Darwin Cooke’s new project from IDW, Parker, has a long history in crime fiction and even on the big screen. Darwin fills us in on how he’s bringing all this to the comics, plus:
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We’ve often called Sam Raimi the busiest man in Hollywood between the projects he is personally directing along with those he is involved as a producer.
After all, his Ghost House Pictures are producing films, which we’ll be reviewing in the coming days, and there’s his new television series which partner Rob Tapert discussed with us the other day. Then there are the various film franchises from Spider-Man to Evil Dead which he’s been involved.
We often wonder here at ComicMix central when he will cry uncle and the answer is, now. Raimi told MTV that he has had to withdraw from his previously announced involvement with Paramount Pictures’ planned reboot of the Jack Ryan franchise. He bowed out to concentrate on Sony’s Spider-Man films which further convince us that the next two will be filmed back-to-back.
“I’m really excited about Spider-Man,” the director said. “Production [on more Spider-Man films] would start probably by March, I’m guessing of 2010.” Which also means he’s working to meet Sony’s already announced plan for Spider-Man 4 to open in summer 2011. (Probably nestled between First Avenger: Captain America and The Avengers so as not to dilute the appetite for Marvel super-heroes.)
“I love Tom Clancy, and I hope they’d keep me in mind,” Raimi said of the film series which has, to date, starred Ben Affleck, Harrison Ford and Alec Baldwin. “But because I’m committed to ‘Spider-Man and making that picture, I think it’s going to knock me out of the running for the Jack Ryan picture.”
He did not address the choice of villain or who will be the love interest although the blogosphere continues to suspect Kirsten Dunst will be dropped from at least Spidey 4 in favor of Elizabeth Banks, who played Betty Brant back in the first film.
Searching for the paranormal has become incredibly popular across the world and has propelled stellar ratings for Sci Fi Channel’s various shows where various people seek the unknown or unexplained. The most popular of the bunch is Ghost Hunters and now a second spinoff series is in the works.
Ghost Hunters: College Edition will be, according to The Hollywood Reporter, “features a group of students going around the country to seek out paranormal activity”. We imagine their tour bus will compete with the Girls Gone Wild bus for prime parking spaces.
Conceived by GH’s Executive Producer, Craig Piligian, the series will use an experience investigator to show the students how it’s done. At present, it has not been determined if a member of the TAPS domestic team seen on Ghost Hunters or the international edition from Ghost Hunters International will be recruited to play professor. The cast for GHI seemed like castoffs from the prime series and experienced turnover by the beginning of its second season.
The original GH began airing in 2004, featuring Grant Wilson and Jason Hawes as Roto Rooter staffers by day and investigators by night. The series has averaged over two million viewers a week with the October 8 episode notching an all-time high of 2.7 million total viewers.
GHI began airing in January averaging 2.4 million viewers and has been renewed.
The lead investigators have become celebrities and have been seen at the New York Comic-Con and Comic-Con International. Some of their cases have been collected in a book, co-written with Michael Jan Friedman from Pocket Books with a second volume due in 2009.
"Ghost Hunters’ appeals to a wide demographic, and we felt the college edition would be a great asset to the franchise," Piligian told the trade.
It 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 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.
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…)
In 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.
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…)
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…
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!
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.
Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
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