August 2008 Archives

The word on the new "Star Trek" story is here at Rotten Tomatoes and in even greater detail over at Chud.com.

I was not waiting with great anticipation for yet ANOTHER remake of anything. Not that I am against the remakes, just a little tired of hearing about yet another one being announced.

And then this bit of information. Could it be that J.J. Abrams will deliver a Star Trek that is not a remake even though the new cast has been announced to be playing familiar characters in the same old starship?

I guess the answer is "yes" and "no."

The Abrams plot for this new 'Trek' is said to follow Leonard Nimoy as Spock to the past where he encounters the original crew and must help to stop a Romulan plot to kill a young Captain Kirk before he breaks a foot off in their... plans in the years to come.

A future Spock from the current continuity meeting with this young version of himself and the old crew? It is suggested at Chud that this could branch into numerous possibilities for new stories with old staff. If it's played right this may be cool and if not then at least interesting to see.

I am intrigued by the silver car and wonder which autobot that may be in this video clip from the Transformers 2 shoot in Long Beach. It looks like Bumblebee is following with Optimus Prime backing them up.

The other stuff is of a purple-blue car that my "green" co-worker is really interested in called the Volt. For even more, click here for pictures of several cars at the Movie Chronicles.

GM responds about the Chevy Volt unveiling

And for the video...

This clip is from The Movie Chronicles and is described as a cell phone take of one of the explosions the other night from the set of Transformers 2 shooting over here in Long Beach.

It's sideways, but the sound and some flash can be made out.

I don't take it for granted there are certain comics (and we can call them graphic novels too), that have led me to accept many comic characters as archetypal creations... I mean, I titled this place Modern Mythology for goodness sake.

Even more obvious, I agree that this concept doesn't apply to every comic character. (Howard the Duck has his appeal but even I haven't figured out how to work him into a mythology yet.)

Nevertheless, it was good to sit in with a book group club at Geoffrey's Comics in Gardena as they dissected Grant Morrison and Dave McKean's "Arkham Asylum." Published in 1989, an unforgettable story - whether you like it or not - where the inmates of the asylum (Joker, Two-Face, etc.) are free and holding hostages until Batman turns himself in to them.

While he is their prisoner the Joker plans to drive him insane.

The artwork and writing were progressive and aggressive. Both creators turned out to be stars in their own right 15 years later. Morrison is a top writer at DC Comics and McKean directs films and is a well-known collaborator of Neil Gaiman ("Sandman," "Coraline").

I learned a thing or two while listening to the "Comic Book Club" examine the graphic novel's art, pacing and meaning.

"This story is Batman 'Through the Looking Glass,'" said Geoffrey Patterson Jr, who co-manages the store and runs the book club. 

 Some even described the story as Batman's descent into hell. Each ex-enemy he visits he is judged by.

Morrison and McKean play with several pieces of cultural judgment mythology. Even using the image of Anubis over the entrance (the Egyptian trickster figure.) as Joker welcomes Batman into the asylum.

Enough from me, check out some excerpts from the video of the gathering if you haven't already. Hopefully, I'll bring you more insights and discussion from the group in the near future.

 

I think the last time I mentioned the possibility of an Academy Award nomination for late actor Heath Ledger for his performance as the Joker in "The Dark Knight," I had been rudely dismissed.

In the company of some fans of the film, however, what I mentioned was as certain to them as the sun rising the next day.

"At least a nod," says one of the members of a graphic novel book club at Geoffrey's Comics in Gardena.

Warner Bros. will not disagree with that. A story in The Hollywood Reporter  says the studio is planning a DVD release around the holidays and is also planning to "push Ledger for some of the year end awards."

The story's writer considers the Golden Globes a "certainty" and I would have to agree.

This is serious, folks. The super hero subject matter of "The Dark Knight" should not easily dismiss whether an acting performance in the film was nuanced, skilled and in this case, unforgettable.

