I haven't made it yet to see "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" (I'll blame those five days gobbled up at Comic-Con) and I think a lot of other longtime X-fans fell into that category on the movie's first weekend of release. Maybe it's the passage of time or this summer's glut of must-see genre fare, but I just haven't felt a great sense of urgency to get out to see the movie.
Gina McIntyre, one of my colleagues here at The Times, had a chance to sit down recently with Frank Spotnitz, the producer of the film and longtime creative presence in the franchise's history, and here is her Q&A with him, appearing for the first time anywhere. Reading it does make me want to see the movie -- not unlike reading a letter from an old friend -- but it's still a surprisingly faint urge.
You’ve said that the movie is a standalone story that doesn't require people to be all that familiar with the show. Was there a sense that the mythology became too complicated to update or were you looking to create something outside of those narrative constraints?
If we’re lucky enough to be able to do more movies, at some point, we will be revisiting that mythology. In the show, we said that Mulder believes the aliens are coming in December 2012, so that’s a date we’d certainly hit if we’re fortunate enough to keep making these. But for this movie, from the very beginning, when it was first discussed six years ago, we wanted to do a standalone. We had to do a mythology movie last time. We were in the midst of the TV series, and the studio wanted a big event movie that would clearly be something you couldn’t get at home for free. This time around, we didn’t feel any of those constraints. We felt we could really do what the show did most of the time, which was deliver a scary supernatural mystery.
You’re keeping the film’s plot secret, but can you give any sort of broadstrokes description of the story?
It’s real time, six years from where we last saw Mulder and Scully. It’s a scary, creepy intimate story, a mystery obviously. It’s really more about them and their relationship than the show usually was. When you’re doing a TV show, you’ve got to do so many episodes that unless you want to risk becoming a soap opera, you really can’t spend that much capital on their personal lives week in and week out. The audience would get compassion fatigue after a while. So, we were very stingy about that in the TV series.
What’s the nature of their relationship in the film?
It’s obviously one of the big questions fans want to know -- are they together? Have they been seeing each other these past six years? If they are together, what’s the nature of their relationship? Is it romantic or not? That’s one of the big cards that we’ve been trying to keep hidden until the movie comes out. But we didn’t want to take for granted that there would be any more movies after this. This could be it. If this is the last time we see Mulder and Scully, we didn’t want to leave anything on the table.
Here's one more Comic-Con International 2008 anecdote as I clean out my notebook from the long weekend:
Could a British actor wear the red horns of the Man Without Fear? Jason Statham says, "Absolutely, just give me the chance, I would love to be Daredevil."
Statham was in San Diego to promote "Death Race," his upcoming high-octane film, but after a long day "The Transporter" star was taking it easy with a beer downstairs at the Hard Rock Hotel. Also sitting at the table was filmmaker and comics icon Frank Miller, whose solo directorial debut "The Spirit" arrives in theaters on Christmas Day. Fans of comics know that Miller became a superstar for Marvel Comics with his work on "Daredevil" beginning in 1979 and many of his creations and innovations (not least among them, the character Elektra) added new depth to a character that had largely been an also-ran for Marvel since his title started in 1964. Miller got a twinkle in his eye when the topic turned to a Daredevil movie.
Daredevil made to the screen in 2003, of course, with Ben Affleck in the red suit, filmmaker Mark Steven Johnson writing and directing and much of Miller's mythology as its foundation. The movie arrived on Valentine's Day but not everybody loved it--some notable critics despised it, in fact, and on Rotten Tomatoes it got 43% positive reviews, which may be the definition of lukewarm. (I myself thought the movie was underrated, although when I think about it I probably respected it more than I actually liked it.)
Sitting with Statham and Miller, it was easy to get excited about the idea of another "Daredevil" movie, one that was not a remake as much as it was a new installment. Hey Miller is the man who wrote the "Born Again" story arc in "Daredevil" -- there's plenty he could do with the character in a new movie. Statham said he is eager to work with Miller at some point and that he adores the Daredevil character. I made the mistake of asking Statham if might not make a better Bullseye than Matt Murdock and I thought he might hit me with his pint glass. "Forget Bullseye, I want to be Daredevil!" Miller nodded. "I think he should be Daredevil too."
Bonus: I wrote a long feature on Statham in August last year, you can find it after the jump.
I had the honor of interviewing Will Eisner once. I was a student at the University of Florida and, after being named the editor-in-chief of the large and powerful campus newspaper there, I decided I would reward myself with a splashy vanity project. So I gave myself three full pages of space and devoted them all to a profile of Eisner, who was living further south, down in Tamarac, at the time. This was almost 20 years ago now but I still remember how Eisner -- after I told him that I was a student -- began to speak with such passion about teachers, schools, the years of life spent learning, the entire aura of a focused campus life. These were the days, by the way, when the aging artist flew up to New York every week to teach at a prestigious school. It wasn't for the money, believe me.
Anyway, I was thinking about that today when I heard about a pretty nifty move by Tim Palen, Sarah Greenberg and their marketing team over at Lionsgate. They've reached out to art schools around the country and they're using student work to promote "The Spirit," which is due on Christmas Day from Odd Lot and Lionsgate. This past weekend down at Comic-Con International, the first student-designed campaign hit the streets with these cool posters you see above. I saw them everywhere -- but not for long, all the fans gleefully snatched them. They were the handiwork of students from the Art Institute of California-San Diego. It's a great idea and I can tell you it's one that Eisner would have absolutely adored.
To read a lot more about this program and the schools involved, you can find the press release after the jump.
