Robert Meeks: December 2008 Archives

Jeffrey Dean Morgan stars as The Comedian in a scene from the film, "Watchmen." (AP Photo/Warner Bros. Clay Enos)

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- An attorney for 20th Century Fox says the studio will press its case to delay the release of "Watchmen," but a rival studio says it plans to release the film as scheduled.

U.S. District Judge Gary Feess last week agreed with Fox that Warner Bros. had infringed its copyright by developing and shooting the superhero flick, casting some doubt on its March 6 release date.

Feess said Monday he plans to hold a trial Jan. 20 to decide remaining issues.

Fox claims it never fully relinquished story rights for the graphic novel from its deal made in the late 1980s, and sued Warner Bros. in February. Warner Bros. contended Fox isn't entitled to distribution.

Warner Bros. said in a statement released Monday afternoon that it won't move the movie's release date and still thinks it will win the case, either at trial or through an appeal.

Who knew that Jennifer Aniston and a cute dog would be a juggernaut?

The doggie movie "Marley & Me" starring Aniston and Owen Wilson made $51 million over the Christmas Day opening weekend pummeling director-writer Frank Miller's "The Spirit," which made $10.4 million.

I usually go to a movie on Christmas Day every year... yes, I chose "The Spirit," but what do you expect the Modern Mythologist to do?

Run home and cower from my wife's wrath for making her watch it? OK... I didn't cower, I took the bashing like a man. And this is after I said I wouldn't make her see another Eva Mendes flick. We expected to see "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," but family festivities rendered us too tired for a two-hour and forty-five minute film at 10 p.m. So the new movie that was under two hours and didn't star Aniston or Adam Sandler was our choice.

And heck, I just had a morbid curiosity to satisfy.

The reviews are hitting fast and furious at Miller and his vision for "The Spirit" -- some have not been very good. I'm not a hardcore review guy, but the movie isn't something I would recommend to everyone. There were illogical plot elements, an overabundance of Miller-style narration and even Samuel L. Jackson couldn't save it for me.

On the other hand...

The movie is visually impressive. Except for a point where there was a bloody moment that ended up looking like bird-crap splashed everywhere because of the film's colors. There were styles of campy, over-the-top performances that were entertaining from Mendes and Scarlett Johansson among others.

I could see some people digging on that stuff. In fact, the next morning I stopped at one of my regular coffee spots and one of the baristas I know to be quite an artsy person, had some nice things to say.

ARTSY BARISTA: Did you guys see "The Spirit?"

ME: Yup.

ARTSY BARISTA: Wasn't it awesome?

The earnest enthusiasm in her eyes told me everything I needed to know. It told me that while there is no general audience for something like "The Spirit," there will be a cult audience that will sing its praises while they buy it on DVD.

At the San Diego Comic-Con, Frank Miller will be greeted like a hero by this contingent and they will tell him everyone didn't understand this film like we did -- It'll be just like how no one loved "Blade Runner" at first. Way to go Frank!

This audience will be small but this group of viewers will be the ones to appreciate the visual audacity and the tossing of typical old plot logic to the winds. Why not? If it's art done by a popular comic artist-writer then you have the option to appreciate this film, love it or hate it, as an expensive piece of pop art.

I thought about all that as I sipped my coffee and hoped I was only hallucinating because I haven't had my caffiene fix yet.

We'll discuss more about Frank Miller later...  

OBITUARY: Singer, actress with a trademark purr played Catwoman on TV in the '60s.

By Polly Anderson
The Associated Press

NEW YORK - Eartha Kitt, a sultry singer, dancer and actress who rose from South Carolina cotton fields to become an international symbol of elegance and sensuality, has died, a family spokesman said. She was 81.

Andrew Freedman said Kitt, who was recently treated at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, died Thursday in Connecticut of colon cancer.

Kitt, a self-proclaimed "sex kitten" famous for her catlike purr, was one of America's most versatile performers, winning two Emmys and nabbing a third nomination. She also was nominated for several Tonys and two Grammys.

Her career spanned six decades, from her start as a dancer with the famed Katherine Dunham troupe to cabarets and acting and singing on stage, in movies and on television. She persevered through an unhappy childhood as a mixed-race daughter of the South and made headlines in the 1960s for denouncing the Vietnam War during a visit to the White House.

Through the years, Kitt remained a picture of vitality and attracted fans less than half her age even as she neared 80.

