Surfer to fly solo
Despite so-so advance buzz and a lack of screening for reviewers, 20th Century-Fox seems to believe in the Fantastic Four franchise. As reported in the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday, they are already looking to spinoff the Silver Surfer into his own film.
J. Michael Straczynski, already writing a Silver Surfer miniseries, Requiem, for Marvel, has been tapped to script the solo feature.
The Times said, “Well, perhaps the studio has heard the negative static, since it apparently hopes to spin the new Surfer franchise in a darker direction to attract the slightly older demographic of its X-Men films. If so, Straczynski, whose original screenplay The Changeling is on director Clint Eastwood’s slate, is a logical pick for the Surfer story line.” JMS is also the writer of the current Silver Surfer mini-series.
20th has already announced plans for spinoffs from its X-Men film franchise although neither the Wolverine or Magneto features seem any closer to actually being shot.
Next up from Marvel’s production slate will be their first self-produced film, Iron Man, coming in May 2008.
Artwork copyright 2007 Marvel Characters. All Rights Reserved.
What the flying FISH is wrong with this country? Some ass wipe D.A in Georgia put a black teenager named Genarlow Wilson in prison for ten years. This kid did not kill anybody or rob anybody nor did he rape anybody. He did what teenagers have been doing since caveman days; he had consensual relations with another teenager. So this A-student star athlete was sentenced to jail for 10 years. 
The Adventures of Rabbi Harvey
A couple of weeks ago I did a wrap-up of my opinions of some of the TV I watched this past season. I held back on two shows because they hadn’t yet ended their seasons or their runs and others were cut because the column was getting too blamed long. So I’m going to try to finish up and include some shows that finished their “seasons” a while back but are about to start new seasons this summer. Looking back is a way of looking forward. First, however, a quick look at two shows among my faves and that are linked.
Doctor Who. This is no-brainer for me. I’m a long time fan and the new series brought me right in again. Christopher Eccleston did a fabulous job in Season One and now David Tennant is just as good in a different way as the latest incarnation of our time/space traveling hero. It’s not that every episode is brilliant or that every concept is the best; that was never the attraction. But for all the fact that the Doctor is a Time Lord from an alien planet, the show remains one of the most human of S/F shows and consistently celebrates humanity. I love it.
And what’s Mr. Truman been up to lately, besides drawing for the Dead? Well, he’s been writing Dark Horse’s Conan series, and for the past couple months he’s been hard at work drawing the newest GrimJack graphic novel, The Manx Cat, written by fellow-GJ creator John Ostrander.
For next June’s new Incredible Hulk movie, William Hurt (Lost in Space, Altered States) has been signed to play General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross.
I think many of us suspect that there’s something fundamentally wrong with the fact that just about everybody reading this knows of the recent exploits of Paris Hilton. If you’re at all attuned to media old and new, it’s nearly impossible to escape the breathless news about her latest adventures in crime and punishment, or at least the breathless reprimands the news media give themselves over the saturation coverage — although heaven forfend most of them stoop to using the first-person plural and actually assuming responsibility! Even otherwise sensible pundits like Keith Olbermann (whose hard-hitting “Special Reports” many consider the modern incarnation of vaunted newsman Edward R. Murrow) can’t seem to stay away from peeping in on, and drooling over, daily celebrity hijinks.
Beginning July 9th, ToykoPop’s top-selling manga Princess Ai will be headed to many American Sunday newspapers, courtesy of Universal Newspaper Syndicate.