Plans were made by television show creator Joss Whedon and producer/comic writer Jeph Loeb (ULTIMATES 3, CAPTAIN AMERICA: WHITE) to bring a "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" animated series to the small screen several years ago.

This is before the huge reception of animated television on cable. While the idea wasn't well received then, there is a resurgent drumbeat for the concept now.

Even better, there's an online petition as reported on the MTV movie blog and a "leaked' YouTube trailer running a little more than three minutes. I say catch it while it is still online, because it isn't bad.

Admittedly, I followed the TV series and I also follow the "Buffy" comic series dubbed "Buffy Season 8," a successful (Ranks in the top ten in monthly comics sales) continuation of the live-action television series.

Don't know if the show will happen but at least we can check out the trailer below:

This may veer a little off our normal road here, but this is Vin Diesel coming back in "Fast & Furious," the fourth film in the series with the stars that made the original worth the ticket price.

That's right, Diesel is back and this trailer exclusive at Rotten Tomatoes shows his co-stars Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster and, um, that Paul Walker guy.

Director Justin Lin (BETTER LUCK TOMORROW and THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT), has the helm again. And while "Tokyo Drift" was a little uneven, I expect this one will draw more folks to the screens than "Death Race" which got topped by "Tropic Thunder" last weekend.

I suppose we'll find out in Summer 2009.

Did I mention Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster are back? Yeah? Good.

I know, it's not robot battle sets and other stuff like that but the pictures of Shia LaBeouf posted at justjared.com indicate that director Michael Bay is going to work the injuries suffered by the actor into the shoot.

If you've been out of the groove with the latest celebrity info then you may not know LaBeouf had an auto accident and had injuries to his head and hand. He was also arrested for suspicion of DUI at that time. Well, he's back and shooting "Transformers 2."

Once again, the photos from the set can be seen here.

The Hugo Award, one of the highest literary honors a work of science fiction or fantasy can achieve, will add a "graphic story" category in 2009 to accommodate graphic novels.

Past winners under special circumstances include "Watchmen" and a nomination for "Sandman: The Dream Hunters."

This category addition has not been ratified as of yet, but will likely be as convention organizers have already added a "temporary category." There are more details at ICv2.com and Newsarama.

While this award specifies "Any science fiction or fantasy story told in graphic form appearing for the first time in the previous calendar year," as reported in ICv2, I imagine this excludes collections of comics work that has come out earlier than 2008 and in monthly form before being collected.

This would leave out some fine works that are better in collection in my opinion like "Ex Machina." But the same can be said for a lot of the Marvel and DC Comics collections of individual issues.

  But there are terrific works that go straight to graphic novel. (i.e. a number of Manga, Vertigo, Oni Press and Image Comics stuff.) I hope to run through some of the ones I would consider for a Hugo and if anyone has suggestions from 2008 let's hear them.

Warner Bros. executives have been working to figure out what they could do to capitalize on what they have learned from the success of "The Dark Knight." One of those initiatives is to have upcoming films based on their comics properties take on a darker tone.

This plan is reported to include the next feature film based on the Man of Steel himself. The way I see it, it is an interesting idea for some characters, but maybe not Superman.

Only last week I read that a Green Arrow screenplay will not so much focus on the origins of the hero but will just hit the ground running with a tale of G.A. trying to break out of the notorious (to comics fans) Super Max prison. Green Arrow, a dark side? Sure. Superman?

That idea dredges up memories of Christopher Reeve as "Evil Superman" flicking peanut projectiles at liquor bottles in "Superman III."

I sincerely hope the makers of this next Superman movie leaves that "Superman Returns" concept behind and chooses to take a note from the most successful comic stories the character has been part of. And whatever kind of movie it's going to be it certainly shouldn't take too many notes from "The Dark Knight."

In the last twenty years Batman's stories have more than sustained the dark tone depicted in the aforementioned film.

Superman's best recent tales have taken the iconic nature of the character and either changed the world around him or tackled his origin story from a different perspective.

