AP is reporting that Nicolas Cage has signed to star in the movie adaptation of the Virgin comic The Sadhu. The movie’s script will be written by self-help maven Deepak Chopra, the father of Virgin’s chief creative officer Gotham Chopra, and is slated to be directed by Indian filmmaker Shekhar Kapur (The Four Feathers).
Chopra the younger says, "Our goal is to start filming in India in early 2008," and explains a little about the title. "The sadhu is an iconic character. He is an Indian equivalent of the samurai. He is the spiritual warrior of the mind."
No word on whether flaming heads or motorcycles will be involved.
I never, never, never want to hear another complaint about adapting film from dumb comic books ever again. And if you’re tired of articles with headlines like "Pow! Zap! Wham! Comics movies aren’t just for kids" you don’t either. But now, you have a trump card to play – Hollywood is adapting movies from paintings.
Yes, paintings. Not painted comic books. Paintings.
First Showing shows us that Lions Gate is making a film based on a single painting by Thomas Kinkade, "painter of light" in the same way that Michael Jackson is the "king of pop," called The Christmas Cottage. Peter O’Toole has been cast in it. They note: "The film is partly biographical and based on events that led American painter Kinkade to become an artist." No word on whether they’ll include the FBI investigations or sexual harassment allegations – if Peter O’Toole’s in it, I suppose there’s a chance.
It’s shooting this month for the obvious December release, because this will be the film that gets O’Toole his Oscar.
O.K. If this is a review, it’s of The Spider Chronicles, published by Moonstone Books, released this week, and written by all kinds of wonderful people including Steve Englehart, John Jakes, Ann Nocenti and Robert Weinberg – all under a nifty introduction by ComicMix columnist and gadfly-about-town Dennis O’Neil.
Having a full-time job right here at ComicMix, I’ve only had time to read half the stories thus far, but all were worthy of the task: translating into short story form the most bizarre and over-the-top hero of all time, period.
The concept can be barely contained in the novelette-length stories of the 1930s. In case you’re not familiar, let me ramble off some of my favorite story titles: King of the Red Killers. Slaves of the Murder Syndicate. The City That Dared Not Eat. Machine Guns Over The White House. Hell’s Sales Manager (I think I had that job once.) And my all-time favorite, The Mayor of Hell.
How can you beat titles like that? Only with execution that make those titles seem lame.
There’s usually one madman who pretty much looks like Charles Lane. We may or may not know who he is at the outset, but within several chapters he’s managed to paralyze the city (usually New York or Washington or both), if not indeed the whole quadrant of the nation, if not indeed the entire nation itself. By chapter six, the death count is enough to fill Yankee Stadium to the brim.
Only three people stand in the madman’s way: Nita Van Sloan, a woman as tough and clever as they come; Ran Singh, loyal, faithful assistant to The Spider and an ace at cutlery; and finally, wealthy playboy Richard Wentworth who likes to play the violin, not take advantage of the adoring Nita, and dress up in a variety of disguises – most notably in the monstrous visage of The Spider.
Wentworth’s the one who does the heavy lifting. He doesn’t mind killing each and every person he and he alone deems worthy of killing.
If you could hook your hybrid into a Spider story, the energy would drive you coast-to-coast and back again. Imagine the Kree / Skrull War with all the Kree and all the Skrulls on one side, three people on the other side, and all the battles taking place in an area no bigger than your bedroom.
There have been any number of Spider reprint projects going on, most notably the double-story ventures similar to Anthony Tolin’s Shadow and Doc Savage reprints (see Dennis O’Neil’s column here at ComicMix this week) as published by Girasol Collectibles (www.girasolcollectables.com/). They’re worth checking out.
But our friends at Moonstone have boldly ventured where no one’s gone for quite a while by commissioning these short stories by such famous authors. Given their length they might be sedate by “Grant Stockbridge” standards (the pseudonym under which all but the first novels were written). Pick up The Spider Chronicles. It’s the heroic ideal taken to its most bizarre limit.
Because men have so little power in modern life, Spike TV will provide them a safe place to express their opinions this year when they present the first-ever Guy’s Choice Awards. Categories will include Best Asskicker (that’s what it says in the press release), Ballsiest Band, Hottest Girl on the Planet (Saturn Girl is not eligible), Luckiest M.F. (sic, again), Luckiest Bastard, Most Dangerous Man. They also promise to deliver a prize they call The Brass Balls Award to a legendary action hero.
Unlike any other program ever on television, Spike TV dares to feature what they describe as "unbelievably foxy trophy girls."
If you’re a guy and you never, ever get to have an opinion, vote, run for office, or run a branch of government, you can make yourself feel powerful by voting at www.spiketv.com. However, you’ll have to wait until May 1. All this authority goes away when voting closes on June 1.
The official sponsors are American Express, Cingular, Jeep, Pizza Hut, Snickers, Southern Comfort and the U.S. Army.
The Associated Press reports that cartoonist Berkely Breathed is helping police in an unsolved 1979 murder of a young musician. Authorities believe the killer may have burglarized Breathed’s home when Breathed was a student at the University of Texas in Austin.
The cartoonist’s drawing of the burglary scene will be aired Saturday night on Fox’s America’s Most Wanted. "I had forgotten about it for many years," Breathed said Thursday in a telephone interview. "Once ‘America’s Most Wanted‘ called, I got angry about it all over again."
