The Mix : What are people talking about today?

Dennis O’Neil’s Big Quandary


Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy night. • Bettie Davis, All About Eve, 1950

Well, maybe it’ll be a bumpy night. I mean, I’m just beginning this column. How do I know how it’ll turn out? Do I look like a prophet to you?

Okay, onward! One confession, coming up:

I am not going to continue to duck, dodge, elude, evade, ditch or even do an end run around something I should have dealt with months ago.

But… where to begin?

Before beginning, let me present to you, at no extra charge, what I imagine my delinquency concerning the matter that may be the subject of this column – it’s still early – would look like, if it existed, which it doesn’t.

...a shard of mirror, jagged and pointed and sharp, thrust into my soul stuff…

Please don’t ask me to describe “soul stuff” I’m not even sure souls exist, much less how they might appear to us. And would they appear the same way to, say, a gehinkle from the planet Blookish in the Maxima Centaur system?

A shout from the balcony. “What’s that?” I ask, cupping my ear (because I am, you know, a bit hard of hearing.) This balcony bound creature – a gehinkle? – says that I am procrastinating! Not coming to terms with the problem that lies buried in my soul.

Well, bite your snerditch, gutless gehinkle! We shall engage the matter…pretty doggone soon.

(By the way…gehinkles really don’t have guts. Just thought you should know.)

Now, where were we? – bumpy nights… snarky aliens…improvised punctuation? Oh, wait! This thing that’s been eating my lunch these past few weeks! (Full disclosure: “eating my lunch,” as it’s used above, is a locution I swiped from that excellent novelist, James Lee Burke. {You did want to know that, didn’t you?}

Speaking of lunch – I should have some. A guy needs his nourishment! I’ll take a break and get back to you.

That wasn’t exactly haute cuisine, was it? Gourmets are well advised to give Chateau O’Neil a pass. But it keeps the stomach walls from bumping into each other and that’s all we ask.

Back to today’s topic. But before we get to the gist of it, I’m wondering if I should issue a Spoiler Alert here. What’s the protocol? Not that leaving a Spoiler Alert unissued would actually ruin anything, though I can’t be sure of that. Is it better to be safe than sorry? (Have you ever noticed that life can be difficult?)

Another quandary. Is this an appropriate place to reveal the title? (And oh my gosh! Is telling you that what I’ll get around to discussing any paragraph now has a title ruining anything for you? Have I let a cat out of a bag? I mean, if you know something has a title you can figure out that it’s not, say, a battleship. Have we narrowed the possibilities too much?)

I’ve glanced at the bottom of the screen and can you believe it? Already 438 words? I’d better not waste any more of your time,

The Perils of Captain Mighty and the Salvation of Danny the Kid.

I guess I did decide to uncork the title.

New Game of Thrones Limited Edition Iron Throne Pens Arrive

Following the first set of pens celebrating the great houses in Game of Thrones, Montegrappa has issued a new series of limited edition Iron Throne pens. Capturing the essence of the most coveted seat in Westeros, the Iron Throne pens will provide fans with a talisman to cherish.
The Iron Throne Pen
To represent the intricacies and complexities of the Iron Throne itself, Montegrappa’s artisans have fashioned a cap formed of overlapping swords representing the seven kingdoms. Their hilts rise above the cap’s top to create a crown, the pommels and blades running the length of the cap itself. Standing proud is a sword that serves as the pocket clip, its hilt bearing a fiery red ruby.
At the cap’s top, surrounded by the swords’ hilts, is the Game of Thrones logo. Along the pen’s barrel, artwork in die-cast, polished and burnished precious metal represents the saga through symbols evocative of the houses, from dragons to stags.
Details of the pen are enriched with Flaming White celluloid. Game of Thrones: The Iron Throne Pen is limited to 300 fountain pens and 300 rollerball pens in Sterling Silver, denoting the year of settlement of the last of the Targaryen Kings (300AC). Seven exclusive fountain and rollerball pens cast in solid 18k gold represent the number of Kingdoms. The fountain pen is piston fed, with nib traditionally made in 18k gold, engraved with the image of the throne itself.

Box Office Democracy: War for the Planet of the Apes

I’m honestly not sure why these Planet of the Apes prequels work so well.  On paper they’re a disaster: a trilogy of prequels to a movie that while historically significant is not relevant in the modern era except for having a famous twist ending everyone knows.  Every movie sets itself up as a conflict between humans and apes and the titles reveal that the humans don’t stand much of a chance.  They work because there’s a real heart here, there are great performances from both humans and CGI apes.  Everyone in War for the Planet of the Apes cares about the stakes so much that you can’t help but be completely invested.  These movies are beacons of earnestness in a cynical, sarcastic, landscape.