When her book "Rejuvenate," a guide to staying physically fit, was published in 2001, Kitt was featured on the cover in a long, curve-hugging black dress with a figure that some 20-year-old women would envy. Kitt also wrote three autobiographies.

Orson Welles called her the "most exciting woman in the world." She was single much of her life, though romances with the rich and famous peppered her younger years.

After becoming a hit singing "Monotonous" in the Broadway revue "New Faces of 1952," Kitt appeared in "Mrs. Patterson" in 1954-55. (Some references say she earned a Tony nomination for "Mrs. Patterson," but only winners were publicly announced at that time.) She also made appearances in "Shinbone Alley" and "The Owl and the Pussycat."

Her first album, "RCA Victor Presents Eartha Kitt," came out in 1954, featuring such songs as "I Want to Be Evil," "C'est Si Bon" and the saucy gold-digger's theme song "Santa Baby," which is revived on radio each Christmas.

The next year, the record company released follow-up album "That Bad Eartha," which featured "Let's Do It," "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" and "My Heart Belongs to Daddy."


In 1996, she was nominated for a Grammy in the category of traditional pop vocal performance for her album "Back in Business." She also had been nominated in the children's recording category for the 1969 record "Folk Tales of the Tribes of Africa."

Kitt also acted in movies, playing the lead female role opposite Nat King Cole in "St. Louis Blues" in 1958 and more recently appearing in "Boomerang" and "Harriet the Spy" in the 1990s.

On television, she was the sexy Catwoman on the popular "Batman" series in 1967-68, replacing Julie Newmar who originated the role. A guest appearance on an episode of "I Spy" brought Kitt an Emmy award in 1966.

"Generally the whole entertainment business now is bland," she said in a 1996 Associated Press interview. "It depends so much on gadgetry and flash now. You don't have to have talent to be in the business today.

"I think we had to have something to offer, if you wanted to be recognized as worth paying for."

Kitt was plain-spoken about causes she believed in. Her anti-war comments at the White House came as she attended a White House luncheon hosted by Lady Bird Johnson.

"You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed," she told the group of about 50 women. "They rebel in the street. They don't want to go to school because they're going to be snatched off from their mothers to be shot in Vietnam."

For four years afterward, Kitt performed almost exclusively overseas. She was investigated by the FBI and CIA, which allegedly found her to be foul-mouthed and promiscuous.

"The thing that hurts, that became anger, was when I realized that if you tell the truth - in a country that says you're entitled to tell the truth - you get your face slapped and you get put out of work," Kitt told Essence magazine two decades later.

In 1978, Kitt returned to Broadway in the musical "Timbuktu!" - which brought her a Tony nomination - and was invited back to the White House by President Jimmy Carter.

In 2000, Kitt earned another Tony nod for "The Wild Party." She played the fairy godmother in Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Cinderella" in 2002.

As recently as October 2003, she was on Broadway after replacing Chita Rivera in a revival of "Nine."

She also gained new fans as the voice of Yzma in the 2000 Disney animated feature "The Emperor's New Groove."'

In an online discussion at Washingtonpost.com, shortly after Jamie Foxx and Morgan Freeman won Oscars, she expressed satisfaction that black performers "have more of a chance now than we did then to play larger parts."

Kitt was born in North, S.C., and her road to fame was the stuff of storybooks. In her autobiography, she wrote that her mother was black and Cherokee while her father was white, and she was left to live with relatives after her mother's new husband objected to taking in a mixed-race girl.

An aunt eventually brought her to live in New York, where she attended the High School of Performing Arts, later dropping out to take various odd jobs.

By chance, she dropped by an audition for the dance group run by Dunham, a pioneering African-American dancer. In 1946, Kitt was one of the Sans-Souci Singers in Dunham's Broadway production "Bal Negre."

Kitt's travels with the Dunham troupe landed her a gig in a Paris nightclub in the early 1950s. Kitt was spotted by Welles, who cast her in his Paris stage production of "Faust."

While on stage, she was daringly sexy and always flirtatious. Offstage, however, Kitt described herself as shy and almost reclusive, remnants of feeling unwanted and unloved as a child. She referred to herself as "that little urchin cotton-picker from the South, Eartha Mae."

For years, Kitt was unsure of her birthplace or birth date. In 1997, a group of students at historically black Benedict College in Columbia, S.C., located her birth certificate, which verified her birth date as Jan. 17, 1927. Kitt had previously celebrated on Jan. 26.

