Tagged: Dark Knight

Full Cast Revealed for ‘Batman: Gotham Knight’

  • News
  • March 19, 2008

Warner Brothers just sent out a press release announcing that the rest of the cast has been finalized for this summer’s Batman: Gotham Knight direct-to-DVD animated film.

Earlier, fans collectively breathed a great sigh of relief upon hearing that Batman: The Animated Series alum Kevin Conroy had signed on to voice the Dark Knight. Instead of filling the ranks with big-name stars (see Justice League: The New Frontier and Superman/Doomsday), WB picked up some lesser knowns to round out the voice talent.

Read the release carefully and you can pick up a few hints about the plot:

Gary Dourdan (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation) and Ana Ortiz (Ugly Betty) are heard in multiple segments of the six-story film as police detectives Crispus Allen and Anna Ramirez, key members of a special unit who learn to trust the Dark Knight’s motives. Parminder Nagra (ER, Bend It Like Beckham) supplies the voice of Cassandra, a mystical Indian woman who teaches Bruce Wayne to endure and manage his pain. David McCallum (Navy NCIS, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., The Great Escape) takes on the role of loyal servant Alfred. George Newbern (Father of the Bride) and Alanna Ubach (Legally Blonde) also join the cast.

The cast also features popular voice over artists Corey Burton, Rob Paulsen, Kevin Michael Richardson, Will Friedle, Jason Marsden, Jim Meskimen, Pat Musick, Scott Menville, Hynden Walch, Corey Padnos and Crystal Scales.

The bonus features on the double-disc release include a documentary on Bob Kane, a documentary about Batman’s villains, some of Bruce Timm’s favorite episodes from Batman: TAS and a sneak peak at the upcoming Wonder Woman animated film.

Batman: Gotham Knight hits shelves on July 8.

Toy Fair ’08: Ledger Inspired Joker Figure Announced

  • News
  • February 19, 2008

In spite of the recent, tragic death of actor Heath Ledger, the New York Post is reporting that plans are still in effect to release a new action figure in his Dark Knight character’s likeness to coincide with the upcoming release of the film.

According to the article, the Joker action figure will come in two different versions, both of which will hit store shelves in May.

One smaller version will feature a rocket launcher that can be put in the figure’s hand. The other, designed by well-known team the Four Horsemen, will be slightly larger, more detailed and come with a toy knife. Some might question the timing, or good taste, of releasing the action figure so close to Ledger’s death — or in releasing it at all.

However, according to the article, Ledger’s family supports the decision. "Heath was very proud of his work in the film, and his family is aware and supportive of Warner Bros. and its partner’s plans for the movie," said a family spokesperson. In addition, Mattel, the company behind the figure, are sensitive to the situation but still plan to go forward.

"It’s not exactly a marketing point," said Mattel’s P.J. Lewis of Ledger’s death. "But kids are going to buy the toy if they like the movie."

The Dark Knight hits theaters in July.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: You can see pictures of both figures in our gallery of photos from the ComicMix tour of Mattel’s showroom.]

 

New promotion for The Dark Knight puts celebrities on the spot

  • News
  • January 16, 2008

Seriously, what criminal mastermind thinks this stuff up?

Last month, singer John Mayer found himself on the receiving end of a clever new promotion for The Dark Knight, the upcoming sequel to Batman Begins. Apparently, the crew at Warner Bros. has targeted celebrities with the next phase of their marketing push for the July 2008 release, sending packages from "Gotham Novelties, Inc." to unsuspecting recipients around the entertainment industry. Within the box, Mayer found a Joker playing card and promotional shirt, both scrawled in red with the character’s taglines.

"High five, marketing genius…" wrote Mayer in a post on his blog about the package.

Warner Bros. efforts in the realm of viral marketing for "Dark Knight" have become the stuff of InterWebs legends, with many sites praising the strategies and cataloging the complicated steps necessary to complete certain promotions.

More photos of the package and Mayer’s thoughts on the new promotion can be found on his site.

Swamp Thing On Shorts

  • News
  • September 5, 2007

If you’re one of the millions of Americans who are pissed you’re too big for Underoos, you can take comfort in the knowledge that next spring adult sportswear manufacturer Salvage is going to be coming out with a line of clothing that incorporates Superman, Batman and next year’s Dark Knight movie.

