me actual russets in nature, not just in store windows!  On the other hand, I’ve had a nice few days’ break from the chillier temps.  Meanwhile, here’s what our regular columnists have provided you this past week:

Only a few more days to Hallowe’en, and a few more to the Presidential Election.  Wonder which will be scarier this year?

‘HSM 3’ Grabs $42 Million High Note

  • News
  • October 26, 2008

It was no surprise to anyone that High School Musical 3: Senior Year was going to be huge, the question was only how big an opening it would have.  The final installment in Disney’s mammothly successful musical series exceeded expectations, taking in an estimated $42 million over the weekend according to Box Office Mojo. The film nabbed the crown for largest opening ever for a G-rated film and was also the number one box office attraction globally.

Right behind was Saw V, taking in a whopping $30.5 million and is poised to gain the title as most successful horror franchise of all time. The movie also exceeded expectations and sixth film is already on the drawing table for next Halloween.

It wasn’t all good news as Warner Bros.’ Pride & Glory opened in a fifth place to a disappointing $6,325,000.  The movie was better reviewed than the studio’s Body of Lies but this is the second disastrous opening in a row no doubt making the studio execs worry about the future.

The other new films this weekend was Anne Hathaway’s Passengers which Sony dumped into a handful of theatres with minimal marketing.  The movie received tepid reviews and took in just a few hundred thousand on 125 screens.  The far better received Synecdoche, New York with Philip Seymour Hoffman was also in extremely limited release taking in just $173,000.

Changeling, with Angelina Jolie, was on a scant 15 screens but the movie was well regarded and it’s per screen average of $33,467 was impressive which should be encouraging to Universal.
 
"Ultimately, there was something for everyone in the marketplace," Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box-office tracking firm Media by Numbers told the Los Angeles Times. "It shows that if you put the right movies in the market, people will turn out."

Rounding out the top five films was Fox’s Max Payne in third with $7.6 million and Disney’s surprise hit, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, which buried another $6.9 million bones.

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