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NBC Gives ‘Chuck’ Vote of Confidence

  • News
  • August 30, 2008

Before the second season of Chuck could debut on September 29, NBC today gave the series an order for the “back 9,” meaning a full order of 22 episodes has been given to the sophomore series.

Producer Josh Schwartz told Kristin Dos Santos at E!online, "We are thrilled and totally surprised by the pickup. We’ve had a great partnership with NBC from day one and to have them show this kind of confidence is really inspiring. I’m also really excited for Chris Fedak who deserves so much credit for the quality of the show.

"In terms of the rest of the season, we had big plans for the season finale last year that were cut short by the strike. To know we can go forward this year is really exciting.

"You will see more romance from some unexpected pairings…Couples you would never imagine. And yes, there will be a wedding coming, and it will be awesome."

Chuck Season One will be released on DVD from Warner Home Video on September 16 while the WildStorm original miniseries based on the series continues with the third issue now in print.
 

‘Voltron’ Powers Up, Finds Director

  • News
  • August 30, 2008

The expected anime-to-live action parade continues in the wake of last year’s success with Transformers.  The stalled Voltron film was picked up by Relativity Media, grabbing it from New Regency which had been trying to mount the production. Latino Review now reports that Max Makowski has been signed to direct the film.  Makowski is not known for his genre credits but instead directed Taboo in 2002 and is attached as director for the feature film version of Kung Fu.

Word is, Relativity intends to use the green skin/CGI-heavy (and cheap) approach that worked so well for 300.

The film was first optioned back in 2005 by Mark Gordon and by the end of 2006, suddenly über-hot screenwriter Justin Marks delivered a screenplay. New Regency got interested last August based on the Michael Bay Transformers mega-hit. After spending a year on the project, New Regency gave up and put it into turnaround with Relativity snatching it up on August 18.

A 2010 release is expected although that is merely speculative given the lack of cast and shooting schedule.
 

‘Popeye’ and ‘Betty Boop’ on Vuze

  • News
  • August 30, 2008

My Toons is a website featuring all manner of animated works from amateurs to the classic days of animation.  They have just partnered with Vuze, one of the new online video hot spots to offer a MyToons Cartoon Classics channel featuring Popeye and Betty Boop cartoons from the Fleischer Studios.  No Koko cartoons as yet, but you can’t go wrong with this sampler of terrific cartoons.

The deal will have My Toons creating additional fare for the website in the months ahead including international fare and HD offerings.
 

Shipping Late, by Martha Thomases

  • News
  • August 30, 2008

This column is unusual in that I’m starting to write it in the doctor’s office. There’s no emergency – it’s just time for my annual mammogram and breast sonogram, and the doctors are running late.

My appointment was for 11 this morning. I arrived at 10:30 because I walked faster than I expected, and because I wanted to get the paperwork out of the way. Also, I’m compulsively early. My mother raised me to believe that if I’m not at least five minutes early, I’m inconveniencing everybody else. My grandmother took this a step further, waiting at the airport in New York before our plane had even taken off from Ohio.

I’ve been here for two hours.

The world is made up of people who are on time and people who are late. I imagine that we each drive the other bonkers. I know that, when I’m waiting for someone to arrive who is more than 15 minutes late (which is the window I allow because, hey, the subway could be screwed up), I’m furious that I might be missing something just because the person I’m waiting for doesn’t have the consideration to think my time is valuable.

I don’t know what people who are late are thinking, but I imagine they are thinking that life is so complicated, and there are so many things that demand their attention, and nothing ever comes out as they plan. Perhaps they also think that meeting times are just an estimate, and it’s no big deal if they are late. Perhaps they think I have nothing better to do than wait for them, and that it’s privilege enough to bask in their glory.

Ahem.

Oddly, I am not bothered when my comics are late. I know that retailers are annoyed – and worse, since it’s their money on the line – but I’m not. When I walk into the comic book store for my weekly fix, I don’t particularly care which books are available. I like enough different kinds of stories that I’ll be able to find something I’ll enjoy reading. Even if it’s a skip week, there will be something I haven’t read, or a new magazine. (more…)

Asian Superheroes in the Spotlight

  • News
  • August 29, 2008

“Superheroes in Asia” is the theme for eleven films to unspool at the Pusan Festival in Seoul, Korea. The event, running from October 2-10, will also feature other themes including "Ani Asia! A Leap of Asian Feature Animation 3”, “Romanian New Wave” and “2008 Asian Omnibus Collection”

According to the festival’s website, “It seems that Hollywood created super heros like Superman and Spider-Man are the only superheroes who protect our planet from the evil forces since we have gotten used to Hollywood blockbusters too much, but there are many unknown superheroes who are working double shifts for the world peace every country in Asia. Through 11 Asian superheroes in 11 films, audiences understand how the new Western genre ‘Superhero’ was introduced in historical, political, cultural and social part of Asia, and traces its transformation into Asia’s own superhero. Asian superheroes will bring not only the peace of the world but also clues about the modernization of Asia.“

Among the films will be director Bhandit Thongdee’s Mercury Man, described as a Thai take on Spider-Man; Yuri Abdul Halim’s Cicak-Man, Malaysia’s first superhero effort; and India’ s Rakesh Roshan-driected Krrish.
 