No word on Wonder Woman being part of the line. Some will find this to be quite disappointing; personally, I’m holding out for Swamp Thing.

GLENN HAUMAN: Decompression and burn rate

  • News
  • August 25, 2007

gh_100-4331646Bully makes a speech buried in a comment thread on decompression in comics that I’ve been saying for years, and deserves much wider play, so I’m running part of it here (but read the whole thing):

"Read the books on their own, month by month, paying $2.25 (or whatever they are now), and it’s clear: you get very little story for you money. I can’t quantify value as you say, because your joy over a decompressed story may vary from person to person, but I lament that you can now spend three bucks and read a comic book in less than five minutes. That is poor entertainment value for the money and only exists because of the crack-like addiction we (I’m including myself here) have to these characters.

"My point, and I do have one, is that in many ways — not all across the board but in so many instances for so many titles — "comics are your worst entertainment value." Spending three bucks on five minutes of enjoyment and not getting the feeling of a full story is a trend that does not help gain new readers. We lament that it’s hard to turn new readers, especially kids, onto superhero comic books. Is it any wonder, when you get a fraction of a story that reads like the wind. I’m not calling for a return to wordy stories that are "done in one" across the board, but the trend of decompression devalues the worth of the comic as a piece of entertainment.

(more…)

Cloverfield Madness!

Well, as good as the Transformers flick was, there still seems to be even more buzz about one of the trailers that preceded it. The only things we, the public, know are that it opens 1-18-08, J.J. Abrams is attached through his production company, Bad Robot, and it’s shot from ground level as a giant monster/robot/thing criticizes some of New York’s statues. What we, the Internet savvy folk, know is that the working title of the film is Cloverfield, and that’s about it. 

If you haven’t gone to see Transformers yet and have no clue what I’m talking about, check out the really bad bootleg of it below. With the hype that this is getting, along with the already loyal Lost fans, this project is shaping up to be what Godzilla and The Blair Witch Project should have been.

On another interesting note, a dedicated fan decided to document how he analyzed not only the trailer but the image found on the Cloverfield website. Check it out, courtesy of YouTube.

Also, fitting in with the Dark Knight viral marketing tool, two sites have been put up that are attached to the film. Whether or not the allude to anything that would give us some insight is questionable. The first site is 1-18-08.com and as of right now, we have a screen cap of some possible future victims, but bookmark this bad boy, because I’m sure there will be more content up there soon.

And finally, Paramount secretly released EthanHaasWasRight.com, which is an interesting Java Puzzle that will give you lots of possible info on the plot if you complete it. The further you get, the more videos you unlock in which frightened people speak of "Things Changing on August 1."

For all of the news as it comes on next January’s mysterious and exciting project, keep checking us here at ComicMix.

Comic Book Box Office Examined

  • News
  • June 20, 2007

Comic books turned into motion pictures tend to be expensive exercises given the need to create costumes, simulate super-powers and make things sufficiently larger than life to appeal to filmgoers of all ages.

The traditional rule of thumb is that a movie has to earn three times its budget in domestic revenue to be considered profitable.  This way, the cost of production, backend money to producers and performers and marketing costs could be recouped.  After all, studios receive a sliding scale percentage of the box office gross.  For example, if a movie opens with $100 million that first weekend, chances are the studio sees a hefty percentage, anywhere from 50-80% of that income and as time passes, the ratio between studio and theater change so by week 12 (should a movie last that long), the theater gets the lion’s share.  Which helps explain why popcorn costs $5 a bucket – theaters need to earn profit somehow.

International box office as well as ancillary income (pay-per-view, hotels/airplane sales, home video/video downloads, related licensing) was always considered gravy.  Over the last few years, with movie theater attendance stagnant or down, studios have crowed about being profitable by counting all the money now.  

So, with all but one of this year’s comic book related films now showing, we here at Comic Mix thought it worth taking a peek at how well the films have performed.  The numbers below show the box office income to date followed by their production budget. (Marketing costs are an additional $20-40 million depending on film.)