In Mark Millar and Dave Johnson's "Superman: Red Son," the concept of the hero being raised in the Soviet Union offers an interesting take with all kinds of possibilities.

In Mark Waid and Leinil Francis Yu's "Superman: Birthright" the origin gets a retake with some of the successful elements of the television series "Smallville" (Lex Luther and Clark Kent's relationship) worked into the plot.

The most recent and interesting character retake I find to be the most refreshing while not destroying the essence of Superman, is Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's "All Star Superman." Every issue in the 12-part limited series I have read so far I would breathlessly describe to my wife (much to her dismay).

And while there is but one issue to go in the All Star series, the simple concept of Superman having a short time to live and working to resolve the world's problems before he is done will and should be considered among one of the best and most character respectful stories in the Superman lexicon.

It is good to hear the WB is taking a note from the fans of their movies, but please don't forget the work most appreciated by the comic fans as well.

The reports have been everywhere about the film rights dispute between 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. over the "Watchmen" movie scheduled to be released March 2009.

As ubiquitous as the news reports have been, the fan angst has more than equaled that in the online message boards and forums. Comments run the gamut, but more and more are suggesting aiming that furor at the Fox company itself.

Go here to read the comment posts from a Newsarama "Watchmen" story.

It doesn't help that Fox stated in a Variety story that it would rather have the film killed than share distribution.

Jeff Jensen at Entertainment Weekly gives the rundown on the legal scuffle over the rights to "Watchmen."

Fox, in defense of the legal action and the fan reactions, told Entertainment Weekly they have tried to file their grievance a number of times before the film went into production.

Jensen's story concludes fans should not worry about the film hitting the screens on time. Reports from EW also have it that the likely endgame for this could involve a profit-sharing plan or even a distribution deal for Fox.

But all of this chat will be moot, of course, if Warner Bros. proves they have the sole right to distribute the film and not Fox.

"Battlestar Galactica" show co-producer David Eick has confirmed that a pilot for a series to be called "Caprica" is completed and is awaiting a blessing from the Lords of Sci-Fi Channel to become regular programming.

The show concept sounds like it has a touch of the same thing affecting "Star Wars" -- the dreaded prequel-itis syndrome. It has been reported the story of the pilot would take place some fifty years before the events we have witnessed over these last four seasons.

In "Caprica" we would get to see the Adama clan a generation before the ones we know and love. And the show will introduce the character Daniel Greystone, a brilliant inventor who plays an important part in future events.

In his interview with Newsarama this week David Eick said he was not sure whether the series will be picked up yet, but did mention actor Eric Stoltz "who plays Daniel." The mill out there says this will be a two-hour pilot.

Not that there is anything wrong with going back in time before main story events in small doses (The Battlestar movie "RAZOR" was good). I would have been thrilled to see only a single prequel project on the CLONE WARS and then a sequel to STAR WARS proper, for  example. Perhaps "Caprica" will not be a series and only end up as something of a one-shot that compliments the current show.

Eick did not announce when the "Caprica" movie/pilot will air.

And about "Battlestar Galactica" ...

The current series has run half of its fourth season and ended with a devestating twist (NO SPOILER WARNING NEEDED THIS TIME, BUT YOU BETTER CATCH UP) and will start the second half of the fourth season in "early 2009."

I'm still a little hurt about the series "Civil War." A number of Marvel Comics characters I thought I understood from the Fantastic Four's Reed Richards to Iron Man were so offbeat I thought I was reading a "What If?" series.

Then I had to check myself. I'm one of those fans who want fresh takes on old stuff. And "Civil War" changed the game in the Marvel Universe, like it or not.

The 'Civil' writer Mark Millar and artist Steve McNiven re-team on the "Wolverine" comic arc "Old Man Logan" which takes us 50 years into the future and the picture aint pretty. The heroes have fallen and from what we know the country, maybe even the world is under the divided mercies of different villain factions.