Hugo Awards add Graphic Novel Category

  • News
  • August 29, 2008

When The Watchmen won the 1988 Hugo Award for Best Novel, horrified science fiction purists saw to it that graphic material be excluded from consideration. Until now that has remained the case but next year, the World Science Fiction convention will be adding the Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story to the ballot "to honor works in which illustrations are integral to the movement of the plot, whether or not text is present. The special Hugo, to be called Best Graphic Story, will cover any science fiction or fantasy narrative in graphic form appearing for the first time in 2008. It may potentially be ratified as an annual award at the WSFS Business meeting at the convention."

Material to be considered will be any science fiction or fantasy narrative in graphic form appearing for the first time in 2008. Those who purchased memberships to this year’s World Con, held in Denver, and next year’s, will be eligible to nominate works whern the process begins next spring while only those holding 2009 memberships will be eligible to vote for the winner.

The 2009 World Con will be Anticipation, held in Montreal from August 6-10 with guests of honor including Neil Gaiman, Élisabeth Vonarburg, Ralph Bakshi, Taral Wayne, Tom Doherty, David Hartwell, and Julie Czerneda.

Photosynth Hulk Demo

  • News
  • August 29, 2008

 

001-4224723I love tech. Especially new technology. Twitter, iPhone, Media Centers, etc. So I was reading about Photosynth from Microsoft Live Labs. It’s a new way of displaying photos.

Photosynth analyzes each photo for similarities to the others, and uses that data to build a model of where the photos were taken. It then re-creates the environment and uses that as a canvas on which to display the photos.

Basically, it creates a 3D model of a room or a subject from multiple photos of the same subject. An easy way to give a virtual tour or show a piece of merchandise from any angle a buyer could imagine.

Of course my first thought was, ‘This would rock if someone had a ton of pictures of the Watchmen Owlship from San Diego Comic Con.’ Sadly, I didn’t. But I could imagine it being a great tool to show off your action figure. So I grabbed my Smart Hulk action figure and tried it out.

Editor’s note: Evidently, this stuff won’t run on a Mac. It’s Microsoft; go figure. Anyway, you PC guys should follow the above link and Hulk-out.

nightmares-for-sale-1-1505342

Manga Friday: As Different As Possible

  • News
  • August 29, 2008

nightmares-for-sale-1-1505342

I’ve generally tried to organize the weekly columns around some sort of theme, but sometimes themes just serve to hide the variety and depth of the comics world (whatever country it might be from). So, this week, I picked three books with nothing at all in common (except a Japanese origin), just because:

Nightmares for Sale, Vol. 1
By Kaoru Ohashi
Aurora, November 2007, $10.95

Nightmares for Sale is an old-fashioned kind of horror story, with two enigmatic characters – they appear to be a grown man (Shadow) and a young girl (Maria), but she’s older than he is – who run a store that’s usually a pawnshop. Nothing at all good can happen when they enter your life, though they usually don’t seem to be directly responsible.

Each story in this volume has a different set of characters – usually teenage girls, or the kind of adults that teenage girls want to become – who meet the pawnshop owners, and then come to nasty ends. A bullied girl triggers a curse on the friendship rings her tormentors made her buy for all of them, and nastiness follows. A model wants to appear beautiful in photographs, and gets exactly what she asked for…but no more and no less. A young woman meets an abused boy in the street, and learns that their connection is much deeper than she imagined. A young boy tries to pawn his baby sister. And so on.

(more…)

Superman, Disney, Family Guy DVDs Coming

  • Uncategorized
  • August 29, 2008

superman-doomsday-dvd-1416192Several additional DVDs have been announced of late and here are some of the highlights we suspect you’ll appreciate:

In time for the holidays, Warner Home Video will offer Superman: Doomsday as a special 2-disc edition on November 25, 2008. Offered in standard and Blu-ray editions, the set will include the original animated adaptation of the first Doomsday comic story plus bonus features including four episodes from Superman: The Animated Series personally selected by producer Bruce Timm.  The Blu-ray version will also offer new featurettes: "Clash of the Juggernauts", and "When Heroes Die: The Making of Superman: Doomsday". Both discs will have a new look at 2009’s forthcoming Wonder Woman animated feature.

Family Guy: The Total World Domination Collection, coming October 21 exclusively from Amazon, will contain 22 discs featuring every Family Guy DVD released, including Family Guy Presents: Stewie Griffin – The Untold Story and the Star Wars spoof Blue Harvest. As a bonus, American Dad volume one will be included.  The entire collection will be in a box shaped like Stewie’s head so good luck finding shelf space for it. Family Guy: Volume 6 and the Family Guy – Freakin’ Sweet Party Pack will be released everywhere the same date.
 

(more…)

Smallville Almost Begat Supergirl

  • News
  • August 29, 2008

At the Toronto FanExpo this past weekend, Laura Vandervoort confirmed she would appear in a single episode of the eighth and final season of the CW’s Smallville. Television’s Supergirl also made mention that there had been talk of her character once being considered for a spinoff series.  She merely said it didn’t pan out without providing any details.

She did admit to being a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan so working alongside Spike, James Marsters, was a thrill.  When she was just beginning her career, she wrote series creator Joss Whedon about wanting to audition for the show, something he remembered when they finally met.

Smallville, with new villains and the same old romantic triangles will return September 18.

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