The Mix : What are people talking about today?

‘Heroes’ to Cast Light on Bell’s Elle

  • News
  • September 16, 2008

"I actually like where [the writers have] taken the whole storyline this year for everybody, including Elle," Kristin Bell told Sci Fi Wire about her participation Heroes season three.

Her character, the electrically-charged psycho Elle Bishop, will be seen in some 13 episodes this season. Her connections to the other characters will be explored showing she is more than just the daughter of Robert Bishop (Stephen Tobolowsky), one of the earlier generation of powered people.

"They’re showing more of her human side," Bell told the site. "She’s this vaguely barbaric, unfeeling, antisocial adaptive killer who’s coy. However, she’s had some tough decisions to make [over the years, and the writers are] giving her more depth. There are flashback scenes showing that she’s intricately woven into people’s lives before you met her. She met a lot of [the characters] before she was introduced on the show."

Season three, entitled, Villains, kicks off one week from tonight at 9 p.m. on NBC.
 

‘Kung Fu Panda’ Sequel Bundled with Original

  • Uncategorized
  • September 16, 2008

kung-fu-pandaKung Fu Panda was a critical and box office surprise hit when it opened in late June. Now, it is surprising people again as Paramount Home Video has announced that the November 9 DVD release will come bundled with an original tale.  The Sunday release comes two days ahead of the traditional street date for books, CDs and DVDs.

The double pack of Kung Fu Panda and Secrets of the Furious Five will retail for under $25 according to Hollywood Reporter.  The single disc version of the feature film is expected to retail for under $20 in a standard edition.  A Blu-ray version is also anticipated for the same date.

The new story, will explore the established characters’ backgrounds with Jack Black and Dustin Hoffman lending their voices once more as Po and Master Shifu respectively.

The DreamWorks Animation film grossed $213.8 million during the summer, making it a hugely profitable CG-animated hit.

Buffy’s “The Gift” Up For an Emmy

  • Uncategorized
  • September 16, 2008


Ever think you’d hear the words "Buffy has been nominated for an Emmy"? Well, that day has come as Buffy The Vampire Slayer has made it into round two of "TV’s Most Memorable Moments (Drama Series)". The moment in question, which you can watch and vote for here, is from the season 5 finale entitled "The Gift" where Buffy takes what would seem to be her last leap and sacrifices herself. This also marks the final episode of the series that aired on the WB before ultimately getting picked by UPN…which then ended up merging with the WB to become the CW. Confused? You should be.

The scene is currently up against nine others in the category including a scene from Star Trek’s "City on the Edge of Forever" and Lost‘s "Live Together, Die Alone" (The scene where the island explodes). You can vote online, and the top five will then be in the ceremony live for the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards this Sunday on ABC at 8/7c.

It should also be noted that this year’s Emmys will be hosted by each of the five nominees of the Outstanding Reality/Competition Host category. This means Tom Bergeron, Heidi Klum, Howie Mandel, Jeff Probst And Ryan Seacrest will each be hosting this year’s awards, which would mark the first time that the Emmy Awards are being hosted by four people who will probably never get an Emmy Award. Seacrest Out.

 

Framelight Productions Forms to Adapt Graphic Novels

  • News
  • September 15, 2008

Framelight Prods. Has opened its doors for business and has promised to take edgy and innovative graphic novels and turn them into exciting feature films for Fanboys of all ages. They also happen to be fairly obscure properties.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the company is fronted by producer Jeffrey Erb and entrepreneur Robert Robinson Jr. They have financing to produce up to eight films over the next five years with budgets ranging from $20 to $80 million.

Their first announced projects include the obscure Dr. Deth with Kip and Muffy which ran in the color incarnation of Marvel’s Bizarre Adventures.  The short series was written by Larry Hama, better known for his work on Bucky O’Hare and G.I. Joe, and artist Bob Camp. The violent series was noteworthy given the innocent appearing artwork akin to Peanuts belying the horrible events being depicted.

They have also optioned Deadworld, originally published by Caliber Press, later Image Comics, and now available through Desperado. Created by Gary Reed, the zombie series was a forerunner for the genre that continues to this day.

Sins of the Fallen and a version of 1001 Arabian Nights were also optioned from Joe Brusha and Ralph Tedesco’s Zenescope Entertainment. The former posits that the vilest criminals throughout history were fallen angels with an agenda.

"We don’t want to traditionally option a title; we want to partner with the creator on every aspect of the production," Robinson, founder of communications companies Xportical, B2BCast and Supply Marketing, told the trade.