There’s a lot of plot in War and I’m not sure it’s all necessary.  Head ape Caesar (Andy Serkis) wants to lead his people out of the woods they’ve been living in since the last movie because it’s suddenly untenable.  There is word of some paradise out past the desert and the apes plan to move out.  I don’t want to spoil any of the emotional beats but Caesar ends up not going with the rest of the apes and instead goes with the only two characters I remember from the last movie and a newcomer and try to hunt down the colonel leading the aggressive human military (Woody Harrelson).  The colonel is afraid of a disease that is somehow taking higher brain function away from humans and this has put him at odds with other human factions.  This all ties together with a rescued human girl who has the disease and an awfully depressing ape concentration camp.

That’s a lot of story even for two and a half hours.  War wants to linger in the bigger moments, and it should— those are absolutely the strongest parts of the film— but it ends up throwing away good stuff.  The whole illness plot builds to the predictable end, the colonel contracts the disease and kills himself, but it happens with 20 minutes left in the movie and I don’t think it affected the outcome.  By taking the disease bit out of the climax and making it basically inconsequential all it actually does is give us a cop out for Caesar’s journey of revenge.  He doesn’t have to decide to kill the colonel.  Maybe the disease just exists to explain why the humans in the original Planet of the Apes couldn’t talk but that’s such a long way to go for something that no one really cared about in a movie from 1968.

This is a well-directed movie, a gorgeously shot movie, and the series features some of the best CGI acting I’ve ever seen.  Andy Serkis has been doing this for a decade but he’s amazing at doing performance capture.  I wouldn’t give him an Oscar for this part (it just isn’t nuanced enough) but it shouldn’t be discounted because of the medium.  In an era when it seems like all of the big budget action movies are jockeying to show how little their leads can care about anything, the Planet of the Apes franchise is going the other way.  Everyone in this movie cares a lot all the time.  There’s a family-like relationship here that is exactly like the one Fast & Furious would tell you they have, but here they show it instead.  I want these apes to feel happy and know peace even though in the fiction that means the death of most of the humans.  This movie has me rooting against my own people.

I understand that they have plans to make as many as two more in this series and as much as I enjoyed this one I sort of wish they would stop.  I don’t know how to escalate from here.  The last movie has a well-meaning human who was pushed too far.  This one had an actually evil human pushed too far.  I don’t want to see them try to heighten past ape concentration camps.  It’s either time to get in to the minutia of building an ape society (and maybe don’t try that) or it’s time for Charlton Heston to fall from the sky.  (I suppose it could be time for Mark Wahlberg to fall from the sky but gross.)  I want this series to stop feeling like it’s spinning its wheels and while the end of this one suggests they’re sensitive to that problem I’m ready to just get to it being a planet of apes by now.

My Favorite Thing Is Monsters by Emil Ferris

Karen Reyes is ten years old in 1968, and she loves monsters. Monster movies, monster magazines, the idea of monsters — imagining that there are real monsters around her in her normal Chicago life. She’s also seriously bullied and outcast, with no real close friends as the book begins. And she’s telling us her own story, drawing it page-by-page in a series of notebooks, with herself as a kid-werewolf PI in fedora and trenchcoat.

But My Favorite Thing Is Monsters is not cute. And it’s also not the kind of book where the reader understands the truth of what’s opaque to the narrator, like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Karen is young, and there’s a lot of things she doesn’t know, and she does want to become a movie-monster, but she’s mostly clear-eyed about the world around her, and she’s good at finding things out and piecing things together. (She will make a good detective when she grows up.)

And her upstairs neighbor, Anka Silverberg, did just die — shot in the heart in her living room, though found dead in her bed. Since the apartment was locked at the time, the police have closed the case quickly as a suicide. But Anka has deep secrets from her life in Berlin before and during WW II — and she’s not the only one with secrets in the building, from her musician husband to the minor-gangster landlord and his hot-to-trot-wife, to the ventriloquist in the basement and Karen’s twenty-something amateur-gigolo brother Deez and hillbilly mother.

Karen does meet some other kids who she sees as monsters, or possible monsters. And one of those may not be entirely a real person who actually exists in the world. So there’s some unreliable-narrator elements, or fabulist elements, in the mix as well. But, at her core, Karen is honest and straightforward: she’s trying to find out the truth, and has some good tools for doing so.

The truth — which doesn’t all come out in this book, the first of at least two — looks to be bigger and more dangerous and complicated than one ten-year-old girl can fix. And her family has clearly been trying to keep some big secrets from her, like Deez’s relationship with Anka.

I’ve tagged this book as “Fantasy,” but I don’t think it really is. But it’s a book about the fantasies that we have, and about how fantasy creatures can make real life bearable.

All that is told as if drawn by Karen — don’t think too hard about when she has the time to draw this much, or how she got this good at the age of ten — in colored pens on pages lined in blue, to mimic a notebook. There’s around five hundred of those pages, though none of them are numbered, and there are a lot of words on many of these large pages. My Favorite Thing Is Monsters is a big book in every way: physically large, full of words, impressive pictorially, challenging in subject matter and storytelling.

