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Prometheus Radio Theatre Preps Latest Podcast

  • News
  • September 25, 2008

Prometheus Radio Theatre has been performing live since October, 2000 at Baltimore Science Fiction Conventions. Its largest project is an the award-winning episodic series called The Arbiter Chronicles, created eight years ago by Steven H. Wilson (who also wrote the tie-In novel, Taken Liberty.) The stories center on a group of young midshipmen (and women) who take their name from their first posting in the space navy – the patrol ship CNV Arbiter.

The first Arbiter Chronicles episodes were released on CD in 2003. Since 2005, they’ve produced over 100 episodes of their podcast, including 15 serialized episodes of the Arbiters, six of SuperHuman Times, a couple of ghost stories, and a reading of the Arbiters novel, Taken Liberty. Along the way, they’ve won the Mark Time Silver Medal for excellence in science fiction audio drama, and the Parsec Award for best Audio Drama (Long Form.)

The story is set hundreds of years in the future, after the human race has all but abandoned an Earth which has been devastated by war, poverty and disease. It is an embarrassment to its descendant worlds, and its people are considered the cast-offs of humanity. As the series starts Captain Jan Atal of Rigel V is one of the Confederate Navy’s most-decorated officers, but is despised by his superiors due to his opinions and success. He is sent on a punitive assignment to command the CNV Arbiter and takes with him four misfit proteges:

  • Terry Metcalfe and Kevin Carson, two of the few Terrans ever to graduate the Academy
  • Cernaq, a telepath from a world of extremist intellectuals
  • Atal’s daughter Kaya, whose phenomenal IQ is matched only by the chip on her shoulder

An elderly Wiccan doctor, and a Boatswain who’s an escaped slave join them as they protect Confederate borders from denizens of the violent Qraitian Empire. The situations they deal with highlight the human condition in a darker future than you might expect. Four of the past 15 episodes are available on CD through Amazon.com. (more…)

Matt Reeves to ‘Let the Right One In’

  • News
  • September 25, 2008

Just the other day we were mentioned that Hammer Films is back in action and now the trades report that Matt Reeves has signed with them to write and direct the English language remake of Sweden’s smash hit Lat Den Ratte Komma In (Let the Right One In).

Reeves, who earlier this year, helmed the hit Cloverfield, is expected to direct the project in 2009 for 2010 release. Before that, Reeves is at work on Invisible Woman, a non-fantastical drama about a desperate housewife.

The internationally acclaimed vampire film will have a brief run this fall in the states before being released on DVD in January. The film tells of a young boy who befriends a woman who comes to town but when you’re telling a vampire story you know things won’t end well.
 

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Review: ‘My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down’ by David Heatley

  • Uncategorized
  • September 25, 2008

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My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down
By David Heatley
Pantheon, September 2008, $24.95

Right at this moment, I know more of the minor details of David Heatley’s life than I do of my own. This is because I don’t typically spend my time obsessing about the minutiae of my past, while I have just spent several hours reading Heatley’s comics – in which he obsessively chronicles every tiny detail of his life (as organized into thematic categories) that he can possibly remember.

[[[My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down]]] collects many (all?) of Heatley’s previously published short strips, and organizes them into something like a memoir in comics form – but a memoir tightly focused and monomanically detailed in its chosen areas. It’s divided into five sections – Sex, Race, Mom, Dad, and Kin – and everything else in the world (including religion, which seems to be very important to Heatley) gets left out or included only at odd, disjointed moments.

Each section, except the last, starts off with a batch of dream comics. These are about as compelling as anyone else’s dreams ever can be, particularly since Heatley has a deliberately crude and flat style. He does generally draw his dream comics with larger panels and more varied transitions than his longer pieces, which gives them some more visual interest. But, still, they’re someone else’s dreams, filled with intensely personal imagery and characters that we don’t recognize (because we haven’t yet met them in the autobiographical stories). So they’re opaque at best, incomprehensible at worst.

(more…)

Will Smith to Return for ‘I Am Legend’ Prequel

  • News
  • September 25, 2008

Will Smith will return as Robert Neville in a prequel to I Am Legend.  The movie, based on the classic Richard Matheson novel, did well enough at the box office, earngin $584 million worldwide, and in home entertainment sales to merit revisiting the bleak world of the near-future.