"We weren’t the only producers wanting to make movies based on these creators’ babies, but we were the only ones inviting them in as co-producers," said Erb.

The new studio is constructing offices at Norristown Studios, a 300,000-square-foot studio and soundstage facility being built in Pennsylvania.
 

‘Lost’ Begins Anew on Two Channels

  • News
  • September 15, 2008

Many people complaint that some serialized shows are tough to follow given their serialized nature.  Complex ones, such as Alias or Lost, certainly have shed viewers who miss even one episode and get confused when they tune back in. These days, DVD box sets help a lot but not everyone likes to buy or even rent these.

For those people, today is an important one as both G4 and Sci Fi Channel begin rerunning Lost from the pilot episode going forward.

Sci Fi Channel will air the two-hour pilot and the next two episodes tonight beginning tonight at 7 p.m.  Every Monday night the channel turns over all four hours of prime time to the series so you can get caught up in time for the new season’s debut on ABC sometime in January. The minisite also provides context and clues.

G4, on the other hand, will be offering one episode per night, beginning tonight at 9 p.m. but will offer them in their patented 2.0 format, with interactive elements plus on screen data such as facts, character profiles and creators’ commentary and polls, games, and chat functionality available online.
 

D.J. Caruso says ‘Y’ is Next

  • Uncategorized
  • September 15, 2008

alicia-keys-2846136agent-355-1932199Director D.J. Caruso has spoken with Marvel about Thor, as we reported last week, but clearly he expects his next film to be the first of a planned trilogy adapting Brian K. Vaughn’s Y the Last Man. He spoke recently with Sci FI Wire and indicated he delivered the most recent draft of the screenplay to Warner Bros. just last week.

“I’d love to prep that late in the fall if I can and roll into shooting that … after the winter,” Caruso said. “So Warner’s pretty hot on moving forward.”

Caruso told the website that he sees speeding up the film’s pace compared to the 60 issue comic from Vertigo.  “Primarily in the first movie, I mean, it’s really important to stay focused on Yorick. And we do deal with Alter…the Israeli army and then the Chinese faction that’s coming in as well. But, you know, to get us going, to get us grounded, it’s really about Yorick. You know, the anchor of this particular film would be the Yorick-355 relationship.”

He confirmed that the studio was eyeing a late 2010 release and Shia LaBeouf, his star in the forthcoming Eagle Eye, remained his top choice for Yorick, the slacker who wakes up one morning to discover he was the last man on Earth.  “Well, I think Yorick is a fantastic role for Shia. One, because Yorick has great sort of self-deprecating humor. … One thing Shia really brings to him is that … realistic acting style and being put in some crazy … super-realistic situations. Shia always keeps them real and keeps it grounded. He’s endearing. I’m hoping that the 355 relationship … I always thought it would be really cool to have that be sort of a [Robert] De Niro-[Charles] Grodin … banter type relationship, like they had in Midnight Run. I think that Shia would be a great sort of receiver and giver on both sides of that. I think he’d really bring a lot to it.”

As for the remainder of the casting, Caruso also acknowledged the recent rumors over singer Alicia Keys being added as Agent 355, who winds up protecting Yorick on his global journey. “I have not met her, but I mean she might be an interesting 355. I thought she did a cool job in the Joe Carnahan movie [Smokin’ Aces].”
 

good-neighbors1-3559812

Review: ‘The Good Neighbors, Book One: Kin’ by Holly Black and Ted Naifeh

  • Uncategorized
  • September 15, 2008

good-neighbors1-3559812

The Good Neighbors, Book One: Kin
By Holly Black and Ted Naifeh
Scholastic/Graphix, September 2008, $16.99

Holly Black is a major writer for young people – one-half of the team behind the phenomenally popular “[[[Spiderwick Chronicles]]]” (along with Tony DiTerlizzi) and the author of three dark contemporary-fantasy novels for teens, starting with Tithe. Getting her to write a graphic novel series for teens is of the same magnitude as the long-underwear companies signing up bestsellers like Brad Meltzer and Jodi Picoult.

But the difference here is that Black is working for Scholastic, one of the oldest and smartest publishers of books for younger readers around. Scholastic, unlike DC with Picoult, didn’t try to shoehorn Black into some already-existing corporate property, but worked to her strengths. [[[The Good Neighbors]]] is an original graphic novel series set in the modern world, mixing teen drama with an otherworld of nasty folkloric faeries – faeries along the same lines as those in Black’s novels for teens. Scholastic also paired Black with Ted Naifeh, a well-known cartoonist and illustrator in his own right, whose most popular works have a Goth flavor and likely are loved by the same kids who read Black’s books.

