The Mix : What are people talking about today?

Yo Gabba Gabba! Coming to the Big Screen

  • Uncategorized
  • October 23, 2008

yogabba-2962213It looks like those, like myself, in love with the children’s show Yo Gabba Gabba! will be enjoying your favorite monsters on the big screen. According to producer Charles Rivkin, there is currently a confirmed plan for a feature film. Seeing as how Pee Wee’s Playhouse can stem three films, there’s no reason why a bunch of monsters and a robot can’t.

For those who have yet to experience then madness which is Yo Gabba Gabba, a children’s show on Nickelodeon airing in the time that people over 20 probably aren’t watching television, let me explain. Imagine Sesame Street meets Electric Company meets Pee Wee’s Playhouse but done by pop culture nerds and filled with bizarre celebrity cameos. The show is about DJ Lance Rock, a man in a bright orange jumpsuit with a boom box full of action figures that come to life. Each of these action figures are colorful monsters (and a robot) with the intellect of toddlers who learn a lesson or two throughout each episode.

If you are thinking to yourself "Why would I care about a kid’s show?" Well, its not just a show for kids, folks. Right off the bat with the name; it’s taken from the Ramone’s chant "Gabba Gabba Hey", which itself pays tribute to the 1932 film Freaks. The show is produced and created by lead singer of The Aquabats Christian Jacobs and his partner Scott Schultz. The show also has some pretty mind-blowing cameos for a children’s show. Hosting the segment "Mark’s Magic Pictures" is Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo, while Biz Markie stops by for the "Beat Box of the Day". Season one had some impressive cameos as well from Tony Hawk, to The Shins, to Elijah Wood and kicking off season two, other names like Jack Black, Amy Sedaris and 30 Rock‘s Jack McBrayer are scheduled to make an appearance. Catch or DVR the show weekdays at 11:30am EST on Nickelodeon.

McG Moves ‘Terminator’ to Post-Production

  • News
  • October 23, 2008

McG reports on the Terminator Salvation blog that principal photography has wrapped and the crew has now moved on to Post-Production as they work toward their May 9, 2009 release date.

"We wrapped principal photography. Now we’re heavy into post. I’ve already shown early cuts to Christian [Bale] and Sam [Worthington]. They seem pleased with where the film is headed. Our focus is on story and character, but its fun diving into the world of visual effects.

“Charlie Gibson is aware of his responsibility as the VFX supervisor and second unit director of this film. He works with ILM and Asylum every day and makes revisions to the finest detail. We want the patina of the machines to be dirty and heavy and perfectly realistic – that’s why we built so much practically with Stan Winston.

“But at some point the effects kick in and like any Terminator fan, Charlie wants his mind blown. There’s one sequence in particular where we’re trying to achieve something that’s never been done before. I don’t want to talk about it because we haven’t been successful yet…But we’re working on it.

“Christian and Sam bring power to the rolls of John Connor and Marcus Wright. This is a story of two destinies colliding. Connor is part of a resistance comprised of the ethnicities that make up the globe. This film is so much more that just Los Angeles. It reflects the global crisis of man, all of man versus machine."

No word yet when we’ll see a full trailer for the feature but you can bet we’ll be seeing exclusive scenes on Fox’s Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles now that the series has a full season order.
 

Marvel’s Maisel Discusses Film Franchises

  • News
  • October 23, 2008

David Maisel, Executive Vice President, Office of the Chief Executive, and Chairman of Marvel Studios spoke to investors last weekend and IESB has a complete transcript up for those interested.

Highlights of the talk, though, indicate that Marvel is working hard to maximize their film franchises without blowing the budget on any single film and prefer controlling the films since that gives them the latitude to maximize scheduling.

Investors questioned if Spider-Man 4, were it to come out in 2010, would complicate Iron Man 2 and Thor?  Maisel said, “It would be a nice situation to have, I think there’s room enough for all three and we’d work that out. But it would absolutely be a nice situation to have for Marvel’s fiscal results that year.” On the other hand, Sony has announced Spidey 4 as coming in 2011.

“This is one of the reasons we did our own studio,” Maisel explained to the room full of non-fans, “because not only, well, three reasons. One, we’ve got, now, the economic upside to the movies, we have 100% the economic upside from Iron Man and from the merchandise of Iron Man, whereas before we only got the small license fee and we had to share merchandising. The second reason is, we can control our destiny, we can announce, ‘hey, Iron Man 2 is this date and we’re making this movie and we’re making Thor and we’re making Avengers and Captain America.’ Sony controls that with Spider-Man and so I can’t comment on when the movies come out beyond what they’ve said. I guess all I can say is that Spider-man films have done so well, that it would be, I would assume, unlikely that we wouldn’t see a steady stream more of Spider-Man films going forward. The exact timing and year is up for them to announce.” (more…)

Ghost House Underground Reviews

  • Uncategorized
  • October 23, 2008

ghost houseIn the coming days leading up to Halloween, we will be reviewing each film collected in Lionsgate’s Ghost House Underground Collection. In the set are eight films hand picked by "Horror Kings" Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert who have produced films such as The Grudge, Evil Dead, and 30 Days of Night.