At Comic-Con on Friday, I moderated "The Spirit" panel with Frank Miller, Deborah Del Prete, Jaime King and Gabriel Macht, but really, the star of the show was Samuel L. Jackson, who hit the stage knowing full well that the audience belonged to him. It was great talking to Sam backstage as well and he mentioned his upcoming work in the movie "Lakeview Terrace." It sounded intriguing and left me wanting to know more -- and this morning I got my wish thanks to John Horn, one of the top journalists at the L.A. Times (or anywhere else). Here's an excerpt:
The Los Angeles Police Department and race relations factor prominently in a number of celebrated dramas, including "Crash" and "L.A. Confidential." The upcoming thriller "Lakeview Terrace" pushes the often combustible mix of law enforcement and ethnic identity into a notably different direction: the film's racist police officer is black.
Many events conspire to drive LAPD Officer Abel Turner (Samuel L. Jackson) off the deep end, but one of the film's more incendiary ideas focuses on the role of interracial romance. Part of what transforms Turner from a man with a badge into the neighbor from hell is the newly married couple next door: Chris Mattson (Patrick Wilson) is white, while his wife, Lisa (Kerry Washington), is black.
"It was a different take, something that is not often portrayed," said James Lassiter, who with actor Will Smith produced "Lakeview Terrace" for Sony's Screen Gems. Race, Lassiter added, "is not the singular driver of [Turner's] hate. But he is a racist."
It's not just that Turner disapproves of his neighbors' latte-sipping lifestyle, which includes indiscreet romantic encounters, liberal friends and -- the horror! -- a hybrid car (Turner's a giant SUV-driving right-winger). Turner, a single father of two, also can't stand that the skin color of his neighbors isn't the same. "You can listen to that noise all night long," Turner at one point says to Chris as he listens to rap music, "but when you wake up in the morning, you'll still be white."
So are thousands of fans of the storied graphic novel. According to Zack Snyder, who directed “Watchmen” (and “300″), the song will not appear in the film. The director says he chose the song for the mood.
Regardless, the response toward the trailer has been massive online — earning accolades (and a huge iTunes sales spike for the Pumpkins) for how the dark lyrical content and feel of the song meshes with the stunning visuals from the forthcoming film.
We were curious what Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan thought of the attention from both old and new fans (many of whom have been unable to identify Corgan’s signature growl in the tune from just watching the trailer) regarding the resurrection of “The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning.”
According to Corgan, who responded to questions by e-mail, he has already asked if the band can release the song as a video. More thoughts on the song from the Pumpkins ringleader after the jump.
Are you surprised at the reaction online from some young “Watchmen” fans who have never heard “The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning,” let alone the Smashing Pumpkins?
Honestly, I don’t really keep up on what the world is doing or saying anymore. The word on the street seems to be, from what my friends tell me, that the use of the song in the trailer is intriguing to them and has created some excitement around it.
What has been Smashing Pumpkins fan reaction toward the use of the song in the trailer?
My fans seem to be confused when the outside world appreciates our work, so I can only imagine this terrifies them.
What are your personal thoughts on “Watchmen?”
Before this I’d never heard of the “Watchmen” series, but from what I’ve seen it looks very interesting.
Who approached you to use the song and do you think it’s a good fit? I just got a call one day asking if I was cool with it, and I was surprised because it’s a version of that song that never seemed to get any notice. Months before the trailer was released I kept hearing from friends in the movie business that they loved how the song worked with the images from the movie. I love the way it’s used in the trailer. I’ve asked the movie people if it’s possible we could release it as a music video. Still waiting on that one. Certainly the massive jump in on-line sales seems to indicate it might be worth it for us and for the movie.
Finally, when can we expect to hear “G.L.O.W.” or any other new SP material?
Just finished recording “G.L.O.W.” in Memphis at the famed Ardent Studios and hope to release it in early September. We feel we have finally turned the corner with these last 2 releases (“American Gothic” and “G.L.O.W.” to come) where it’s starting to feel like our music again, and not theirs, whoever “they” might be. Have plans to start recording a new multi-year, multi-release concept album by the end of this year. It will be very trippy and hopefully unique, and we’ll probably keep putting out singles here.
–- Charlie Amter
Update: In an earlier version of this post, Billy Corgan's name was spelled wrong in one spot.
Comic-Con International 2008 is over, and to celebrate five days of sensory overload, here is a pop-culture quiz that is completely shallow and fun. I put it together with one of my colleagues at the The Times, Martin Miller. You can find the answers after the jump. It was part of a "Guilty Pleasures" issue of the Calendar section, which on Sunday took a break from its usual sophistication and celebrated the most overripe fruits plucked from of the gaudy basket of pop culture. Here's the quiz:
1) Sure, no one went to see the 1995 film “Showgirls” at the theater, but a lot of people sure wanted to take a look at Paul Verhoeven’s strip-club epic when it hit DVD. It became so popular for parties that MGM released a VIP edition in 2004 with some intriguing extras. Which item below was not included in that special $40 box set?
A. Pink, fuzzy handcuffs
B. A blindfold
C. Pasties with tassels
D. Shot glasses
2) On Oct. 3, 1990, East and West Germany reunified, but real history was made the very next day when “Beverly Hills, 90210” premiered and forever changed the way we view love, friendship and ZIP Codes. Which of the following characters was not in that first episode?
A. Dylan McKay (Luke Perry)
B. Brenda Walsh (Shannen Doherty)
C. Donna Martin (Tori Spelling)
D. Steve Sanders (Ian Ziering)
E. Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth)
3) Hunky Italian model Fabio is a true Renaissance man: The onetime TV pitchman for “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” also designs women’s fashions that are sold at Sam’s Club. Best of all, he can write, with real words and everything! “His shoulders were broad and powerful, his flowing white shirt half open, giving her a provocative glimpse of a smooth, bronzed, splendidly muscled chest ...”
That’s from his 1994 book “Rogue.” Which of the following is not a book written by Fabio?
A. “Viking”
B. “Comanche”
C. “Pirate”
D. “Matador”
4) Forget Yoda. When faced with life’s riddles, ask yourself: What would Patrick Swayze do? To learn the Tao of Swayze, match each of these “pearls of Patrick” to the famous film it came from: “Dirty Dancing,” “Point Break,” “Road House” or “Red Dawn.”