The research into her background also showed Kitt was the daughter of a white man, a poor cotton farmer.

"I'm an orphan. But the public has adopted me and that has been my only family," she told the Post online. "The biggest family in the world is my fans."

This is not the best holiday news for "Watchmen" fans who expected an easy resolution to the copyright dispute between Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox...
 

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A federal judge has ruled that 20th Century Fox owns a copyright interest in "Watchmen," potentially jeopardizing the superhero movie's March U.S. release.

U.S. District Judge Gary Feess of Los Angeles disclosed the decision in a written order Wednesday, The New York Times and Variety reported.

"Watchmen," based on the popular graphic novel of the same name, was shot by Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures. Fox sued to prevent its release and Feess had set a Jan. 20 trial, but reversed course in writing that Fox at least owns the right to distribute the film.

Fox claims it never fully relinquished its rights to the story from a deal made in the late 1980s. Warner spokesman Scott Rowe declined to comment on the latest ruling.

A story in the New York Times provides a few more details.

Government forces hidden from the world-at-large attempt to harness the incredible powers of a select few -- or if not, destroy them.

Sounds like raw plot materials many of us have seen before, but the film "Push" proposes to provide us some limited mythology, some slick film making and a handful of veteran players who are not unfamiliar with the "comic book" movie.

Starring Djimon Hounsou ("Constantine"), Chris Evans ("Fantastic Four") and Dakota Fanning (The highly-anticipated "Coraline"), "Push" pits a number of very powerful psychics against each other in Hong Kong.

The trailer moves fast but some of the background information on what types of powers certain characters possess are pretty self explanatory. For more, check out the story in Splashpage.

I have not been blown away by every role played by actress Eva Mendes and despite that I am still a fan. But recently she has given me pause to rethink that.

I would put her fine dramatic turn in the barely-seen but oft-rented "Cleaner" way ahead of her work  in "Ghost Rider" or "Hitch." But after I peeped her comments in this video from MTV Splashpage  I called my wife and told her that I will no longer force her to see an Eva Mendes movie.

WIFE: Why?

ME: She dissed comic book readers.

WIFE: Ooooh... are you calling her out?

ME: Yes I am.

Ms. Mendes and actor Gabriel Macht were interviewed by MTV News movie editor Josh Horowitz about their roles in "The Spirit" and whether they read any comic books. Macht, who plays the title role in the flick, said he was looking forward to reading "Watchmen."

Horowitz got to Mendes, asked her the same thing and she said "no, no I haven't been reading." Horowitz jokingly responded "that Ghost Rider fans would be coming after" her harder than ever. To her credit, she honestly responded that she did not read comics and that "Ghost Rider" was the first one she ever read.

That's cool... an actor can prepare themselves for a role anyway they think works best. I have directed and worked with actors before and their various methods of preparation for a part is something I respect. I'm not the kind of  geek who needs an actor to be familiar with every aspect of a comic book character they're playing. They are, after all, making a motion picture and not a printed comic book.

However, I am the kind of geek who doesn't like to get kicked in the teeth.

Ms. Mendes continued her answer by saying she is attracted to stories that have a strong theme of good vs. evil and then told Horowitz she is surprised when someone lets her know stories like "The Spirit" are "derived from a comic book or comic book characters."

And she said "really?"

Really, Ms. Mendes?

I'm sorry that's a shock to her but MOST comics have a strong theme of good vs. evil.

But that's not the icing on the cake. The diss-dessert is served when she tells Macht that it's cool that he's into comics but when she's in the airport or something you don't see her with some LOWLY comic book -- it's with a copy of "The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand" or "Atlas Shrugged."

Watch the video because Horowitz and Macht's responses are priceless. Their retorts almost make me feel vindicated. ALMOST.

I don't want to pick on Eva Mendes anymore because she probably just had a bad interview day and is just another victim of the comic book industry's bad P.R. In the minds of many, comics are lesser reading. The kind of responses Mendes gave are similar to ones I've heard from some family and friends who don't know any better.

Even the increasing number of new films based on comic book material in the coming years and the Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe nominations for Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker in "The Dark Knight" are not enough to offset this perception.

The "Watchmen" graphic novel is one of Time magazine's 100 greatest novels and the themes in that tale are a bit more complicated than simply good vs. evil.

Maybe we just haven't crossed the threshold of "real book" respect to the general public. That or Eva Mendes just doesn't get it.