Each of the films encompasses a different aspect of the Horror genre, from zombies on down. The first film; No Man’s Land: Rise of the Reeker deals with a group of people trapped in a deserted rest stop who are hunted by a Grim Reaper-looking figure. In Dance of the Dead, a group of teens are the only ones left when their town is infested by zombies…on prom night! Dark Floors revolves around the balance of dark and light and some pretty gruesome monsters who terrorize people in a hospital. Brootherhood of Blood takes place in a world where vampires and humans are at war, while two come together to fight a darker evil. The Substitute is about a malicious alien that terrorizes a bunch of sixth graders. Trackman is about a group of bank robbers on the run get grabbed and tortured by a madman. Room 205 revolves around an apartment haunted by a ghost with unfinished business. Finally, Last House in the Woods is a Blair Witch type film about a group of cannibals picking off unsuspecting campers in the middle of nowhere. Each day, we will be bringing you reviews on each of these great movies, leading us up to the biggest day of the year for watching horror movies: Halloween!

Because we can’t rate these movies like we would Spider-Man 3, we are issuing a special criteria in rating each film. Each of the movies will be rated in Acting, Plot, Special Effects, and Campiness. Now, seeing as how campiness usually draws a negative connotation, understand that in the horror genre, a film that doesn’t take itself too seriously can make it a cult classic, just look at the Evil Dead series.

Normally, our rating system at ComicMix is numerical out of 10 for the film overall. Here, because we are rating horror movies, we will be giving each film an overall rating, as well as a Scare Factor, on a scale of one to five; just how scary the movie is, and those fans of the genre out there know that this could be a deal breaker for for most horror films.

Writing Tips, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • October 23, 2008

I was at the FallCon in St. Paul, Minnesota, a few weekends back. Nice little to medium sized Con, the sort I really enjoy these days. You get a chance to talk to the fans and see a few other friends and old pros. I spent some nice time with Pete Tomasi and sat across from Howard Chaykin at a wedding reception/dinner that was held at the Con.        

One of the things I did at the Con was teach a writing class. It was comics based, but I felt a lot of it was pertinent to writing in general so this week I’ll share some of the points I made with all of you as well.

What does a writer do? I start every class off with this question. It’s not really a trick question unless you overthink it. The answer is simple: a writer writes. Every day. We don’t just think about writing or talk about writing although, ghods know, we do that as well because it’s a lot easier than actually doing the work, doing the writing. The action defines what you are. If you write, then you’re a writer. If you don’t write, then you’re something else. A dreamer, a procrastinator, a … something, but not a writer. A writer writes.

Many people say they don’t have time but they really want to be a writer. The solution – write. Find a time. It can be as little as five minutes a day to begin with but it needs to be five minutes every day and it should be at the same time and the same place. Why? Because what you want is to get into a habit of writing. It’s not the length of time but the repetition. It’s like learning to throw free throws in basketball; you have to do it a lot until it becomes second nature. At the start, it will be the same for your writing. It’s not going to be the quality of what you write that matters but the number of reps you do. As I said here a few weeks back, you’re going to start by writing crap. Everyone does. You keep writing and, if you have any talent and learn some skill, you’ll improve but only if you keep writing.

Incarnation. This is what all artists do. We take a thought, a feeling, an insight – something that has no physical form and we incarnate it. We give it a physical form. Artists do it with pencil, ink, paint, and sculpture; composers do it with notes. Writers do it with words. The problem with incarnation is that it is always physically imperfect. What you create will never capture exactly what you had in your mind or heart or soul. I know people who have a real problem with that. They’re almost afraid to incarnate the idea because incarnation is messy and imperfect by its very nature. That’s especially true if you create something that has a life of its own. If you do your job as an artist very well, what you create will take you in places you didn’t think you were going. Let it. Just accept that it’s messy. Life is messy.
 (more…)

ComicMix Poll: How should we display our comics?

  • News
  • October 23, 2008

We’ve been having an internal debate here at ComicMix, about possibly doing different things with the way we display comics– and we want your feedback, since, after all, you’re the people reading them.

Should we…

  • Run one or two pages a day from all of our series?
  • Run four to eight pages a week, alternating series daily?
  • Run twenty to twenty-four pages a month, alternating series weekly?
  • Run it however it works best for the story?

Please vote in the poll below, and feel free to discuss your thoughts on the matter in the comments. Your votes will help determine how we show our comics going forward. And thanks for taking the time to respond!

Get your own Poll!

20th Seeks Actors for ‘Wimpy Kid’

  • News
  • October 23, 2008

Interestingly, 20th-Century Fox is seeking a fresh face to play Greg Heffley, the star of Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series.  The casting agent is seeking Males 11-14 only.  Boys coming to the open call need to be able to handle dialog and ironic comedy, and should bring a current photo and snapshot and a parent/guardian.  The casting call will be held this Saturday, October 25 11 a.m.-4 p.m. at the Debbie Reynolds Studio 6514 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood, California.