A. “Fear hesitation and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true.”
B. “It’s kind of strange, isn’t it? How the mountains pay us no attention at all? You laugh or you cry … the wind just keeps on blowing.”
C. “Pain don’t hurt.”
D. “This is my dance space. This is your dance space. I don’t go into yours, you don’t go into mine.”
5) How far back does your spandex memory stretch? There are five hair bands listed below. Which one is mismatched with its hit song?
A. Ratt “Round and Round”
B. Warrant “Heaven”
C. Cinderella “Nobody’s Fool”
D. Whitesnake “Once Bitten, Twice Shy”
E. Poison “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”
6) In the 1970s, no one even bothered hiding their guilty pleasures. A Taste of Honey, for instance, actually won the Grammy for best new artist of 1978 (beating, among others, that grumpy Elvis Costello fellow). What was the L.A. disco group’s biggest hit?
A. “My Boogie Shoes”
B. “Boogie Nights”
C. “Boogie on Reggae Woman”
D. “Boogie Oogie Oogie”
E. “Jungle Boogie”
7) The Disney Channel revived “The Mickey Mouse Club” in 1989 and by its sixth season it was stacked with talent – Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, Keri Russell, Britney Spears and J.C. Chasez. Which one of the following actors also wore the ears during that magical season?
A. Orlando Bloom
B. Seth Rogen
C. Shia LaBeouf
D. Ryan Gosling
E. Seth Green
8) Which one of these beloved Barneys locked up the entire town because he was “going by the book”?
A. Barney Miller
B. Barnaby Jones
C. Barney Fife
D. Barney Rubble
E. Barney the purple dinosaur
9) Which outer-space alien possessed a singular ability to annoy its poor Earthling hosts but apparently not the humans watching at home?
A. Mork from “Mork & Mindy”
B. Alf from “Alf”
C. Dick from “3rd Rock From the Sun”
D. Uncle Martin from “My Favorite Martian”
E. All of the above
10) Muscle man Arnold Schwarzenegger is the governor of California and muscle man Jesse Ventura held the same job in Minnesota. That’s not all they have in common. The two have been in films together on several occasions. Which of the films below did not feature both of the brawny thespians?
A. “The Running Man”
B. “Raw Deal”
C. “Predator”
D. “Batman & Robin”
11) “The Love Boat” was not like a box of chocolates -– you knew exactly what you were going to get week after week after week after … Cpt. Merrill Stubing in white shorts, loads of love and a galaxy of guest stars! Which of these performers never boarded the fabled Pacific Princess?
A. Burt Reynolds
B. Tony Danza
C. Courteney Cox
D. Kathy Bates
E. Martin Short
F. Heather Locklear
12) Which of the following was not the cliffhanger of a “Dallas” season finale?
A. Sue Ellen escapes from a sanitarium, gets drunk and goes into early labor
B. Cliff Barnes finds the dead body of a woman in the Ewing pool and thinks J.R. did it
C. Miss Ellie decides to leave Jock and accidentally sets the Ewing mansion on fire
D. Pam finds Bobby in the shower and realizes that the entire season has been a dream
E. All of the above
13) U.K. singer James Blunt had the massive 2005 hit “You’re Beautiful,” which was voted the most annoying song ever recorded in a Yahoo poll about British music. It’s a wimpy song but pretty-boy Blunt actually had a tough-guy previous career. What was it?
A. A British army officer in Kosovo
B. An elite karate instructor in Scotland
C. A welding specialist on an oil rig in Bolivia
D. A search-and-rescue worker in the Alps
14) In March 2005, New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg signed a proclamation that set aside a day honoring a great entertainment success that, he said, “calls us to reflect upon the great promise that has attracted so many hardworking dreamers of every ethnicity to our shores.” What was it?
A. “Perfect Strangers”
B. “Borat”
C. “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle”
D. “Riverdance”
E. The Spice Girls
15) Which of the following is the correct order of hand placements for dancing the Macarena?
A. Hips, shoulders, head
B. Head, hips, shoulders
C. Shoulders, head, hips
D. Head, shoulders, knees and toes
16) Back in 1982, long before there was “Superbad” or “American Pie,” America peeked into the girls’ locker room with “Porky’s.” The film featured an early role for Kim Cattrall (of “Sex and the City” fame) as a young lady who was especially noisy during intimate moments. What was that character’s nickname?
A. Air Raid
B. Lassie
C. Old Faithful
D. Mona Moaner
17) Which of the following titular couples were married? (Hint: There’s more than one correct answer.)
A. Dharma and Greg
B. Scarecrow and Mrs. King
C. Jake and the Fatman
D. Will and Grace
E. B.J. and the Bear
18) What medical show’s staff was traumatized by having to treat a couple literally stuck together in a very compromising position?
A. “ER”
B. “Doogie Howser, M.D.”
C. “St. Elsewhere”
D. “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman”
E. “Grey’s Anatomy”
19) Finish the lyric to “Livin’ la Vida Loca,” Ricky Martin’s No. 1 hit from 1999. “She’ll make you take your clothes off and go dancing in the rain / She’ll make you live her crazy life but she’ll take away your pain … ”
A. “And you’re the one to blame.”
B. “You’re a moth drawn to her flame.”
C. “Like a bullet to your brain.”
D. “She’s a really kooky dame.”
All answers after the jump.
-- Geoff Boucher
Photo from "Point Beak" (1991) courtesy of 20th Century-Fox
Cryptic Studios have (finally after over a month of having us all staring at a countdown clock) officially announced they are the new developer of the Star Trek Online MMORPG. Thanks to their mostly functional website, you can grab a sneak peek of screen shots, new game details and oh look, another countdown timer for Star Trek's Vegas Con which begins in only two weeks.