The studios are working to put together a screen adaptation of "Atlas Shrugged." So who's got more game -- Ayn Rand or Batman?

I guess we'll see.

For those of you who haven't seen this Alberto Vargas-style depiction of the original Silk Spectre played by Carla Gugino in the film "Watchmen" then check it out. Gugino plays the first Spectre and mother of Malin Akerman's current Silk Spectre we posted about here.

You can click the picture here for a larger version of the artwork.

Gugino's likeness is used and the actress commented in Rick Marshall's accompanying story via Splashpage that "physically I'm more from that time anyways, so it was cool."

Very cool indeed.



 
 

By ROBERT JABLON
Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Majel Barrett Roddenberry, "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry's widow who nurtured the legacy of the seminal science fiction TV series after his death, has died. She was 76. Roddenberry died of leukemia Thursday morning at her home in Bel-Air, said Sean Rossall, a family spokesman.

At Roddenberry's side were family friends and her son, Eugene Roddenberry Jr.

Roddenberry was involved in the "Star Trek" universe for more than four decades. She played the dark-haired Number One in the original pilot but metamorphosed into the blond, miniskirted Nurse Christine Chapel in the original 1966-69 show. She had smaller roles in all five of its television successors and many of the "Star Trek" movie incarnations, although she had little involvement in the productions.

She frequently was the voice of the ship's computer, and about two weeks ago she completed the same role for the upcoming J.J. Abrams movie "Star Trek," Rossall said.

Roddenberry also helped keep the franchise alive by inspiring fans and attended a major "Star Trek" convention each year, Rossall said.

"I think 'Star Trek' will always be her legacy," Rossall said.

"Star Trek" and its successors often focused on political and philosophical issues of the day. Roddenberry and her husband, who died in 1991, believed in creating "thoughtful entertainment" and were proud of the show and the passionate devotion of its fans, Rossall said.

"My mother truly acknowledged and appreciated the fact that 'Star Trek' fans played a vital role in keeping the Roddenberry dream alive for the past 42 years. It was her love for the fans, and their love in return, that kept her going for so long after my father passed away," her son said in a statement on the official Roddenberry Web site.

Born Majel Lee Hudec on Feb. 23, 1932, in Cleveland, she began taking acting classes as a child. She had some stage roles, then in the late 1950s and 1960s had bit parts in a few movies and small roles in TV series, including "Leave It to Beaver" and "Bonanza."

She met her husband in 1964 during a guest role for a Marine Corps drama he produced called "The Lieutenant." That same year, she was cast in the pilot for the "Star Trek" series as the no-nonsense second-in-command. The pilot did not appeal to NBC executives and a second pilot was made, although parts of the original later showed up in a two-part episode called "The Menagerie."

The couple married in Japan in 1969 after "Star Trek" was canceled. After her husband's death, Roddenberry continued her involvement with the "Star Trek" franchise.

She also was the executive producer for two other TV science fiction series, "Andromeda" and "Earth: Final Conflict."

Bad guys going up against this Sherlock Holmes better not get caught because he may beat you down.

SlashFilm has the photographic skinny on this not-so-skinny Holmes played by the resurgent star Robert Downey Jr.

Director Guy Ritchie is at the helm of this new take on "Sherlock Holmes" and I hope the heat on Downey Jr. post "Iron Man" brings some back to Ritchie. The guy has terrific visual and editing skill and I am pulling for Holmes to work out.

I don't mind talking up Ritchie too much even if his film "RockNRolla" did not get a lot of love from the critics. Too many things can go wrong in making a movie sometimes and maybe this pairing is the right opportunity for Ritchie to get something back on track.

X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE HD



For those who didn't brave "The Day The Earth Stood Still," here is a higher than average quality version of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" trailer.

I'm trying to I.D. all of the characters who flashed briefly across the screen. Of course there's Gambit and Sabertooth, but is that Lady Deathstrike in there? And who is the kid making like a glow-worm?

If you guys can guess, drop me a line.

By SANDY COHEN
AP Entertainment Writer

LOS ANGELES -- Hugh Jackman will host the 81st annual Oscars, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences confirmed Friday.

Telecast producers Laurence Mark and Bill Condon called the Australian actor "a consummate entertainer and an internationally renowned movie star."

"He also has style, elegance and a sense of occasion," Mark and Condon said in a joint statement. "Hugh is the ideal choice to host a celebration of the year's movies -- and to have fun doing it."