Ghost Rider, $115,802,596 / $110,000,000

300, $210,250,922 / $65,000,000

TMNT, $42,273,609 / $34,000,000

Spider-Man 3, $330,021,137 to date / $258,000,000

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, $58,051,684 (opening weekend) / $130,000,000

Stardust, August 10

So, from the top, Ghost Rider should have earned $330,000,000 in domestic box office to recoup costs and be profitable.  Instead, it came up short but given how it was received, how it did around the world and how much licensing it brought it, Sony can consider it a hit, albeit a modest one.

Spider-Man 3, despite a critical drubbing, is nowhere near close to ever being profitable.  Unless you look at the international numbers which has it at $800,000,000 with a bullet and will clearly make money for Sony and Marvel.

On the other hand, the all-CGI Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was a flop for New Line.  It did not stimulate toy and related merchandise sales nor did it generate any real buzz for the property.

The one movie to succeed in the traditional model was 300, which earned something like $30,000,000 in box office profit before taking in any wordwide box office income or licensing revenue.  Kudos to Zack Snyder and now we know why studios are willing to gamble on him in the future (which is good news for us since his next two films should be Watchmen and Ronin).

And here’s our schedule scoreboard for the future:

2008

Wanted, March 28

Iron Man, May 2

Incredible Hulk, June 13

Dark Knight, July 18

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, August 1

2009 & Beyond

Superman Returns 2, June 2009 (may be delayed until 2010)

Sin City 2, no date

Watchmen, no date

Captain America, no date

What’s Next with Magneto & Iron Man

  • News
  • April 27, 2007

No, not what’s Next, that’s opening up this weekend. It’s based on a Philip K. Dick story and starring Nicholas Cage, Jessica Biel, and Julianne Moore. To paraphrase Lawrence Peter Berra, it’s Deja Vu all over again.

No, I’m talking about what’s coming down the pike. First, from USA Today, here’s a new pic of Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark:

ironmanx-large-4365519

Second, from Cinematical, we see that the ever busy David Goyer (Blade, Dark Knight, Jumper, Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD) has been tapped to direct the new Magneto prequel movie. While my immediate scary thought was Hannibal Rising with mutant powers, Patrick Walsh comes up with something even scarier: "Ashton Kutcher in a purple helmet and Seann William Scott in a bald cap. "

Infinite Crisis goes audio

  • News
  • April 23, 2007

Doctor Who fans have been getting all-new full-cast audio adventures for years. Recently, Dark Shadows has been invited into the club. And now, GraphicAudio has signed DC Comics up for the ride.

Purveyors of full cast audio adaptations of such well-known action paperback series as Stony Man, The Destroyer and The Executioner, the Graphic Audio corporation will be releasing DC’s Infinite Crisis miniseries in two box sets, each containing six hours of programming. The first will be released in May, the second in June. They describe the plot thusly:

"Superman, the Man of Steel. Wonder Woman, Amazon Princess. Batman, the Dark Knight. Together, they are the greatest super heroes of all. But they have turned away from each other in Earth”s hour of greatest need. As space is ripped apart, super-villains unite, and four mysterious strangers threaten reality itself. Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman must put aside their differences to save the world, but even the combined might of all Earth”s heroes might not be enough to stop the coming crisis…"

Actually, the CD sets are an adaptation of Greg Cox’s novelization of Infinite Crisis, buy why quibble. I’m a fan of such original audio shows, and I’m looking forward to reviewing the series. GraphicAudio CDs are widely available at truck stops and Interstate rest areas, and through the manufacturer.

Neal Adams does the ComicMix Big Weekend Broadcast

The weekend is here – and the ComicMix Pop Culture Buffet is wide open with healthy servings of sold out Marvels, stuffed bookshelves from DC, a sprinkling of Michael Ian Black, Neal Adams laying claim to Batman, farewell to Rourke & Tatoo and a bit of hard love from the guy we loved as Lamont Cranston, "clutching forks and knives, to eat the bacon…"

Lots of Wonder Woman from the 40s and the black-and-white 50s, revisit one of Superman’s various deaths, and we put some uncomfortable music to the Dark Knight. All this and all that, by pressing this button:

Categories

Archives

Everything you need to make great comics!

comicmix-pro-300x69-2

Nucleus X

Bookshop Zaks