This is Emil Ferris’s first book — she’s a woman about the age Karen Reyes would be, grown up, and she seems to have been a kid like Karen back in the late ’60s. I have no idea how many of the elements of Monsters came out of Ferris’s own life, real or transmuted over time, but I can say that Monsters is nothing like a memoir. It is a fully-formed story, about a deeply individual young woman, stuck in a bad situation — several bad situations, overlapping — and trying to cope with it through intellect and rational thought and just a bit of wishing.

It’s a very impressive graphic novel. Several dozen more influential people have said that before me, and they’re all very right. Debuts like this don’t come around very often. This is something very special.

Reposted from The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.

Mike Gold: How To Celebrate National Hot Dog Day

I have a leg in each of two worlds, having spent half of my life living in the Chicagoland area and the other half living in the New York metropolitan area, a.k.a. “The Big Apple” so don’t give me any shit about the word “Chicagoland.” New Yorkers have a problem when it comes to comparisons with other cities, particularly the so-called Windy one, named by a New York newspaper editor who previously held the same position in Chicago. And he wasn’t referring to the weather, but to the native approach to political negotiation.

The fastest way for a New Yorker and a Chicagoan to get into an argument is to say the word “pizza.” Second to that: “hot dogs.” But as they say, the proof is in the pudding. Whereas it is well-known that I loathe airlines and airports, the real reason I drive between the Atlantic Northeast and the Inter-Ocean so frequently is that I am compelled to bring back six to twelve pounds of Vienna hot dogs, also known as the Chicago dog, back to over a half-dozen jonesing New Yorkers.

One of the best-known elements of the Chicago hot dog experience is that it is never served – to adults – with ketchup. There have been several books written about this. My landsmen will tell you it’s disgusting and it hides the taste of the sausage.

Of course, that’s bullshit. The traditional Chicago dog is served with mustard, onions (raw or grilled), tomato, relish, a pickle spear, peppers and the most important ingredient: a dash of celery salt. Really, put ketchup on that and nobody will notice – other than Chicagoans. When the famed Nathan’s opened a store in Chicago, they told CBS that their hot dogs do not need all that crap. The reporter, who was not from the Midwest, responded: “but isn’t the traditional Nathan’s hot dog served with sauerkraut?” Nathan’s Chicago store closed down in short order.

But this week the Heinz ketchup company decided enough is enough. There’s money they’re not making in the Windy City, and they need to raise consciousness. They’ve started marketing a concoction called “Chicago Dog Sauce” and, today – National Hot Dog Day – Heinz is giving away an abattoir full of Chicago dogs with the stuff. They even made a cute little video about it.

It’s a very clever gag and a brilliant promotion campaign. If they’re thinking it will cause a major shift in local taste… well, I’m sure they do not. Not even Donald Trump is that stupid. Oh, screw that: Trump eats New York thin crust pizza with a knife and fork, even while in New York City!

It has widely reported that the phrase “hot dog” was the creation of turn-of-the-last-century cartoonist T.A.D. Dorgan. This may be apocryphal – and that Windy City origin might be as well. The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council reports “Some say the word was coined in 1901 at the New York Polo Grounds on a cold April day. Vendors were hawking hot dogs from portable hot water tanks shouting “They’re red hot! Get your dachshund sausages while they’re red hot!” A New York Journal sports cartoonist, Tad (sic) Dorgan, observed the scene and hastily drew a cartoon of barking dachshund sausages nestled warmly in rolls. Not sure how to spell ‘dachshund’ he simply wrote ‘hot dog!’ The cartoon is said to have been a sensation, thus coining the term “hot dog.”

The sausage itself was invented in Vienna Austria in 1487, it gathered national attention in America at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, and the hot dog bun was invented at the St. Louis World’s Fair of 1904. Doubtlessly, German and Austrian immigrants were selling these puppies throughout North America during their great immigration throughout the latter half of the 19th Century, suggesting the hot dog was popularized by anarchists.

I realize the Heinz stunt is simply that: a clever promotion and nothing more. I’d be mildly surprised to see their Chicago Dog Sauce on the shelves of the local Jewel Foods chain when I’m next out there buying hot dogs for New Yorkers, but I would not be surprised in the least if it were to be available as a condiment option at the Vienna Sausage company store.

O.K. You can tell the vegans they can come back now.

