Tagged: Spider-Man

Comics soon in a theater near you

As a contrast to all the Spider-Man stories this week, Alan Kistler sends us a quick update on other movies in the pipeline:

"This is an interesting week in terms of comic book movies and the like.

Iron Man director Jon Favreau has confirmed that Jeff Bridges will be shaving his head to play the role of Obadiah Stane, who in the comics was a wealthy, sociopathic industrialist who took Tony Stark’s company and manipulated the recovering alcoholic into drinking again.

Rumors are flying that Sarah Michelle Gellar is up for the role of Harley Quinn in the upcoming Batman sequel The Dark Knight, but this has yet to be confirmed by anyone.

And "Moriarty" at Ain’tItCoolNews has posted up a review of an advanced screening of The Transformers. The review is full of spoilers concerning plot, so if you want the gist without having the story ruined for you, here are the highlights:

  • The plot will involve the Allspark cube, analogous to the "Autobot Matrix of leadership" from the original cartoon series.
  • The characters in the film are said to be very accurate to how they were portrayed in the Generation One cartoon series.
  • Optimus Prime is said to have amazing action scenes and is showcased as an incredible warrior.
  • To the satisfaction of older fans, Megatron and Starscream do indeed argue quite a bit.
  • The supporting cast of John Turturro, John Voight and Josh Duhmel are said to give a solid performance.
  • The special effects are supposed to be very good, though it is said that a couple of the robots look odd when speaking with robot lips.
  • There is a criticism that certain characters are not shown enough or given enough to do, as screentime must be focused on explaining the origin and nature of the Transformers.
  • There are supposed to be several references to the old cartoon for fans to enjoy, including lines by Optimus that were lifted from the original series.

Sounds like a great report to me. Here’s hoping the movie lives up to the hype."

Spider-Man Week in New York City

Oh boy oh boy oh boy! It’s here at last! Some people love Christmas in New York, some live for the July 4th fireworks, some like the Thanksgiving Day Parade, some people even love to freeze their butts off in Times Square on New Year’s Eve – but nothing in the world compares to Spider-Man Week! Nothing in the whole wide wo–

spideyrippingoffvenom-3658446

–thank God, I was able to rip that brain-sucking parasite off my body.

Anyway, here’s the list of events. Some fun stuff, including activities at the Bronx Zoo, the American Museum of Moving Images is showing episodes of the 60’s animated series, Peter David is signing copies of the novelization Thursday at Midtown Comics, all leading up to Free Comic Book Day– oh, and the US premiere of Spider-Man 3 in Peter Parker’s home borough, Queens. We’ll be covering some of the more interesting activities here.

Update: No Spider-Man 3 bootlegs in China

Cancel those plane tickets to China. Despite what we just said, Reuters reports that all the Chinese bootlegs of Spider-Man 3 are fakes, they’re all copies of Spider-Man 2.

"Contrary to news reports about stolen copies of ‘Spider-Man 3’ being sold illegally on the streets in China, our investigation in China has revealed no case of the film being pirated to date," Sony Pictures said in a statement.

"After an initial investigation of online sites worldwide, we have so far found no pirated copies of ‘Spider-Man 3’ on the Internet," Sony added.

Just wait…

Spider-Man 3 bootlegs already abound…

spid-6328995If you want to see Spider-Man 3 and you don’t want to wait until May 4th, the inevitable bootleg DVDs are already out and about – in China. And you can get yours for the low, low cost of $1.00 a piece … plus airfare.

According to Reuters, there is even a warning on the back, printed in Chinese, against pirating the product. But, as always, buyer beware: any specific bootleg DVD might not work on your specific player.

China is almost as well known for its bootlegs as it is for its booming economy, Sadly, these sales will not be incorporated into Spidey‘s box office totals.

Spider-Man 3 $$$?

Congratulations may or may not be in order for Spider-Man 3, depending upon how you feel about Hollywood budgets.  According to Radar Online, the upcoming webcrawler sequel is on track to be the most expensive movie of all time. "Industry insiders claim that Sony spent $350 million or more on production alone," writes Radar’s Kim Masters.  "With marketing and promotion factored in, the total price tag will approach a half billion dollars."

That’s at least double what the financial fiasco Cleopatra cost, even adjusted to today’s dollars. Sony is hotly denying the numbers, but producer Laura Ziskin does admit it was pretty dear. "I refuse to say the [real] number because it makes me choke. Spider-Man 3 was a super-expensive movie — the most expensive film we’ve ever made. But there’s no way you can get to $300 million."  Certainly not without choking.