*nudges LA Times-- SEND ME. ahheeemm. me me me me me*
The great news is that Cryptic has a proven trackrecord when in comes to MMORPGS with City of Heroes, City of Villains and their upcoming Champions Online. If you want my opinion, Perpetual Entertainment's financial crash and burn was the best thing that could happen for Star Trek Online. Plus Cryptic took the safe route and set the game to take place during the 25th century, the TNG era. Sure to please ALMOST everyone. Which is really all you can do when trying to please us...such a finicky bunch.
Here's what we know so far:
The two factions will be that of the Federation and Klingon Empire. There is mention that Cryptic will be allowing for 'player generated content' and territory and that there will be both ship and land based gameplay. According to the official website, ships will be from The Next Generation, Deep Space 9 and Voyager eras. So far the following ship classes that have been mentioned or featured are the following; Sovereign, Defiant, Akira, and Nova plus there is a shot of federation ships firing on a Romulan Warbird.
What I can't wait to find out is what Star Trek famed races will be featured. Cardassian, Vulcan, Andorian, Ferengi or hey, maybe Gorns? With Perpetual out of the picture Cryptic appears to be changing the nature of the proposed gameplay. Last year we heard that Star Trek Online was attempting to tackle a gaming environment that allowed players the option to take on the role of crew members along side fellow players on a starship. This fascinated all in-the-know gamers as to how that would be possible or even more questionably, enjoyed. How would the role of captain be decided? Who gets to be the ship's janitor? Plumbing is no laughing matter, someone's got to do it, right? Bigger questions that we hope will be answered at the Vegas-con are how much of Star Trek Online will be determined by starship combat and will they still be attempting a playable starfleet crew option? The question I want to ask is "HOW DO YOU INTEND TO MAKE THIS THE OPPOSITE OF STAR WARS GALAXIES?" Not THAT I'm really worried (okay just a little bit. But can you blame me? Every Star Trek game has been a train wreck and good space exploration MMO's are hard to come by, excluding Eve Online. You are fantastic. Don't change a thing).
Cryptic has already setup active forums and the option for newsletters via email for those eager to start their voyage, just head to the new official Star Trek Online website for more hype. While you're there, see if you can find Gorn in the forest...I'm pretty sure they are pulling my leg.
-- Christie "I'll just sit over here and wait for STO's Beta testing days" St. Martin of Funny Pages 2.0
Jeph Loeb is, right now, one of the most important people on the planet in terms of helping craft what genre fans will see and read to get their fix of fun.
Executive producer on "Heroes," one-time exec on both "Smallville" and "Lost," one of Marvel Comics' main men and author of the current Red Hulk and upcoming Ultimatum story lines, this guy is a fanboy sculptor. And he has more in mind. At Comic-Con, we spoke at length about the current glut of popularity among genre movies and DVDs and projects in general, and about how he goes about being one of the most influential creators around.
Comic-con has come and gone but the stories are still filing in. Mostly roundups showing you what you missed, what the convention missed, what was hot, what wasn't hot.
"There does seem to be some random booths here which don't have
anything to do with comics," said Jaime King, the starlet who came
south to promote the December comic-book film "The Spirit." "Slowly
but surely the entertainment community is taking over to promote their
projects here even though they have absolutely nothing to do with
comics. What's next? A panel for 'Deal or No Deal'?"
The art of the deal is just as important as superhero sketches,
especially after "The Dark Knight" began breaking box-office records.
This year Keanu Reeves, Hugh Jackman and Samuel L. Jackson were some of
the movie stars who came to connect with the most hard-wired of
pop-culture consumers. Hall H, the 6,500-seat main hall here, was the
site of full-house panels with sneak previews of films still a year
from release.
"This is madness. I love it," British actor Bill Nighy said as he
wandered around. "I saw a fellow with a stake through his chest and
blood splattered on his shirt, a woman dressed as a hunchback, a
Terminator, some superheroes. . . . I feel quite at home here. I've
been a zombie, a vampire and a squid on screen. All considered, I'm
quite legitimate here at Comic-Con."
There's actually a small segment of the huge San Diego Convention
Center still reserved for people in the comic-book trade. Robert
Beerbohm, who has been a merchant at every one of the Comic-Cons since
its start in 1970, said he is worried about the future for the true
believers.
"All the Hollywood directors say that they loved comics as a kid, but
now they are being pushed off the floor. Where are the next generation
of directors going to come from?" he wondered.
Probably from Hall H. Fans waited in lines for hours to get a spot in
the thunderous hangar-sized hall to see "sizzle reels," early footage
from upcoming films put into slick montages.
- Tony Pierce
photo of Tracie Hunnewell as The Joker by Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times
A few highlights (just things that stood out) from this year's Con:
Standing ovation for entire "Heroes" cast, and their enthusiasm (and videotaping the crowd) when they entered the room.
Marky Mark himself, Mark Wahlberg, seemed to be a real genuine guy face to face, and his acknowledgment of Ludacris' (Chris Bridge's) work as a hip-hop artist-turned-actor on the "Max Payne" movie confirmed that.
The "bigness" of "Twilight." The squeals of girls, the likes of which I hadn't heard in a panel as far back as I can remember, and listening to my blogmate Denise squeal over it as well eradicated any doubts I had about this being a blockbuster movie and possible franchise.
Standing ovation for "Battlestar Galactica" cast after the panel was over. Kind of a "job well done" and a farewell from many in the crowd.
Joss Whedon and Eliza Dushku (with Tahmoh Penikett) at the "Dollhouse" panel. Funny, smart, down-to-earth group. Eliza's feistiness and defense of Joss and the show, even to a fan, was a cool thing to see.
Whenever the "Watchmen" trailer played. In different halls, in front of different panels, whenever the trailer played, huge applause usually followed. Not hype, just a lot of anticipation is being built up.