Logan A.K.A. Wolverine is still alive and only two issues in we are given glimpses of the past events that kept the tough guy X-Man on the sidelines operating a farm in Sacramento. The character has gone from berserker avenger to docile farmer.

With an estimated $26 million take against the estimated $16.7 million of "The Dark Knight," "Tropic Thunder" beat the box office champ last weekend.

This turn is following some anti-Knight sentiment from 'Thunder' co-star Robert Downey Jr., some protest of the use of the word "retard" in the film and, yeah, I'll say it ... a dude in blackface.

Under most circumstances this would bother me too if I didn't understand that "Tropic Thunder" is a movie about moronic people making a war movie. Audiences and critics (Entertainment Weekly gave it an 'A') apparently get it and placed no PC boundaries on their sense of humor.

The film also stars Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Tom Cruise and 22-year-old Brandon T. Jackson, who plays a rapper turned actor. EW gives Jackson some love for his work as the straight man in this group of crazies.

Don't mourn for the 'Knight' because last week it moved ahead of "Star Wars" as the second highest grossing domestic film of all time. It is more than a $100 million short of "Titanic" and may burn out before reaching it.

I do hope it makes it to the top, not just for comic book movie supremacy, but so we can stop talking about "Titanic" being number one.

I'm flashing back to a memory from a couple months ago. Moody music pounds in the background and the entire newsroom is mostly in BLACK AND WHITE with SPOTS OF COLOR.
 
My flashback as directed by FRANK MILLER...

One of my co-workers shouts to me while I'm at my desk.

"Hey man, did you see the Trailer for 'Sin City 2?'"

I blinked a few times and tried to remember if I had missed something. Last I checked, "SIN CITY 2" was still trying to get itself together or in what the movie studio peeps call "development."

"I don't think 'SIN CITY 2' would have a trailer yet, man. I don't think it's even been shot yet."

After a web search I sighed in relief because my fanboy credibility was intact. I discovered the trailer in question was for Frank Miller's "THE SPIRIT."

I expect it's only a matter of time before someone asks actor Christian Bale (The Dark Knight) what he thought about the comments reportedly made by Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man).

But here's a little something until that happens:

Warner Bros. Pictures has pushed "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" back to Summer 2009, so that great trailer I was excited about bums me out when I see it now.

According to Warner Bros. the film will now be released July 17, 2009. This announcement mentions the effects of the writers strike as one of the reasons behind this change.

I was not surprised by this piece of information. What did surprise me was when I learned this film was originally slated for November 2008. I told my wife (A rabid Harry Potter book fan) that the movie was coming in November and that it was sort of fast. 

She didn't buy that, but I told her a movie like that could kill during the summer. It would do well at any time, but this is a post "Dark Knight" (WB's other release) world. This is me in studio executive mode: Why not set it up to be a our next big Summer movie for 2009?

Ah well, the two-part "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" starts shooting in February 2009.  The WB reminds us that at least now, the wait between Harry Potter 6 and the finale films will be shorter.

I'm not sure whether Robert Downey Jr. meant it but if these reports are true he has caused a slight ripple in the internet force about his comments on THE DARK KNIGHT.

Downey, the star of Marvel Comics' IRON MAN, dismissed the film as too high brow in his comments to Moviehole and to top it off he said "F--k DC Comics. That's all I have to say and that's where I'm really coming from."

There have been those who have rushed to the defense of the star and suggested that maybe the movie was a little on the heartless side and others like the post at Slashfilm who call it a "bitch slap" to the biggest "fanboy movie of all time." 

I have had this discussion all ready... the Bat-flick didn't strike me as too high brow because I sort of knew where it was going as it was telling a story readers of the comics had seen depictions of.

That's a cheat on my part and I know it. Truth be told, I am still asking about what happened in a couple parts of the film. Does that make it too high brow? Nope, I think it was very good just unclear in some spots.