UCP Expanding Development Slate w/ Dan Harmon, The Raven Cycle & more

UNIVERSAL CABLE PRODUCTIONS ANNOUNCES KEY PROJECTS EXPANDING AWARD-WINNING STUDIO’S DISTINGUISHED GENRE DEVELOPMENT SLATE

 

Notable Projects Include:

Maggie Stiefvater’s New York Times Bestselling Series “The Raven Cycle” With Andrew Miller (“The Secret Circle”), Catherine Hardwicke (“Twilight”) And Michael London of Groundswell Productions (“The Magicians”)

Hugh Howey’s Renowned Post-Apocalyptic Series “Sand” With Gary Whitta (“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”), Marc Forster (“World War Z”) And Imperative Entertainment

“Sirens of Titan” With Dan Harmon (“Rick & Morty”) and Evan Katz (“Small Crimes”)

 

Announces Evan Spiliotopoulos (“Beauty and the Beast”)

To Write Highly Anticipated “Welcome to Hitchcock” Series


Options Iconic Hugo Award-Winning Science Fantasy Novel “Lord of Light”

 

UNIVERSAL CITY, CA- July 18, 2017– As the annual gathering of TV and comic’s most loyal fans at San Diego’s Comic-Con International 2017 kicks offtomorrow, Universal Cable Productions (UCP) unveiled today its annual genre development slate of notable projects for TV. The studio will also showcase talent and shows with fan-focused events, panels and screenings in conjunction with network partners at the celebrated convention. UCP series with a Comic-Con presence include: “12 Monkeys,” “Blood Drive,” “Channel Zero,” “Colony,” “Happy!,” “The Magicians,” “Mr. Robot” and “Psych: The Movie.”

 

“We’re passionate about genre at UCP and as our latest development slate shows, we continue to work with some of the industry’s most vibrant and imaginative talent to bring fans genre fare they can get behind,” said Jeff Wachtel, Chief Content Officer, NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment and President, Universal Cable Productions. “What began with Battlestar Galactica has grown into a mainstay for UCP as the genre itself has exploded into the mainstream.”

 

UCP today announced it is developing Maggie Stiefvater’s New York Times bestselling book series “The Raven Cycle” and Hugh Howey’s iconic post-apocalyptic novel series “Sand” for SYFY.

 

Based on Stiefvater’s four urban fantasy novels, “The Raven Cycle” tells the story of seventeen year old Blue Sargent who becomes involved with a group of four privileged private school boys on a quest to find a source of mythical and mysterious power hidden deep in rural Virginia. The closer they get to taking control of their destiny, the more threatening their journey becomes – both physically and emotionally, as Blue discovers she’s fated to kill one of the boys. Michael London (“The Magicians”) of Groundswell Productions will executive produce alongside showrunner/writer Andrew Miller (“The Secret Circle”) and Catherine Hardwicke (“Twilight”). Stiefvater will serve as co-EP. Hardwicke is also attached to direct the pilot.

 

“Sand,” a co-production with Imperative Entertainment, is an action drama set in a world ravaged by ecological devastation, savage winds, and shifting dunes. At its center is a family who makes their way in this world as sand divers: the elite few who can travel deep beneath the desert floor to retrieve mysterious and valuable relics lost to the dust. Adrift in the wake of their father’s disappearance years ago, they rely on skill and each other to endure this ruthless environment where otherwise good people lie, sabotage, and kill in order to survive. The series has an impressively large canvas of works, while telling a compelling and intimate story based on the best-selling dystopian novels by New York Times bestselling author Hugh Howey, who is also set to executive produce. The novels will be adapted for television by Executive Producer Gary Whitta (“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”). The pilot will be directed by Marc Forster (“World War Z”) who will also executive produce along with his partner Renee Wolf (“All I See Is You”); Imperative Entertainment’s Dan Friedkin (“All The Money in the World”), Tim Kring (“Heroes”) and Justin Levy (“Teen Wolf”) will also serve as executive producers.

 

Following up to last year’s development announcement of “Welcome to Hitchcock,” UCP announced today that Evan Spiliotopoulos (“Beauty and The Beast”) is attached to write the series, which is inspired by the work of Hollywood’s master of suspense and brings a modern day take on the very best of Alfred Hitchcock with contemporary retellings of his classic tales from innovative filmmakers and high-profile actors. UCP will collaborate on the project with Vermilion Entertainment, the newly formed television production company by the founders of Cross Creek Pictures, as well as Academy Award®-nominated producer Chris Columbus’ 1492 Pictures/Ocean Blue Entertainment. Columbus, Academy Award®-nominated producer Michael Barnathan, Timmy Thompson and Todd Thompson will serve as executive producers along with the Hitchcock Trust, as part of its development deal with UCP.

 

UCP is also working on “Sirens of Titan,” with Dan Harmon (“Rick & Morty”) and Evan Katz (“Small Crimes”). The story follows Malachi Constant, the richest man in 22nd-century America. He possesses extraordinary luck which he attributes to divine favor and has used to build upon his father’s fortune. He becomes the center point of a journey that takes him from Earth to Mars in preparation for an interplanetary war, to Mercury with another Martian survivor of that war, back to Earth to be pilloried as a sign of Man’s displeasure with his arrogance, and finally to Titan where he again meets the man ostensibly responsible for the turn of events that have befallen him.