Director Francisd Lawrence is expected to return to the Warner Bros. film announced yesterday. Akiva Goldsman and James Lassiter will also be back as producers. D.B. Weiss (The Game) will provide a new script that will likely deviate further from the novel.

 

ComicMix Radio: DC Cancels Minx

  • News
  • September 25, 2008

In a surprising move this week, DC has pulled the plug on its Minx line of young adult graphic novels. What does it mean? We examine that , plus:

  • Harry Potter courts Imax
  • Want to host a Star Wars House Party?
  • Margaret Cho talks comics she loves and TV she does

Starting Saturday, ComicMix Radio will be broadcasting direct from the floor of 2008 Baltimore ComicCon. Look for special extended broadcasts here both Saturday and Sunday. No matter where you are, your free pass to the con starts when you  Press the Button!
 

 

And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-2064921 or RSS!

 

‘Cars 2’ Revs up for 2011 Release

  • News
  • September 25, 2008

Disney announced at their major presentation on Wednesday that they have accelerated the production of Cars 2 and have rescheduled its launch to 2011.

John Lasseter told the rapt audienced that the idea for the story developed as he did worldwide publicity for the first film.  The international settings got him to wondering how the Cars themselves would react to the exotic locales. Mater and Lightning McQueen will be in a global road trip as a result.

Additionally, a series of shorts, Mater’s Tall Tales, will be produced by Pixar in additional to the full-length theatrical sequel. The shorts will first be seen on the Disney Channel and will front feature films in movie theaters.

Cars, released in 2006, earned $462 million worldwide, but despite middling reviews, became a merchandising bonanza for the studio.

As a result, look for a 12-acre Cars Land at the revamped California Adventure in Anaheim, California.  The attraction is scheduled for 2011 opening in time for the film.
 

Review: Knight Rider Premiere

knight_rider-2118822In an attempt to make up for NBC’s flop of a reboot last year with [[[Bionic Woman]]] comes the new and improved [[[Knight Rider]]] which is like the original series, but with a revamped KITT, a younger cast, a brand new back-story, and fantastic special effects, this show has the potential be a win for NBC’s fall lineup. Many will be going into this “pilot” with some hesitation after February’s TV movie (which was technically the pilot), due to the fact that the show lacked in story structure, was full of WB-level acting, and gave work to David Hasselhoff. Happily, this episode fixed many of those issues and made the hour mildly entertaining.

The story from the original movie is that terrorists go after and “kill” scientist Charles Graiman (Bruce Davison) who helped work on the supercar Knight Industries Three-Thousand, or K.I.T.T. (see what they did there?), which drives away to find Graiman’s next of kin; his daughter Sarah (Deanna Russo). They meet up and Sarah decides to go to her old flame for help, a renegade army ranger named Michael Traceur (Jason Bruening) who is in his own heap of trouble with a whole “the-government-erased-my-brain-not-unlike-in-[[[The Bourne Identity]]]” plot of his own going on. By the end of the movie, Michael decides to become an agent for the newly reformed Foundation (an updated version of the original show’s F.L.A.G.) and drive KITT permanently.

This first episode takes off right in the middle of the action, as main characters Michael and Sarah are on a James Bond-style mission when Sarah gets kidnapped and Michael and KITT go after her, when they learn that these mystery men were actually after Michael and what he “knows”. This triggers the running theme of the episode, as everybody is trying to obtain clearance levels that they don’t have. Lots of shtupping going on for one episode, as there is presumed sexual tension between Sarah and Michael, and also between some other nondescript characters back in what can only be described as the KITTcave.

The KITT effects are easily the coolest part of the show so far. With essentially a Transformer voiced by Val Kilmer, it’s a pretty good answer to the “futuristic” car we got in 1982. There are some great uses of modern special effects where the car can turn into a pick-up truck—and back again—without crushing the passengers inside! Granted, this makes the show basically a weekly 40-minute commercial for Ford, but it is still pretty cool for any fan of the original series who wanted more than a bunch of cool [[[Dukes of Hazzard]]] jumps and William Daniels.

The bad points: there are some very cheeky moments back at the “base” with the wacky super nerds (a stereotype NBC seems to love) throughout the show, which comes across as incongruous for the show’s dynamic. Three-quarters of the show consisted of shadowy government types, as the overall story of the first episode was the death of Michael Traceur and the birth of Michael Knight, which was originally helmed by Michael’s father, Hasselhoff.