Cahill, 28, was shot to death April 13, 1979, when he confronted a burglar leaving his apartment with his guitar. The University of Texas dropout worked as a cook, but his main pursuit was a music career.
Driving up to his home with friends, he saw a man walking away with his guitar in its case. He jumped from the car, chased the man and was shot to death in his driveway. The killer escaped and was never identified.
Investigators believe the same person who shot Cahill had just broken into the apartment of a photographer in the same building.
Breathed, who now lives in Southern California, believes he surprised the intruder during the break-in at his Austin home about a week after the shooting. He said the burglar had stacked albums by his door, including Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd.
"The house was turned upside down, and it took a few minutes to understand what happened," he said.
Like similar break-ins at the time, the perpetrator seemed to be focused on a few selected items.
"He ended up killing a musician, and he was stealing music as well as photographs and photographic equipment," Breathed said. "There was this odd connection between the music and photographic community."
In 1982, Mike Gamble opened a comic book store in Willow Glen, California. Today, owned by Dan Shahin and renamed Hijinx Comics, the store is still open, still selling comics, and still entertaining the community.
Shahin started working at the store in 1986,when he was eleven years old. Paid in store credit, he sorted baseball cards and filed back issue. "Back when I first started working comics were 60 cents each and weren’t taxed, and Mike marked them down to 50 cents after a week to make sure they sold. That meant I was earning four comic books an hour to hang out in the greatest store I’d ever seen. I was in kid heaven," said Shahin. "Fast forward 20 years and I’m right back in the place where I was always happiest. I took what I learned from high tech and applied it to comics retailing. It’s the best decision I ever made
Shahin credits the store’s focus on customer service and broad selection as being the key to getting and retaining new customers in the face of competition from chain bookstores as well as multiple area specialty shops. Hijinx also features a book club program allowing customers to earn store credit for every book they purchase. Hijinx also recently launched www.comicbookshelf.com, a website devoted to reviewing, categorizing and selling graphic novels featuring
free domestic shipping or in-store pickup.
ComicMix applauds any comic book store that survives in today’s tough market, especially one that adapts and prospers.
Trey Songz will release his second album, Trey Day, June 12, via Songbook/Atlantic Records. The lead single from the album will be “Wonder Woman,” which features production from Danja. You can get a preview at his website, www.treysongz.com/
It was in early 1980 when I realized what I geek I had turned into. The night before, I had a dream. My dream was not the inspirational kind like Martin Luther King, Jr., nor the poetic kind that Neil Gaiman would later spin into a career that brings happiness to millions.
I had a geek dream.
In my dream, the Ramones tried out for the Legion of Super-Heroes, and were turned down because Legion rules didn’t allow for more than one person to have the same super-power, which, in this case, was being a Ramone. I no longer remember precisely who turned them down, but I do remember Bouncing Boy suggesting they join the Legion of Substitute Heroes. Joey wanted to, but Dee Dee refused.
Then I woke up.
I read my first Legion story in Jamestown, New York, visiting my grandparents in the late 1950s or early 1960s. I had what must have been an Adventure comic, with a story about the adult Legion of Super-Villains fighting Superman, and the adult Legion of Super-Heroes joining in. My grandparents, while lovely people, were very boring, and I dove into that comic as a way of avoiding Lawrence Welk on television. Luckily, this eight-page story had plenty to mesmerize a young girl. Cosmic King versus Cosmic Man! Lightning Lord versus Lightning Man! Saturn Queen versus Saturn Woman! The villains had regal names while the heroes had descriptive names. Clearly, ego and a class system must be what turned people bad.
Over the next several decades, I read as many Legion stories as I could. I loved the variety of powers these kids had (Matter-Eater Lad!), and that they had a meetings where they could gather and sit behind desks, with title cards that explained their abilities, in case they forgot. (“I’m Invisible Kid, but I don’t know what I do. Oh, here it says on my name-plate. I can turn invisible!”)
Anime conventions are running hot and cold this year.
IVC2 reports that Anime Expo, currently the nation’s largest anime convention with over 40,000 in attendance last year, will be moving back to its original home at the Long Beach (CA) Sports Arena on June 29 through July 2. A highlight of the show is sure to be the return engagement of "AX Singing Idol" — details can be found at the AX website. Be sure to pack the sunscreen!
We used the word "currently" up there because Reed Exhibitions, the people who brought you the New York Comic Con, have been busy organizing the first New York Anime Festival, to be held at the Javits Center on December 7 through 9.
According to Reed’s press release, the con will "span the complete breadth of anime pop culture including exclusive and extensive screenings, a gala cosplay masquerade, and sessions with the biggest names in anime from Japan, Asia, and America. The event will also explore the Japanese cultural experience with a showcase of both traditional and cutting-edge Japanese cuisine, apparel, and lifestyles." Dress warmly for the late fall!
And if you simply can’t wait until then, particularly if you live in the Northwest US and aren’t all tired out from the Emerald City Con, don’t forget that Sakura-Con 2007 ("the oldest and most well-attended Anime Convention in the Pacific Northwest — non-profit, all ages, all volunteer and ‘for the fans by the fans’") starts tomorrow, April 6, through Sunday the 8th at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle.
Logos for each of these three conventions are pictured at right. That’s a lot of anime, but really just a small cross-section of the actual anime con circuit, which is easily as impressive as the mainstream comicon circuit…