The Masquerade. The fervor to dress up and/or perform, the craziness to possibly make a fool of yourself, the naivete to think that others are just as obsessed about your obsession as you are, the skill and dedication to put on skits with choreography, and the imagination to pull it off.
A guy had a seizure next to me while I was in the "Heroes" presentation. I was pretty scared for him. He luckily dropped out of it on his own as his friends and I tried to keep him from falling to the ground. After drinking water for a few minutes, he declared himself OK, but paramedics with a stretcher were still nearby after the panel to ask him a few questions. It apparently hadn't happened to him before.
Hugh Jackman's unexpected appearance and the "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" footage/trailer that he brought from Down Under. A great tease and wonderful kick-butt action. Just as cool was Jackman acknowledging Wolverine creator Len Wein in the crowd, running down from the stage to shake his hand and telling Wein that he wouldn't have a career without him.
Hollywood could learn from Hugh.
-- Jevon Phillips
For the record: An earlier version of this post had Ludacris's name as Chris Brown. He's obviously not! It's been changed to read Chris Bridges.
With even comedies being given a forum, the genre that inspired the convention is relegated to the background.
This is the year they tried to take the comic out of Comic-Con.
The Comic-Con International in San Diego, which came to a close Sunday, has become a frenetic Super Bowl of pop culture, but the home team has mixed feelings when it looks at the scoreboard.
"I think Comic-Con is in danger of having Hollywood co-opt its soul," said Michael Uslan, who attended the first comic-book convention in summer 1964 in New York. "It's turning into something new, and you could really see it this year. There's some worry about that."
As he spoke, Uslan was standing in the lobby of the Hard Rock Hotel wearing a Batman T-shirt and a CAA ball cap -- comic books were close to his heart, but Hollywood was on his brain.
Uslan wrote comic books in the 1970s, but then he went Hollywood and he has been executive producer on a dozen feature films, including the latest box-office sensation"The Dark Knight," which over the weekend topped $300 million in domestic box office.
"Smallville" is one of the shows that, along with "7th Heaven" and "Buffy," helped define the WB early on.
The pop culture fervor surrounding the show has mellowed, but turnout from "Smallville" fans still caused the third biggest room at Comic-Con to overflow.
Justin Hartley, who portrays Oliver Queen aka Green Arrow, was introduced as a recurring main character this season. He and Allison Mack received the bulk of the attention, though new season actors Sam Witwer (Davis Bloome/Doomsday) and Cassidy Freeman (Tess Mercer) were also involved.
The crowd was fed a teaser sampler for the upcoming season, with guest stars galore and cheers for Green Arrow's appearance. Speaking of guest stars, it was let out of the bag that incredibly popular comic book writer Geoff Johns would be writing an episode and would be introducing the Legion of Super Heroes in the show.
The practice of asking for a panelists' name placard was in full swing as four of the panelists were asked to give them away (and sign them) during the Q&A session (moderated by executive producer Jeph Loeb).
The talk was mostly of spinoffs, a pretty sure sign that not only were fans expecting the series to end soon, but were looking towards other storylines to explore. Green Arrow's possible show was a definite topic of interest.
The Chloe Chronicles webisodes are still going on, so along with her art interests and the show, Allison Mack (Chloe) is pretty busy. It was revealed that she'd like to direct an episode of the show, and though she received a handshake onstage, the deal may still be in the works.
One fan carrying a Chewbacca backpack got Judd Apatow to do what no other Comic-Con panelist has done so far. Apatow took off his shirt.
"Oh, my god, he's got a back like yours Judd," Rogen said before the fan was able to ask his question at the "Pineapple Express" Q&A.
"Yes," Apatow replies, before lifting up his shirt to reveal his own chest carpet to the crowd. "This is a hair bond," he told the fan. (Unfortunately, I was not quick enough with my camera to snap a picture. Instead, a lovely shot of "Pineapple Express" stars Seth Rogen and James Franco.)
The other bad news is that although Apatow and Rogen killed at the session, so much of it was R-rated and I can only give you the clean bits:
What does Pineapple Express, the fictional type of pot the film is named after, taste like? "It tastes like your throat is burning," Rogen said.
Asked why Rogen and “Pineapple” co-writer Evan Goldberg were inspired to make a stoner pic, Rogen explained: “It was a hard sell to make a weed movie for me and Evan,” he said. “Judd had the notion to make a weed action comedy -- we said that sounds [censored]rad. We felt very personally close to the material. Guys smoking joints and shooting AK47s -- that’s the movie I want to see right now.”
Costar James Franco fussed over his outfit. “They told me I had to wear the wig and the Guatemalan pants. That was a big argument.”
The best part about working with director David Gordon Green? “You can say anything because you don’t have to memorize your lines,” actor Danny McBride said. “You don’t even know how to read.” Added Rogen: “A lot of directors give direction like, ‘Do it faster,’ ‘Do it with more energy,’ ‘Be more serious.’ David says, ‘Do it like you’re a robot, or like you’re doing karate or like your taking a [bleep].’”
Franco is a better kisser than actress Amber Heard. “You’re a better kisser because you know the male anatomy and what I like,” Rogen told Franco before turning to Heard. “Sorry, he’s got the home field advantage.”
Asked if any of the inventive pot shots -- a three-ended joint, for example -- were inspired by real-life moments, Rogen fessed: “There’s one shot I’m smoking in a fish bowl. We did that in high school. It was stupid. I don’t know what we expected the outcome to be, but yeah, we did that.”
Rogen doesn’t have a favorite movie role, but he enjoyed making “Pineapple.” “This movie was fun because I got to shoot machine guns,” he said. “It definitely makes your day go by faster. Take that knowledge home with you, kids.”
"This show is so good that it'll get you pregnant."