 

The studio also announced it has optioned “Lord of Light,” based on the Hugo award-winning science fantasy novel by Roger Zelazny. After humans have moved to a new planet, technological disparities allow a privileged few to assume the names and likenesses of deities, and rule over the common people. Tired of the system, a former “god” wages war against the unjust regime. Set to produce are Gale Anne Hurd (the “Terminator” trilogy) and Valhalla Entertainment; Barry Ira Gellar, Rich Angell and Mark B. Newbauer of Mike and Pike Productions.  Ashley Miller (“X-Men”) will executive produce and is also set to write the adaptation.

“The Raven Cycle,” “Sand,” “Sirens of Titan,” and “Lord of Light” are the latest addition to UCP’s impressive genre development slate, including two projects from its recently announced overall deal with legendary horror master John Carpenter: “Tales for a Halloween Night” for SYFY and “Nightside.”On the heels of their “Umbrella Academy” Netflix series pick-up, UCP also announced yesterday a renewed first look deal with Dark Horse Entertainment to develop comic book IP and hit podcasts for TV. Currently, UCP is in various stages of production and script development on a range of series including: Season 3 of the award-winning “Mr. Robot,” “The Sinner,” “Damnation,” and“Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G” for USA Network; “Happy!” for SYFY; “The Purge” for USA Network and SYFY; “All That Glitters” for Bravo; and “Impulse” for YouTube Red.

 

UCP SERIES AND STUDIO PRESENCE AT SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON 2017:

USA NETWORK’S ‘MR. ROBOT’ EXPERIENCE

From Universal Cable Productions, USA’s critically acclaimed series “Mr. Robot” will offer fans a chance to visit the nefarious E Corp’s “Bank of E,” located at 327 4th Avenue, and receive their own E Corp card loaded with E Coin currency. The E Corp card, which can also be opened online at e-coin.com, can be used throughout San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter for food, drinks and other surprises at participating retailers (to be announced). ‘Con goers can also visit the show’s infamous Red Wheelbarrow BBQ, located next door to the Bank of E, and present their E Corp card for a BBQ meal. Superfans looking for a deeper “Mr. Robot” experience will have the chance to uncover clues, hints and surprises throughout Red Wheelbarrow and the Gaslamp, leading further into Elliot’s world. The Bank of E will be open for businessThursday, July 20 through Saturday, July 22 from 11am – 7pm and Sunday, July 23 from 11am – 4pm.

 

PANELS, SCREENINGS & EVENTS
Thursday, July 20th

Colony (USA Network): Cast and Creators Season 3 Panel Discussion

2:00pm – 2:45pm – Indigo Ballroom, Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel

Battlestar Galactica (SYFY) Cast and Creator Reunion Panel

2:30pm – 3:30pm – Ballroom 20

12 Monkeys (SYFY): Cast and Creator Panel Discussion

7:15pm – 8:15pm – 6BCF

 

Friday, July 21st

Psych (USA Network):  Cast Reunion and Movie Sneak Peek

10:00am – 11:00am – Ballroom 20

 

 

Saturday, July 22nd

Happy! (SYFY): Premiere Screening and Cast Q&A

2:45pm – 3:45pm – 6BCF

The Magicians (SYFY) Panel Discussion with Cast

4:00pm – 4:50pm – Indigo Ballroom, Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel

Channel Zero No End House (SYFY): Consumer Screening

8:00pm – 9:00pm – Horton Grand Theater

Blood Drive (SYFY): Consumer Screening

9:30pm – 10:30p – Horton Grand Theater

 

About Universal Cable Productions

Universal Cable Productions (UCP) creates innovative and critically acclaimed original scripted content for all media platforms. Its robust slate of programming includes:  the Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning drama “Mr. Robot,” “Colony,”  “Damnation”  (2017), “Falling Water,” “Playing House,” “Shooter,” ” The Sinner,” “Suits” and “Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G” (2018) for USA Network; “12 Monkeys,” “Blood Drive,” “Channel Zero,” “Happy!” (2018), “Killjoys” and “The Magicians”for SYFY; “The Purge” (2018) for USA and SYFY; “All That Glitters” (2018),“Girlfriends’ Guide To Divorce” and “Imposters” for Bravo; “The Arrangement” and “The Royals” for E!; “The Umbrella Academy” (2018) for Netflix; “Impulse” (2018) for YouTube Red; “Difficult People” for Hulu; and“HarmonQuest” for Seeso. UCP’s content library also features critic and fan favorites such as the Emmy-award winning “Monk” as well as “Battlestar Galactica” and “Psych.” Universal Cable Productions is a part of NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment, a division of NBCUniversal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies. Follow us @UCPisTV.

Watch the Professor Marston and the Wonder Women Full Trailer

Coming October 27, on the heels of the smash worldwide success of Warner Bros’ Wonder Woman, comes the bio pic about her creator, William Moulton Marston. Professor Marston and the Wonder Women explores the unusual relationship between professor Marston, his wife Elizabeth, and his student-turned-secretary Olive Byrne. Previously known to few beyond comic book scholars, the story finally gained mainstream attention in Jill Lepore’s excellent The Secret History of Wonder Woman.