The biggest weakness for the show by a stretch is certainly the amount of different elements that the show tries to cram into 40 minutes. With that said, there is still plenty of action to keep you entertained, but add that in with the government mystery storyline, Michael finding out who erased his memory and why, the “Sam & Diane” storyline between Sarah and Michael, the plucky sidekicks, a unnecessarily dominant Sydney Poiter (the daughter, not Mr. Tibbs) and the dry wit of Val Kilmer as KITT, it becomes too much to keep track of. Each element on it’s own would make for great B-story to go along with the weekly spy thriller of the show, but cramming all of this in at once only proves to be confusing and hard to keep straight. The show certainly has potential to make it farther than last year’s Bionic Woman, but may have trouble keeping it up for more than a season unless they can find some solid structure, drop a few secondary storylines, or at least bring Will Arnett back as K.I.T.T. RATING: 7/10

Johnny Depp Returns as Captain Jack…and Tonto

  • News
  • September 25, 2008

A fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie seemed unlikely as every plot thread got neatly wrapped up and the escalating costs associated with making the films seemed unwieldy.  And yet, on Wednesday, Disney stunned the entertainment world by not only announcing a fourth installment of the franchise but that Johnny Depp will be back as Capotain Jack Sparrow.

Depp, already committed to playing the Mad Hatter for Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland 3-D project, was then announced as playing Tonto in a feature film adaptation of The Lone Ranger. Both Pirates and the Ranger films will be produced for the studio by Jerry Bruckheimer.

Depp took the stage in full Captain Jack regalia but people were at first puzzled as to why he was wearing a Lone Ranger mask until the announcement was made.

Additionally, Bruckheimer will be producing the unnecessary third film in the National Treasure franchise.
 

Mickey Mouse: Soldier of Satan, by John Ostrander

  • News
  • September 25, 2008

As reported here on ComicMix last Monday by Matt Raub via AP : “A sheik from Saudi Arabia, a former diplomat posted in Washington, has put out a fatwa on Mickey Mouse, calling him the new enemy of Islam. ‘Mickey Mouse is a soldier of Satan, and everything he touches becomes impure,” said Sheik Muhammad al-Munajid.

‘Mickey Mouse has become an awesome character, even though according to Islamic law, Mickey Mouse should be killed in all cases. According to sharia law, the mouse is a repugnant and corrupting animal,’ he said during a show broadcast by Al-Majd television.”

So. There’s a fatwa on Mickey Mouse.

It should be noted that a fatwa, in and of itself, is not necessarily a death sentence. As Matt noted, “a “fatwa” is a ruling on a point of Islamic law that is given by a recognized authority.” In that respect, it’s not that different when the Pope speaks ex cathedra. It certainly isn’t different that when the Popes called for the Crusades to free the Holy Land.

This is not the first time that Disney has butted heads with religious types. Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association began a nine-year boycott of Disney, citing they were too friendly to gays. The Southern Baptists were part of that boycott and if there was ever a group in Western culture that I think was capable of issuing fatwas, it would be the Southern Baptists.

It’s all part of a continuing war on pop culture that is usually conducted by the conservative and/or reactionary elements of society. It’s not only religious groups, either. The comic book medium in the 1950s came under the scrutiny of Congress who felt that comics were degenerative and an unwholesome influence on America’s youth. To fend off possible Congressional controls, the comic book publishers of the day instituted the Comics Code – a straitjacket that bound and confined the comic book medium for decades and stunted its artistic growth. (more…)

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Another Look at the ‘Batman’ Series DVD Issue

  • Uncategorized
  • September 25, 2008

batman-west-9831326A lot has been speculated this week after Rich Johnston reported in Lying in the Gutters that the real reason 20th-Century Fox sued Warner Bros. over Watchmen was so they could settle and gain the rights once and for all to release the Batman television series on DVD.

Many casual readers nodded their heads and muttered, “sure, that makes sense.”

TV Shows on DVD does a nice analysis on all the rights issues surrounding the 1966-1968 series and its 120 episodes.  In addition to DC Comics and 20th, they review that musicians, costumers and even Batmobile designer George Barris may be entitled to shares that the studios are loath to pay out.  We recommend the article.
 

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