Jackman, recently named People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive," won an Emmy in 2005 for hosting the 58th annual Tony Awards in 2004. He also took home a best-actor Tony that year for his performance in the musical "The Boy From Oz."

Perhaps best known as Wolverine in the "X-Men" movie franchise, Jackman recently starred in Baz Luhrmann's romantic adventure film "Australia" with Nicole Kidman. He was out of the country Friday for a promotional tour for the film and wasn't immediately available for comment, his representative, Alan Nierob, said. Jackman has never been an Oscar nominee, but was nominated for a Golden Globe for his role in 2001's romantic film "Kate & Leopold."

His other movie credits include 2006's "The Prestige" and 2004's "Van Helsing." Jackman also served as a past presenter on the Oscar show. The 40-year-old actor and his wife, Deborra-Lee Furness, have their own Oscar -- their 8-year-old son Oscar Maximillian.
 
The couple also have a 3-year-old daughter Ava. With new producers, a new set director and even a new music director, the Academy has been hinting at an all-new look and feel for this year's Oscars telecast on Feb. 22. Jackman's selection is a departure from the Academy's standard of big-name comedians.

Jon Stewart hosted the ceremony in 2008 and 2006; Ellen DeGeneres was the 2007 host. Chris Rock, Steve Martin, Billy Crystal and Whoopi Goldberg have also hosted the show in recent years.

 
Photo By The Associated Press

I'm always happy to hear when audiences are ready to show some love for a science fiction film... especially when there's, um, very little commercial competition at the box office.

But 'tis the season a flick like "I Am Legend" could drop and make a killing at the box office. ($77 million on its opening weekend.) And behold... Variety reports that Fox is making a push to release "The Day The Earth Stood Still" everywhere in the known universe.

OK, that's a over-the-top, but reports do say Fox will work with people at Cape Canaveral, Fla. to beam the film into space on the release date today. That means it should reach the targeted Alpha Centauri star system sometime between 4 to 8 years.

It's a strong strategy, because there will be three sequels before any Centauri critics can send us their reviews. (You made the joke in your mind too... I was just silly enough to write it.)

On the Earth front, let me clarify that there are only 3,560 or so domestic screens reserved for 'Day' and there will be about 7,700 international ones set up in approximately 90 markets. In other words, you can see this just about everywhere you go this weekend. 

Take a look at the trailer above again and try to forget that this is yet another remake and focus on what's really important...

1. Keanu Reeves surprised me in a movie almost everyone slept on -- "Constantine." So Neo may do it again in this film -- a film the actor describes as a "re-imagining" not a remake.

2. Jennifer Connelly still has the best eyebrows ever. Next to Jordana Brewster.

3. And this is being touted as the only flick showing the "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" trailer this weekend. And if I heard correctly from stragglers at the last San Diego Comic-Con, it is something to see.

Have you ever went to a movie just to see a trailer?

If you watched that preview of "The Black Panther" animated series I showed you last month you would have witnessed a more traditionally animated version of what is referred to as a "motion comic."

In that case, the actual artwork of John Romita Jr. on the "Black Panther" comic was captured and manipulated by a crew with motion graphics software (usually Flash but not always) and hooked up with a sound track, cut, edited and BINGO -- an animated program from a comic book.

While the Panther will debut on BET, Warner Bros. is making their move with the comic "Batman: Black & White" and offering it in episodic fashion on iTunes for .99 cents. I think the preview above via MTV Splashpage looks pretty good.

This style of animation saves on the expense of having a full team of animators and also translates the comic book experience to screens large and small. It's hard to explain, but to watch one of these is not quite the same experience as a fully-animated project or even a comic book -- it is obviously something else. Done carelessly it can be stiff. Done well and you may have something like the "Batman B & W" clip above.

I am curious to see how it fares on iTunes. There have to be newer means of bringing an audience to the comics medium other than print and in a more affordable way. This motion comics venture with the Batman project is something I plan to check out.

I'm sure there are numerous smarties in the comics industry who know they can't rely solely on guys my age to purchase the increasingly expensive print product forever. 

If you're going to turn some graphic novel/comic book into a live-action TV show then you could do a lot worse than Bill Willingham's "Fables." Well, ABC is apparently going to make a go of it as a one-hour drama.

Series writer Willingham has guided the Vertigo published comic for more than six years. It is going strong as far as I can see and I was not one of its devotees from the beginning. I came to "Fables" after I accepted that "Y: The Last Man" was winding down only two years ago. So I am in a perpetual state of catch-up on the series, but I will say this...