In a superhero origin tale unlike any other, the film is the incredible true story of what inspired Harvard psychologist Dr. William Moulton Marston to create the iconic Wonder Woman character in the 1940’s. While Marston’s feminist superhero was criticized by censors for her ‘sexual perversity’, he was keeping a secret that could have destroyed him. Marston’s muses for the Wonder Woman character were his wife Elizabeth Marston and their lover Olive Byrne, two empowered women who defied convention: working with Marston on human behavior research — while building a hidden life with him that rivaled the greatest of superhero disguises

The film stars Luke Evans as Marston, Rebecca Hall as Elizabeth Holloway Marston, Bella Heathcote as Olive. It also stars Connie Britton with Oliver Platt portraying M.Cm Gaines, the comic book mogul who challenged Marston, a one-time critic of comics, to write one for All-American Comics.

The Lion King gets Signature Collection Treatment in August

BURBANK, Calif. (July 16 2017) — It was announced today at D23 Expo that in August, one of the biggest animated films in history—The Lion King—joins the highly celebrated Walt Disney Signature Collection. The coming-of-age masterpiece, filled with humor and heart, breathtaking animation and soul-stirring Academy Award®–winning music (1994: Best Original Score and Best Original Song, “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”), arrives on Digital on Aug. 15 and on Blu-ray and DVD on Aug. 29.

Audiences will fall in love all over again with the treasured classic, and a new generation of fans will laugh with Timon and Pumbaa, cry with Simba and Mufasa, burst into song, and find their place in the “Circle of Life.” The Walt Disney Signature Collection release includes over three hours of classic bonus material and exclusive,  brand new features inviting viewers to sing along with the film’s award-winning music, observe recording sessions, step inside the story room, witness the evolution of a villain, and join Nathan Lane (voice of Timon) and Matthew Broderick (voice of Adult Simba) for an extended conversation regarding the legacy of The Lion King.

The Lion King follows the adventures of Simba, a feisty lion cub who cannot wait to be king, as he searches for his destiny in the great “Circle of Life.” The film earned a Golden Globe® for Best Motion Picture—Comedy or Musical and inspired a Tony Award®-winning Broadway musical that is currently the third longest-running musical in Broadway history. In 2019, a reimagined live-action film, helmed by Jon Favreau, will delight audiences with the thrilling retelling of the original tale utilizing groundbreaking technological advances—as only Disney can do.

The Lion King is the fifth title to join the Walt Disney Signature Collection, which includes groundbreaking films created or inspired by the imagination and legacy of Walt Disney, featuring timeless stories and characters that have touched generations. It takes its place alongside Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Beauty and the Beast, Pinocchio and Bambi.

Bonus Features:

BLU-RAY, DIGITAL*:

  • Brand New Sing-Along Version
  • Audio Commentary – View the film with commentary by producer Don Hahn and co-directors Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff.
  • Visualizing a Villain – Against a backdrop of live dancers and the animated “Be Prepared” sequence, artist David Garibaldi paints a masterpiece of evil.
  • The Recording Sessions – Watch rare footage of the actors recording their roles, matched with the final animation. Intro by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff.
  • Nathan and Matthew: The Extended Lion King Conversation – Nathan Lane (Timon) and Matthew Broderick (Adult Simba) offer candid and hilarious insights into their Lion King experiences.
  • Inside the Story Room – Co-directors Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff present archival footage of five original story pitches.

o    Circle of Life – See how color creates emotion and meaning in the film’s iconic opening.
o    Simba & Nala – See how elements proposed in story meetings evolve into what appears onscreen.
o    Simba Takes Nala Out to Play – …And, sometimes what seems funny in story meetings never makes it into the film!
o    Hakuna Matata – Co-directors Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff sing, act and dance their hearts out as they pitch the “Hakuna Matata” sequence.
o    Rafiki and Reflecting Pool – Co-directors Roger Allers & Rob Minkoff pitch a sequence that became the emotional heart of The Lion King to Producer Don Hahn.

  • Music & More – Sing along to your favorite songs from the movie!

o   “Circle of Life”
o   “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King”
o   “Be Prepared”
o   “Hakuna Matata”
o   “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”

  • Galleries

o   Visual Development – Explore a gallery of striking artwork that inspired the movie’s look and feel.
o   Character Design – Trace the development of the film’s unforgettable characters through early concept art drawings.
o   Storyboards – Examine storyboards created in the development of The Lion King.
o   Layouts – Feast your eyes on layouts created in the development of The Lion King.
o   Backgrounds & Layouts – Journey through a gallery of landscape paintings that shaped the world of The Lion King.

  • Classic Bonus Features (Digital Only) – These offerings from prior home entertainment releases include hours of bonus material, such as bloopers, audio commentary, deleted and alternate scenes, and in-depth journeys into the music, film, story, animals and stage show.