We recently interviewed Kinney about his books and a movie adaptation sounds like a swell idea.

New ‘Watchmen’ and ‘Spirit’ Footage

silk-spectre-4811001At the Spike TV 2008 Scream Awards last night, Watchmen director Zack Snyder and actors Malin Akerman, Carla Gugino and Jeffrey Dean Morgan introduced a never before seen extended trailer for the film. Highlights of the trailer include:

– Dr. Manhattan with Silk Spectre on Mars
– Rorschach investigating The Comedian’s apartment after his death
– A glimpse of Adrian Veidt’s arctic lair
– Manhattan blowing up a tank, a Vietnamese soldier, and sticking his hand in the middle of Ozymandias’s base
– The dream sequence where Nite Owl and Silk Spectre kiss against an atomic backdrop
– An extended look at The Comedian’s death, including a good look at the bloodied smiley face button.

To check out the trailer for yourself, as well as a rundown of new scenes featured in the trailer, head over to Watchmen Comic Movie.

Additionally, Yahoo! has premiered a featurette for Frank Miller’s upcoming The Spirit. The video offers a behind-the-scenes look at the history behind the character and the making of the movie. Highlights include:

– Samuel L. Jackson as the Octopus, wearing a never-before-seen samurai garb
– The Octopus beating down on the Spirit while shouting, "There’s nothing I like better than kicking your ass all night long!"
– Frank Miller’s insight into the character: "He can’t fly, he’s not super strong, but he can take an awful lot of punishment."
– Beautiful women, including Scarlett Johansson’s Silken Floss, Eva Mendes’ Sand Saref and Paz Vega’s Plaster of Paris
– Frank Miller’s claim that "this film is not a tribute to Will Eisner, it’s a tribute to The Spirit."

Check out the featurette by clicking here.

War Machine Storms the Internet

  • News
  • October 22, 2008

Slash Film has unearthed a largely overlooked cache of concept artwork from this past summer’s Iron Man movie. Artist Phil Saunders was commissioned to create official designs of for three separate armors originally slated to appear in the film.

According to Saunders, the designs were "three images I did at the very end of production as alternate suit designs that would have been in a Hall of Armor coda at the end of the film."

Of the War Machine armor pictured right, Saunders says: "I spent a lot of time on developing this suit, which was of course cut from the script about half way through pre-production. Originally it was going to be called the MK IV armor and would have been weaponized swap-out parts that would be worn over the original MK III armor. Earlier versions were red and gold, and would have ben worn by Tony Stark in the final battle sequence."

Saunders is quick to note that if War Machine appears in Iron Man 2, "it’s unlikely to be this one." As many fans are now aware, the man who would wear the War Machine armor is also different than the man in Iron Man. Terrence Howard, who portrayed Jim Rhodes in the first film, will be replaced by Don Cheadle in the sequel.

In addition to the War Machine armor, Saunders presents two other armors: an aquatic suit and a stealth suit. The stealth suit design attempts at "suggesting ‘stealth’ technology in the surface treatment of the suit, [and was] ultimately abandoned as not being classic enough." The aquatic armor design represents an underwater suit requested by Avi Arad for licensing and merchandising purposes.

"Needless to say," says Saunders, "the underwater suit never saw the light of days, but in homage to Avi, I drew this one up as a possible addition to [Tony’s] hall of armor."

Head over to Slash Film to check out the unused stealth and aquatic armor designs.

Fox Finds Captain for ‘Boldly Going’

  • News
  • October 22, 2008

fox-logo-2055975What if Star Trek was a half-hour sitcom focusing on the “lower decks” characters? That is apparently the premise for Boldly Going Nowhere, a new series from Fox. The Hollywood Reporter says newcomer Ben Koldyke has been approved as the lead, the starship’s rogue captain.  The series will also feature Tony Hale (Arrested Development) as the robot who has concluded he is superior to the ship’s human inhabitants.

The series was created by Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day and Glenn Howerton, best known for It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Koldyke had an unusual path to the center seat.  He was a fan of McElhenney’s work and saw the producer regularly breakfast at Venice’s Rose Café.  Impulsively, he paid the man’s check and had the waiter deliver a note that said, “Hey, man, I think your show is fantastic”.

Days later, a Rose waiter pointed Koldyke out to the producer and they struck up a friendship. Ever since, Koldyke tried to find work as a writer, director or actor and was about to give up and return to the Midwest to resume his teaching career. Instead, he wound up meeting with the producers about joining them as a writer/director for the new sitcom.  As they discussed the show, it occurred to trio that Koldyke could actually be the lead.  He screen tested and passed network muster so received his commission.

“He came in and nailed it,” McElhenney told the trade. “From Day 1, he was the guy to beat.

“We love the idea of finding talented people out there. The fact that Ben is unknown is great but irrelevant. We wanted the best guy for the lead and he was it.”
 

Categories

Archives

Everything you need to make great comics!

comicmix-pro-300x69-2

Nucleus X

Bookshop Zaks