And that's what "Clerks" director and fanboy icon Kevin Smith brought to the "Battlestar Galactica" panel that he moderated Saturday. A bit of raunch, a scattering of F-bombs. And I don't mean "frak." The panel included Jamie Bamber, Michael Trucco, Katee Sackhoff, James Callis, Tricia Helfer, creator Ron Moore and producer David Eick. Tahmoh Penikett came in later after having just appeared on the "Dollhouse" panel.
No Edward James Olmos. No Mary McDonnell. No Grace Park. No Michael Hogan. No Aaron Douglas. Maybe I'm accentuating the negative, and many of them have been here before, but it would've been a nice way to say goodbye. They've definitely been making the farewell rounds already, and the cast may reassemble for next year's Con, but the feeling of moving on seems to have invaded the group. Ron Moore addressed the show's ending in saying "There was a general sense that it was time to go." Maybe for them ...
The comic-book biz has been branching out not only to film, but also in the original DVD market. The strategy, it seems, is to create the same kind of 'gotta-have-it' mentality that they've fostered in their comics. Marvel's DVD releases have been pretty successful, at least in terms of likability by the fans, with "Doctor Strange," "Iron Man," "Ultimate Avengers" and more.
Last night, the comics company, along with Lionsgate, premiered a new offering in the form of "Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow." The toon feature paints a grim view of a future in which the crazy and powerful robot Ultron returns after the Avengers have retired and defeats an older, reassembled team. Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man, is tasked with protecting the children of the Avengers. So he takes the kids and runs.
Stark doesn't tell the kids much about their heritage or parents, other than through fanciful tales. James, the son of Captain America and Black Widow; Azari, son of the Black Panther (and Storm?); Pym, the son of Giant-Man and the Wasp; and Tauryn, the daughter of Thor, live their lives in relative seclusive peace. That is until Ultron finds them.
The kids join forces with the son of Hawkeye and an aged and semi-crazed Bruce Banner/Hulk to take down Ultron. A hasty panel afterward consisted of the project's writer, a producer, a director and two voice actors (Fred Tatasciore, who voiced the Hulk, constantly used his gamma voice during the panel).
There was a lot of angry chatter on message boards and comments sections berating not only this movie, but also the fact that Marvel hadn't done one with the mainstream Avengers characters yet. This movie was based on kids, and was probably for kids. We're not sure if it'll hit it's target demo, but it doesn't look to enjoy the success of other Marvel releases. In a treat for the assembled, a trailer was shown for the upcoming Marvel animated DVD release "Thor vs. Hulk."
An aside ... though I was coming here anyway, the line to get into an adjacent room (6B) was just as long. People in both of the lines were told that they would most likely not get in to the panel. The "Next Avengers" panel was within 30 minutes, the other panel and screening were still more than two hours away. It was for "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog." Although the program had no mention of "special guest stars," we did pass Nathan Fillion on the street around 10 p.m. walking back toward the Convention Center.
Jaime King portrays Lorelei in the Frank Miller film "The Spirit," due on Christmas Day. She sent us this post from her BlackBerry as she wandered the showroom floor at Comic-Con.
Comic-Con is awesome! It makes me wish I was 15 again when I would have the balls to wear a Leia slave-girl outfit. This place is HUGE! With a lot to do and see.
Quite frankly, I would have been very happy being a selfish hog all huddled up in the Lucasfilm booth playing the new video game "The Force Unleashed" for 12 hours. But I was nice nice and surrendered that desire and gave up the paddles to all of the excited 12-year-olds that want to check it out. I moved on to my daily routine of attempting to convince director Dave Filoni to let me do a voice for the upcoming "Clone Wars" series that I am so excited about. What's the most obscure thing at Comic-Con? "Thundercats"? A 75-year-old Superman? A cast of midget Peanuts characters? The last one would be a dead ringer for Patrick Stewart from "X-Men" being rolled around in a wheelchair.
There does seem to be some random booths here which don't have anything to do with comics; slowly but surely the entertainment community is taking over to promote their projects here even though they have absolutely nothing to do with Comics. What's next? A panel for "Deal or No Deal"? Still it's awesome here, a wonderful, fun experience and about the only place you can get away with wearing the same Davy Jones outfit for five days straight without taking a shower. As an actress who has to get dolled up a lot, that's a very liberating idea.
This is my fourth time here and each year I stay longer and longer. We buy lots of cool stuff to add to my husband's comic book/figurine/art collection that I have joyfully adopted as my own. We could never have too much -- there is always more room in our garage, where we keep huge Tupperware containers filled with the overflow of all the wicked stuff that comes out each year.
It's great coming down to promote "The Spirit" with Frank Miller. Being with Frank at Comic-Con feels like walking around with Jesus himself. He is my dear friend and it's great seeing him here surrounded by all the people who adore and appreciate his incredible talent. People here really enjoy themselves and and it's amazing to see all the energy and effort they put into their costumes and standing in line to get the autographs and exclusives they want. I feel lucky to once again participate in something I enjoy and that is so close to my heart.
"This is madness, I love it," Bill Nighy said as he wandered around at his first Comic-Con to promote "Underworld: The Rise of the Lycans," the prequel in the supernatural franchise that is due next year.
"I saw a fellow with a stake through his chest and blood splattered on his shirt, a woman dressed as a hunchback, a Terminator, some super-heroes...God bless them all."
The British actor was delighted to hear that some fans were also prowling the venue in the tentacles of Davy Jones, his cursed and maurading mariner from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise.
"I feel quite at home here. I've been a zombie, a vampire and a squid," he said, referring to roles in "Shaun of the Dead," "Underworld" and "Pirates."
"All considered," he told me backstage, "I'm quite legitimate here at Comic-Con."
Nighy is back in the "Underworld" role of bloodsucker Viktor in the films, which means that sometimes instead of delivering lines he finds himself rasping and snarling at his fellow cast members. "I get to wear a battle skirt -- how often does that happen? -- and fangs, and I hiss. Sometimes we have entire scenes where we don't speak, we just hiss. They're hissing matches."