*Bonus features may vary by retailer

DISC SPECIFICATIONS:

Product SKUs: Blu-ray Combo Pack (Blu-ray, DVD, Digital Copy), Digital HD/SD, DVD
Feature Run Time: Approximately 89 minutes
Rating: G in U.S. and Canada
Aspect Ratio: Blu-ray Feature Film = 1080p High Definition / 1.78:1, DVD Feature Film = 1.78:1
Audio: Blu-ray = English 7.1 DTS-HDMA, Spanish and French 5.1 Dolby Digital Language Tracks
DVD = English, Spanish, and French 5.1 Dolby Digital Language Tracks
Subtitles: English ESL, English SDH, French & Spanish

Mind MGMT and Flutter Comics Developed for TV

Mind MGMT and Flutter Comics Developed for TV

UNIVERSAL CABLE PRODUCTIONS AND DARK HORSE ENTERTAINMENT RENEW FIRST-LOOK DEAL;

 

ANNOUNCE DEVELOPMENT OF POPULAR COMIC BOOKS “MIND MGMT,” “FLUTTER” AND HIT PODCASTS “TANIS,” “THE BRIGHT SESSIONS” FOR TV 

“The Blacklist” Producer Dan Cerone to Develop “Mind MGMT”

 

Katherine Lindberg and Marc Rosen (“Sense8”) To Adapt “Flutter”

               

“The Son’s” Lee Shipman and podcast creator Terry Miles To Adapt “Tanis” With Sam Raimi (“Evil Dead”) and Debbie Liebling (“South Park”) Producing

 

Gabrielle G. Stanton (“The Flash”) To Adapt “The Bright Sessions” With Creator And Star Lauren Shippen

 

UNIVERSAL CITY, CA- July 17, 2017- On the heels of their “Umbrella Academy” series pick-up on Netflix, Universal Cable Productions and Dark Horse Entertainment have renewed their first-look deal to continue developing and producing scripted programming from the distinguished publisher’s comic book library, as well as new original material. UCP continues to roll out its impressive genre development slate with Dark Horse Entertainment’s “Mind MGMT,” from Matt Kindt, to be developed for TV by Dan Cerone (“The Blacklist”); “Flutter” based on Jennie Wood’s acclaimed LGBTQ comic, being adapted by Katherine Lindberg and Marc Rosen (“Sense8”); “Tanis,” based on the hit podcast, to be developed by Lee Shipman (“The Son”) and Terry Miles, creator of the podcast, and produced by Sam Raimi (“Evil Dead”) and Debbie Liebling (“South Park”) through their company POD 3; and “The Bright Sessions” being adapted for television by Gabrielle G. Stanton (“Grey’s Anatomy,” “The Flash”) and the creator and star of the podcast, Lauren Shippen.

 

“Dark Horse Entertainment is a comic mastermind with deep knowledge of the genre and an expertise in developing content” said Dawn Olmstead, Executive Vice President of Development, Universal Cable Productions. “We’re excited to continue to partner with Mike Richardson and Keith Goldberg as we kick off our series Umbrella Academy on Netflix and shepherd the many adaptions we have set up around town.”

 

“Dark Horse is proud to continue its partnership with Universal Cable Productions. Our companies have worked together closely with great success. We have some exciting projects in the works and couldn’t be happier about continuing the relationship,” said Mike Richardson, President of Dark Horse Entertainment.

UCP and Dark Horse are developing the popular graphic novel from New York Times Best-seller and artist Matt Kindt “Mind MGMT,” which will be adapted for television by Dan Cerone (“The Blacklist”). The series follows a true crime writer searching for the truth behind a mysterious airline flight who discovers a secret government agency of spies with psychic abilities. Henry Lyme, the former top agent, has gone rogue and is working to investigate and dismantle the organization.

 

“Flutter,” is based on the critically acclaimed, award-winning LGBTQ graphic novel series created and written by Jennie Wood with art by Jeff McComsey, published by 215 Ink, about a teenage shapeshifter who turns herself into a boy to get the straight girl that she has a crush on. Katherine Lindberg and Marc Rosen (“Sense8″) are writing the television adaptation.

 

Additionally, UCP and Dark Horse are developing two podcasts for television:

 

“Tanis,” is based on the serialized, bi-weekly podcast. The series follows Nic Silver on his search to unravel what he thinks might be the last great mystery of the internet age. “Tanis” is what happens when the lines of science and fiction start to blur. Lee Shipman (“The Son”) is attached to adapt with podcast creator Terry Miles. Sam Raimi (“Evil Dead”) and Debbie Liebling (“South Park”) will produce through their company POD 3, along with Dark Horse.

 

“The Bright Sessions,” is a science fiction drama that follows a mysterious therapist and her unique set of patients, each struggling with a supernatural ability. Created and written by Lauren Shippen, the podcast has been downloaded over 6 million times in under 2 years and was widely recognized as one of the best podcasts of 2016. The development for television is being written by Gabrielle G. Stanton (“Grey’s Anatomy,” “The Flash”) and Shippen.