Was IRON MAN clear? Yeah, crystal clear and a lot of fun.

I suppose these comments was Downey's way of saying he's down with Marvel Comics. We'll see what happens, if Christian Bale disses IRONMAN maybe it'll stoke the fire of a renewed Marvel vs. DC feud. Either way it ought to be interesting.

And what about TROPIC THUNDER? Stay tuned...

Not that anyone is disputing me about this yet, but bear with me while I make this point.

If I called you "Clarice" in a weird voice and then mentioned fava beans and a "nice chianti" (never mind making that weird sound Anthony Hopkins makes), then it's a good chance if you're an American at least 27 years or older you think of "The Silence of the Lambs."

Or you would think I was some kind of weirdo. Nevertheless... isn't popular culture an incredible thing?

Hannibal Lecter has pierced the public consciousness as deeply as any popular fictional character since the 1991 film was released all those years ago. Those words, sounds and images from the movie are imprinted in our minds.

To a much larger degree the same can be said of the Star Wars characters Darth Vader, Yoda or Princess Leia in that slave costume.

Now consider Superman, Spider-Man and especially the Batman. Yeah, those pesky comic book characters.

OK, I will attempt not to let my raving about "Y: The Last Man" take over everything here, but I want to put you on to what artist Pia Guerra is up to.

I promised myself I would be on the lookout for new regular comics to take up. And since I have become hooked on the "Doctor Who" series on BBC America and Sci-Fi Channel, catching the news that Pia Guerra's work can be seen in the new IDW comic "Doctor Who: The Forgotten" was a pleasant surprise.

From what I understand the story will not only feature the Tenth Doctor we know from the TV series, but also several past Doctors. A treat for Guerra who is a fan of Doctor Who and a treat for those of us who can continue to follow her fine work.

There is a video interview with Guerra on Comic Book Resources and some images from the series in an earlier CBR story.

The Dark Knight is one of the best reviewed highest grossing domestic movies ever and those who can't stand that it's based on a comic book superhero will have to get over it.

Sure, the film could lose thirty minutes from the running time and Christian Bale's bat-voice may have been a little heavy, but that was still a darn good movie. Yeah, there's a guy in it who wears a cape and mask and for some that is an obstacle to their ability to enjoy the film.  These are the same folks who are in awe when they discover there are other films they have liked that were adapted from comics. "Ghost World,"  "A History of Violence," "30 days of Night" and "Sin City."

It's gotta be the mask and cape thing.

For the sake of being all-inclusive I have compiled a short list of movies on the Hollywood development slate for those who are allergic to superheroes. It's also sort of a list of the kinds of comics and movies I enjoy.

1. WHITEOUT - Creators Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber's graphic novel about a sole U.S. marshal played by Kate Beckinsale who has to deal with a murder only days before a dismal winter falls over Antarctica. The film also stars Gabriel Macht and is directed by Dominic Sena (Swordfish, Gone in Sixty Seconds). I haven't read the graphic novel yet but I will put it on my list because I like Rucka's work.


2. Y: THE LAST MAN - Some call it the best comic series in recent years. I have to agree and on top of that I'll tell anyone that it may have been one of the best science fiction stories I have ever read, period. Created by writer Brian K. Vaughn (BKV to y'all) and artist Pia Guerra, "Y: The Last Man" is the story of Yorick Brown the last man on earth after a mysterious holocaust kills every male except him and his pet monkey, Ampersand. The world is now in the hands of the surviving women who have to pick up the pieces. Since New Line Cinema, who had the film rights,  was folded into Warner Bros. the property has drawn some renewed interest. Recent reports link director D.J. Caruso to the film with actor Shia LeBeouf, who stars in Caruso's upcoming EAGLE EYE. From what i understand this is not a solid commitment, LeBeouf reportedly said he was "interested" in the role. We'll discuss whether that will work or not another time. Anyway, 2010 is the suggested timetable for release but it can't get here soon enough for me.