-- Geoff Boucher
Bill Nighy photographed at Comic-Con 2008 by Spencer Weiner/Los Angeles Times
Overheard on the red carpet: A car decked out to look like the vehicle in "Pineapple Express" has been driving around San Diego to promote the pot film, and the guys inside had bongs with lots of smoke coming out of them. It wasn't real pot being smoked, but police pulled the car over and impounded it anyway.
It may be a myth, but they say where there's smoke there's fire. We'll try to find out.
If you sit in on a Joss Whedon panel, you're sure to be entertained.
Whedon brought along Faith-ful "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" companion Eliza Dushku and "Battlestar Galactica" captain Tahmoh Penikett to a panel introducing the world to "Dollhouse," which is set to debut in early 2009 on Fox. The character, Echo, who can have personalities imprinted on her to be whatever/whoever the mysterious agency known as 'the Dollhouse' needs, is based in part on the craziness and the randomness of Dushku's own life.
"Some of the things I might bring [to the part] are feist, fun and fury," says a pumped Dushku. She was elk hunting when he wrote the pilot ("Sorry PETA, it's part of life") and defers everything to Joss, and supportingly describes him as a "career brassiere" who "makes the words party on the page."
After the "Terminator Salvation" panel, filmmaker McG was praised backstage for his smooth and enthusiastic stage manner.
But he winced a bit at the compliment.
"I'm just trying to keep my lips shut these days, really, I want to let my films speak for themselves," he said. "I want to take me out of it. I need to do less talking. I don't want to be 'McG the cheerleader.' I'm just trying to grow as a filmmaker and let the films be judged."
It's a mature and savvy attitude for the director, whose nickname and public enthusiasm have sometimes made him a target for people who tagged him as more flash than substance. You can sense that he's a man on a mission.
That was very clear to me when I was on the "Terminator" set recently in New Mexico, where the director and his team are making an intensely grim reboot of the franchise. They were shooting until 3 a.m. the night before arriving here in San Diego.
"And Sam [Worthington, one of the stars] cut the hell out of his hand. We only snoozed for about two hours but, hey, we wouldn't have traded it for the world," he said. "This is what we want to do, bring this movie here and then bring it to the world."
Viewership may have fallen, and audience support may have waned, but at Comic-Con, NBC's "Heroes" is still as big as as it ever was. It's also still humble.
When the cast -- the entire cast -- came on stage to huge applause in Hall H, many of the actors were also filming the crowd with personal cameras. Greg Grunberg was one, and he also visited with a few fans at the back of the line for the panel, many of whom weren't getting in.
And speaking of growth, one of the first things moderator and executive producer Jeph Loeb said to the assemblage was that the show was in "236 territories around the world," and that it was popular because of the Comic-Con fans. "And we came here to thank you."
Loeb, being the cheerleader that he is, then led a section-by-section cheering contest. Then he offered this promise for the new season: "Each and every one of you ... you will want to talk about it."
After the cast filled the stage, Loeb jabbed at other ensembles, making sure the audience knew that everybody from the cast showed up, not just one or two stars.
There's a surge in interest among the American comic book companies in taking their graphic-minded entertainments into mobile devices. Marvel has just announced a Stephen King project, for instance, that was first reported by the Wall Street Journal:
...A previously unpublished story by Mr. King has been transformed by Marvel Comics into an animated video. The 25 episodes will be distributed in a variety of online and mobile channels ahead of the book's publication Nov. 11. Starting Monday, new episodes will be released daily, five times a week, through Aug. 29.
The willingness of Mr. King and publisher Scribner, an imprint of CBS Corp.'s Simon & Schuster book-publishing arm, to remix the story, "N.," into bite-size video vignettes underscores how eager publishers are to come up with new marketing techniques at a time when book sales are flat or slumping. Five years ago, Mr. King's publisher might have taken the creepy short story and offered it to a literary publication like "The New Yorker" in expectation that a first serial sale would create interest in "Just After Sunset." The story focuses on an unlucky psychiatrist whose latest patient is "infectious."
The WSJ piece by Jeffrey Trachtenberg has a clip from the video, which is called "N." Marvel is hardly alone in trying to ring up the future by squeezing its adventures into mobile devices. Paul Levitz, president of DC Comics, said his company is looking hard at the success in Japan of comics as phone-tainment but said the marketplace there has several advantages over the U.S., such as the general simplicity of images in manga and an audience that has more cutting-edge electronics. "There's things that need to happen here that haven't happened yet," Levitz said, suggesting that it may take a while before the idea of Superman on a cellphone will fly with a significant audience.
After the jump you can find the full announcement about King's "N" and details on accessing it.
Fans of director Henry Selick and writer Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas" got an up-close look at Selick's upcoming stop-motion animated feature "Coraline" on the Comic-Con show floor.
Adapted by Selick from Neil Gaiman’s international best-selling book of the same name, "Coraline" follows a young girl (Dakota Fanning) who walks through a secret door in her new home and discovers an alternate version of her life. The parallel reality is eerily similar to her real life – only much better. Except when Coraline's fantastical adventure turns dangerous, and her counterfeit parents (including Other Mother, voiced by Teri Hatcher) try to keep her forever.
Georgina Hayns, head of "Coraline" puppet department, accompanied the movie's maquettes to San Diego where they are displayed in the NECA booth. Selick allowed the models to journey from Laika headquarters in Portland, Oregon where he has been recording the stop-mo animation in native 3-D. "Coraline" is due in theaters February 6, 2009.
See a "Coraline" clip here and a trailer here. Character descriptions and another photo after the jump.
I could try and describe the breathtaking five minutes of never-before-seen footage from Pixar's next film "UP" -- out May 29, mark your calendars -- but it's better if I just point you to thenew teaser for you to check out on your own. (I'll admit, I teared up.)