This is how it’s done: you get a good writer, let her work on something she knows and does well, pair her with a complimentary artist, and package it for the audience that already knows and loves both of the creators – note that this is a $16.99 hardcover, a price point similar to teen novels and comics collections. (Are you listening, DC?)

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DelRey Committed to 45 More ‘Star Wars’ Titles

  • News
  • September 15, 2008

DelRey Books made a splash in 1977 when it published the novelization to s mall little film called Star Wars.  Ever since, they have been mining the Lucasfilm Universe with great success, regularly landing on the best seller lists and making stars out of their authors.

It’s no surprise then that DelRey and LucasBooks announced a renewed agreement, continuing the publishing line through 2013 with the promise an additional 35 novels and 10 nonfiction titles.

"Our relationship with Lucasfilm is treasured," said Gina Centrello, President and Publisher of the Random House Publishing Group in a press release. "We are extremely proud of our Star Wars publishing program, which is the cornerstone of the Del Rey list."

Howard Roffman, President of Lucas Licensing, said in the same release, "The legacy of Star Wars publishing began with Del Rey. "For more than 30 years they have been a superb partner with an unflinching commitment to keep Star Wars fans informed, entertained and enthralled.

Among the titles launching in 2009 are the first three in a new Star Wars multi-book, multi-author story arc following directly in the footsteps of the Legacy of the Force series. The nine-book, three-author series, Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi, will break new ground by being the first multi-book Star Wars series to be published all in hardcover. The series, which will be published over the space of three years, will launch in April 2009 with Outcast, by Aaron Allston; the other two authors planning and penning the nine novels will be Christie Golden, known for her Star Trek fiction and Troy Denning. Also to come is The Making of The Empire Strikes Back, to be released in 2010 in conjunction with the 30th anniversary of that film, along with a continuation of the hugely successful series of Star Wars Essential Guides.

ComicMix Six: Embarrassing Deaths

  • Uncategorized
  • September 15, 2008

The world of comic book super-heroes and costumed villains is a dangerous one. And sometimes, you don’t make it out alive.

We all remember the tragic loss of Bucky Barnes when he was blown up while trying to disarm a bomb (although he turned up alive again as a cyborg a few years ago). We can still recall the tragic loss of Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow (who was literally resurrected not too long ago). We’ve reminisced about the sacrifice of Barry Allen, who became one with the universe even as he saved it (and who returned from the dead a couple of months ago). And it was literally front page news when Captain America was assassinated (and he’s actually still dead).

But not all deaths in comics are noble moments you want to remember. Some are just down right … silly. So here are six of the most embarrassing deaths. NOTE: this is focused on super-villains and super-heroes, not just any characters in comics in general. Otherwise we would just be talking about Preacher all day.

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Embrace Your Inner Pig, by Mike Gold

  • News
  • September 15, 2008

Are you a pig, or are you a sheep? I’m a pig, myself.

Contrary to popular opinion – particularly these past couple weeks – pigs are clean, intelligent, productive, and necessary to our eco-system. Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and while I must admit pigs do nothing for me, I’m not here to pass judgment on animal lovers.

Sheep are useful. I haven’t checked out their SAT scores, and they seem pleasant enough. While I understand they are more appealing than pigs in certain farmland circles (including at least one semi-famous 1960s comics artist who bragged about it) and lanolin is comforting stuff, they, too, evade my wandering eye.

As colloquial phrases, neither one is held in very high regard. Being a pig has come to mean being ugly (totally unfair), being stubborn (probably fair), and/or being a miscreant police officer (tacky).  Being a sheep has come to mean being totally passive, one who follows the sheppard’s demands mindlessly, even to one’s own detriment.

Ergo, I’d rather be a pig than a sheep. But I’d rather be a sheep than an idiot.

Last Friday, Michael Davis commented about the Palin-the-Phony-Pig non-scandal, and he did so with his typical charm, wit, and aplomb. I have no intention of repeating his argument.

Actually, the whole thing sickens me.

Not the fact that McCain would seize upon a comment of Obama’s that had nothing to do with Palin and turn it into such. That’s campaigning for you, and one of the ways we can determine the make of person running is the way he or she conducts his or her campaign. McCain’s a scumbag who, according to his campaign “doesn’t speak for the campaign" (to quote McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds). Fine. We know McCain, and by now we know Palin, her ethics, her family values, and her supporters’ stand on hypocrisy and blatant lying. I’m good to go here. (more…)

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