 

The studio and publisher previously announced the active development of “Harrow County,” based on the comic book written by Cullen Bunn (“The Damned,” “The Sixth Gun”) and illustrated by Tyler Crook (“Bad Blood”), and the Eisner award-winning “Concrete” from comic legend Paul Chadwick.

 

“Mind MGMT,” “Flutter,” “Tanis” and “The Bright Sessions” are the latest additions to UCP’s impressive genre development slate, including two projects from John Carpenter’s recently announced overall deal “Tales for a Halloween Night” for SYFY and “Nightside.”  In addition to the recent series pick-up of “Umbrella Academy” on Netflix with Dark Horse, UCP is currently in various stages of production and script development on a range of series including: “Happy!” for SYFY; “The Sinner,” “Damnation,” and “Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G” for USA Network; “The Purge” for USA Network and SYFY; “All That Glitters” for Bravo; and “Impulse” for YouTube Red.

Joe Corallo: Unmasked Is Back!

Well, I haven’t highlighted a Kickstarter in about a month so I’m going to end that dry spell right now.

Last week Michael Sarrao launched a Kickstarter campaign for his latest graphic novel, Unmasked Volume 2: Promethean. Unsurprisingly, this is the follow up to Unmasked: The New Age Heroes Volume 1 which was Kickstarted back on August 26, 2012. Maybe slightly more surprisingly this is also a follow up to Unmasked: Signal the 32 page one shot which bridges the events of Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 that was also funded on Kickstarter back on April 13, 2014. Both volumes were illustrated by John Broglia and Signal was illustrated by Anthony Gregori.

In total, this will be Michael Sarrao’s fourth comic book Kickstarter. All of his previous campaigns have been successful, and this campaign is only a week in and well on its way to reaching its goal. Michael was kind enough to send me a digital copy of the first chapter of Volume 2 so I can tell you all about it.

Before I get into it I’d like to talk a little bit about Unmasked in general. The story takes place in the fictional city of Seastone where superheroes debuted in 1938 and prominent through the 90s but were absent in the 2000s to be replaced by a more ruthless and violent group of heroes. This captures the interest of a rookie reporter, Paige Cruise, whose father was the world’s foremost superhero expert but has since gone missing. Paige Cruise is out to find out who these new heroes are and is on a mission to unmask them with mixed results.

Now you, loyal reader, may be saying to yourself, “Oh I guess Paige, a reporter, does a lot of research and snooping around to find out who these superheroes really are,” and I have to tell you, “Not exactly, no.” Then you might say, “Well she doesn’t just burst onto the scene and physically grab heroes masks off their faces, right?” To which I have to tell you, “Actually, that’s exactly what she does.” Yes, she physically grabs heroes masks off. I know, it sounds cheesy, but that’s the point. Unmasked is basically a blend of campy Silver Age comics fare played straight with a Watchmen aesthetic. Yes, the threats are all real, but they were in the Silver Age too.

Okay, you’re caught up now? Good. Onto the new stuff!

Unmasked Volume 2: Promethean opens more or less where the series left off. Paige Cruise is still on her quest to unmask heroes though now she herself openly desires to be one, we’re introduced to more chaotic players like Deathdevil, and we learn more about the past of the superheroes in this world.

Where Unmasked: The New Age Heroes Volume 1 feels heavy on the Watchmen tone, Volume 2 blends new elements together and has more of a The Wicked + The Divine tone to it. I love that Image series so I’m not complaining. Michael Sarrao plays a dangerous game here balancing some of the cheesier elements of superhero stories while keeping the tone consistent and getting the reader to take the story seriously and keep the stakes high.

This is the superhero comic you wanted to make and everyone told you no and gave you a long list of why you shouldn’t; mostly because there are just too many places it could all go wrong. Michael has not only successfully handled this material, but he did it his way and has two successful Kickstarters under his belt with this material alone and soon to have a third in the Unmasked-Verse when the Volume 2 campaign wraps up.

I do have to say that none of this would have likely happened for Michael if he didn’t get John Broglia to do the artwork. I may be a little biased because John is one of my favorite people working in comics right now, but he expertly executes a concept that walks a thin line. He gives Unmasked a pop art vibe, with the vital help of colorist Paul Little, elevating the story far more than any words could. Just skimming through these pages you can interpret the tone of this book flawless. It’s a necessary skill in comics, but difficult to master. John Broglia makes it look all too easy.

Having read the first chapter of Unmasked Volume 2: Promethean I can honestly say it has a lot of promise and it’s a stronger start than the first volume. If you’re into indie superhero titles, this is required reading. Check out their Kickstarter campaign and think about donating.

Join me next week when I interview a comic creator on a new project and then the week after when I get back to writing really pretentious stuff!

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