Unlike Vertigo's "100 Bullets" or (I know it's blasphemy to some) "Sandman," "Fables" appears to be among the titles that have the legs to be a continuing series without crashing. 'Sand' ended sleepily (I regret that) and "100 Bullets" will take a bow with its upcoming 100th issue.

This new series will reportedly be in the hands of the of the executive producers of "Six Degrees," Stu Zicherman and Raven Metzner.

My thing? Is this simply one of those types of shows that cannot be translated to live-action without losing a lot of its whimsy-in-a-real-world style?

The astute cats over at "Hero Complex" have more here.

What was that again? The "Twilight" director not coming back? I'm talking about Catherine Hardwicke, the holder of the record for the single highest grossing opening movie by a solo female director. Word has it that she is not going to be back to direct the sequel to "Twilight."

I thought when you did something super successful in Hollywood the natural thing is that you would be back for the follow-up.

OK, that didn't work out for Terrence Howard. (Don Cheadle slipped into the "Iron Man 2" role of Jim Rhodes.)

According to the article Hardwicke was reached for comment by Variety.

"I am sorry that due to timing I will not have the opportunity to direct New Moon," said Hardwicke. "Directing Twilight has been one of the great experiences of my life, and I am grateful to the fans for their passionate support of the film. I wish everyone at Summit the best with the sequel--it is a great story."

As it is with stories that break like this during the weekend, expect more on this as the day progresses. We'll have more later.


The image above is from a video interview Hardwicke did about working on the "Twilight" flick. You can click to view it.

I didn't want to at first but that trailer is gonna make me do it.

Why am I even talking about this movie?

1. It's got Michael Jai White in the lead (The main one of the many black victims of the Joker in "The Dark Knight" and he was also the lead in "Spawn.")

2. It looks to be darn funny.

3. There's a character named Chocolate Giddy-Up.

4. It's Blaxsploitation made to look so retro you may have to just see it to believe it.

For more check out the first full "Black Dynamite" trailer here. (There is some stuff cut into it from old flicks, of course.) and check out the one for GROWN UPS (I mean it) over here.

Those lucky cats from UGO dropped a video segment from the "Gotham Tonight" news show featuring a piece on the Gotham Police and the turmoil that has hit the city.

It's supposed to be one of the special features on "The Dark Knight" DVD which hits the streets (stores near you) Tuesday.

Enjoy!

You ever get that "get off my lawn" type of crotchety anger? When I get that way it's just annoying, when Clint Eastwood does it in this trailer for his new film "Gran Torino" it's fine art.

Not our usual type of thing but Eastwood always gets a pass here at Modern Mythology.

Zack Snyder director of the "Watchmen" film tells SCI FI that he has the current cut of the film to two hours and thirty-five minutes. Snyder says he is also working on the animated "Tales of the Black Freighter" which is a graphic novel within the graphic novel story.

'Freighter' will be released as a separate DVD when the film comes out in March 2009 and then integrated into the main film making the "Watchmen" DVD about "Three hours and forty minutes," Snyder says.

With our without "The Black Freighter" is "Watchmen" a big enough story that it deserves to be as long as it needs to be when it hits theaters? What do you think? Please drop me a comment and/or take the poll above and let me know.

Wired magazine reports that "Caprica," a spinoff of the critically acclaimed "Battlestar Galactica," will get a 20-episode run as a series in 2010.

We showed you the trailer from "Caprica" a while back. Click the image or here to check out the post and video.

I appreciate the idea as a one-shot movie to set up the 'Battlestar' universe and clarify some things, but... is this something that can carry a regular series?

The well-read and regarded "Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season Eight" comic gives a nod to the animated series that didn't quite happen in the upcoming issue #20 written by Jeph Loeb.

There is an exclusive preview of about six comic pages and two preview covers at MTV Splashpage.

We mentioned the animated series and posted the trailer in an earlier post a couple months back. Was it something I wanted to see? Maybe... anything that can keep the Buffyverse alive for people who enjoy those stories is worth a try.

I am admiring the work of the "Buffy: Season Eight" comic series as it picks up from the regular TV series. However, comics are monthly and a TV series (unless it's on cable) runs twenty episodes or more per year in the U.S.

I'm not hating, I just want the comic to come out twice a month -- is that too much to ask?!  See the animated series trailer below.


 Above Image courtesy Darkhorse Comics