 

Cup o’ Joe at Tribeca

Concurrent with the upcoming Tribeca Film Festival (at which Spider-Man 3 will have its U.S. premiere) will be a series of panels called Tribeca Talks, and right up there with all the other luminaries scheduled to talk is Marvel EIC Joe Quesada, appearing on a panel called "Heroes for Hire."  Presumably the panel will not just be a plug for Marvel’s title of the same name.

According to the program notes, "a genre of entertainment originally devised with children in mind, superhero movies have found real success among bigger babies — adults, to be specific. We unleash the power of some superhero creators to explore why the vulnerable, conflicted, reluctant, and more…well…human superhero is a sure-fire way to a colossal opening weekend. Featuring a sneak peek at original illustrations from the highly anticipated Amazing Spiderman: One More Day comic book storyline!’  That’s the one written by Joe Straczynski with art by Quesada himself.  Only hey, Tribeca folks, isn’t it "Spider-Man" with a hyphen and all…?

spidey3newposter2-2579787

Early word catches the spider, man

spidey3newposter2-6620851Mark this down in your Week-At-A-Glance: If you’re hankering to get the early word on Spider-Man 3, Ebert and Roeper will be reviewing the movie on their hit teevee show the weekend of April 28th.

As of this writing we don’t know who Richard Roeper’s guest critic will be – Roger Ebert is recovering from cancer surgery and whereas he will be making an appearance at his “Forgotten Movies” film festival, he is still at least one operation away from getting his voice back. However, he does stand ready to review silent movies.

Ebert and Roeper airs at various times in sundry markets;  you can use their “station finder” (http://bventertainment.go.com/tv/buenavista/ebertandroeper/) to discover the local whens and wheres. This show will air sometime between Friday, April 27th and Sunday, April 29th.

 

how_screen3-6198021

Spidey fame for your favorite kid

how_screen3-7338411Looking for a gift to get the child in your life who’s just wild about Spider-Man?  Why not look into getting a personalized photo CD of a Spider-Man cartoon with said child’s photo digitally mapped onto the space where Spidey’s face goes, for a full-length cartoon?

Sayeth Kideo, “This 26 minute action packed animated adventure DVD includes bonus features such as a photo personalized music video featuring the1960’s theme song, as well as an educational tutorial on spiders in a segment titled ‘Learning with J. Jonah Jameson’.” 

Because really, who’s more obsessed with spiders?

Spidey 3 gets sneaked for MySpace members

MySpace will host a "Black Curtain Screening" for Spider-Man 3 on April 30, 2007, exclusively for its members, several days prior to Sony’s release of the movie on May 4.  Where the screening will be held is entirely up to MySpace members, who can cast their vote now for one of ten cities at http://www.myspace.com/blackcurtain . The choices are Cleveland, OH; Cincinnati, OH; Honolulu, HI; Indianapolis, IN; Kansas City, MO; Louisville, KY; Salt Lake City, UT; San Jose, CA; Savannah, GA; Tampa/St. Petersburg, FL.

And their continued assault on ComicSpace continues…

Honolulu?

 

bobgreenberger100-3642068

ROBERT GREENBERGER: Death be not proud

bobgreenberger100-9668217The rule of thumb used to be that the only characters that stayed dead are Uncle Ben, Bucky and Barry Allen.

Some version of Uncle Ben is running around in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man; Bucky turns out to have survived and is now the Winter Solider; and if you believe Dan DiDio’s “slip” of the tongue, Barry Allen may be here soon.

It used to be a big deal when a character died. Amazing Spider-Man #121’s cover, as Spidey faced those nearest and dearest to him with a cover blurb promising one was going to die compelled us to buy that month’s issue. It worked, sales spiked, the status quo was different and people were buzzing.

In 1985, I participated in the planning and, ahem, execution of Crisis on Infinite Earths. One of the key housecleaning elements had to be the elimination of both major and minor figures, heroes and villains, civilians and loved ones. The hit list, as seen in the Absolute edition, evolved as editors and management weighed in. Killing the Flash and Supergirl were the shockers while few cared if the Bug-Eyed Bandit survived or not. Still, these deaths were supposed to be permanent changes to the DC Universe, although few of them have remained dead 20 years later.

By the time Superman died in 1992, the freshness had long since worn off as deaths had been faked (Professor X, Foggy Nelson), undone (Jean Grey, Iris Allen), or were too minor to care (I Ching).

Since then, characters have continued to die and come back with stunning regularity. As a result, the death of a major figure has been more of a blip than a major event, making one wonder what it will take to get people really stirred up.

Much has been made of Captain America’s death and I was among those scoffing at the permanence of his condition. Less has been said about the return of their first Captain Marvel, plucked out of the time stream before his death from cancer (as wonderfully told in a Jim Starlin graphic novel), an altogether new kind of cheat.

Marvel isn’t the only company wheeling and dealing with the Grim Reaper. (more…)