Note: The site just went up today and when I tried to log on during the Pixar session it seemed backed up. Be patient. It will be worth the wait. (Update: Teaser embedded below.)
Audiences won't see anything as cool or slick as the T-800 of 2029, or the more advanced T-1000 model showcased in "Terminator 2: Judgment Day."
Rather, you'll see John Connor doing battle with older, muscle-models -- the machines that gave rise to Skynet -- in the McG-directed "Terminator Salvation," the fourth film in the "Terminator" franchise. "Salvation," which is set to be released in May 2009, takes off from a place in which "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" doesn't exist, a future referred to in the first and second films where Skynet is coming into power.
"This is a reinvention. We’re starting over. It’s incredible that it’s post Judgment Day' and it’s a completely different thing," said Bryce Dallas Howard, who plays the wife of John.
"You get to see the original machines, greasy, brutal," McG says. "Ours is not a clean comfortable future, and you see these giant machines stomping through people for their nefarious purposes. There will be lots of hardware worship."
Before screening some exclusive Comic-Con footage for the packed crowd, McG tried phoning Christian Bale, who plays John and is currently promoting “The Dark Knight” in Japan. The call went to voice mail. "Bale, we’re here at Comic-Con. They want to congratulate you on 'Dark Knight' -- the crowd roared -- and now we’re about to show world premiere footage from our new movie. I give you 'Terminator: Salvation.'”
Lots of explosion ensued.
We saw the first interaction between John and his eventual father Kyle Reese, this time played by 19-year-old Anton Yelchin (remember, John will send Kyle back in time to protect John's mom Sarah -- just go with the time-jumping mythology.)
The action takes place in 2018. "Skynet’s not there yet," McG explained. "The machines haven’t come to a place of proficiency that we’re accustomed to. We see the becoming of Skynet and what it means to have dominance in a post-apocalyptic world."
One fan asked if Arnold Schwarzenneger will be back, and McG didn't confirm or deny. "Hopefully that statement in itself answers that question.... The T-800 is indeed part of the mythology of 'Terminator.'"
Those who asked a question during the âLostâ standing-room-only session were well-rewarded.
Executive producers Damon Lindeloff (who was wearing a convention-appropriate "SAVE SNAPE" T-shirt) and Carlton Cuse bought a bottomless box of goodies for fans -- think something like Mary Poppinsâ carpet bag -- all direct from the set of the ABC series.
But perhaps even more important than swag, the Comic-Con crowd was privy to a secret video -- which will be available online soon, no doubt. The clip showed out-of-uniform Dharma Initiative scientist Marvin Candle (or Edgar Halliwax, depending on which of his videos you're watching) urging those watching the video to reconstitute the Dharma Initiative, but all was quickly cut off by an unknown video recorder.
Here's a rundown of "Lost" fansâ burning questions and the prizes that went with them:
Q: When the hatch imploded and the sky turned purple did the island move then? Like it did when Ben moved it (more recently)? Damon Lindeloff: No. But something happened and thatâs an excellent question. Prize: an Oceanic Airlines bottle of water
Q: Are Jin and Locke dead? Carlton Cuse: Jin and Locke will still be on the show in some form. Youâve not seen the last of either of those characters. You know, dead is a relative term. In the timelines of those characters thereâs still a lot of story to be told. Prize: Jinâs panda bear doll.
Q: Is "Lost" coming back next year? DL: Weâre doing 17 hours in February 2009 and 17 hours in 2010. Prize: A âLostâ calendar.
Q: Favorite episode and favorite season? CC: 'The Constantâ would be my favorite episode. I think in terms of favorite seasons, the first one was so amazing and we were trying to figure everything out; yeah, just the excitement and terror of it. DL: The Season One finale with the raft launch and all of that stuff. It was back when the show could be hopeful before it degraded into despair. And for favorite season? Season Four; everyone worked really hard. You will be rewarded for hanging in until Season Six. CC: For us it was a huge advantage to get an end date to the show; it really reinvigorated us. Prize: Apollo bar and an Apollo T-shirt.
Q: I just wanted to slap you around for the Jin and Sun episode -- you guys are naughty. DL: For slapping us around, here are some "Heroes" DVDs. Itâs a much better show than ours. Enjoy! Prize: âHeroesâ DVD box set
Q: Are we going to get a (Danielle Rousseau) flashback? Will you definitively say in front of 6,500 of us that there will be one? CC: We will say this: You will see Rousseau's story. But to use the word flashback would be disingenuous. Weâre going to do flashbacks and flash-forwards next season, but weâll mostly be doing something different. DL: Danielle Rousseau will be in Season Five. Prize: âLostâ luggage tags
At this point, someone asked a question about whether production would continue under âthe new SAG contract,â to which Lindeloff replied that he wasnât aware there was a new one yet -- there isnât -- but reassured shooting would continue regardless. For asking the question, the guy received the best worst prize of the lot: Photographs of the actors who played short-lived Nikki and Paulo. âWho wouldnât want that?â Lindeloff asked. âYes, two SAG actors,â said Cuse.
Q: Do your own mothers not know how the show will end? CC: They like to be in the dark. Prize: A life jacket signed by all the writers.
Q: Where is our special guest? DL: The actors [are] scattered all over the world at the moment, so itâs almost a Herculean task to get any of them out here. Prize: Signed box set of all seasons of the show.
Q: What happened to [the dog] Vincent? DL: Vincent made it and will appear in season five. Safe to say heâll make it to the end of the show. Prize: Polar bear doll
Q: Are Jack and Kate your one true pairing and will they end up together? CC: There it is. Someone who asked a real question, a ballsy question that gets right to the heart of the story and the mythology -- we canât answer it. DL: Sir, we can not tell you the answer to that question. Obviously weâre very invested in that relationship. Prize: Jack Shepherd autographed doll ⦠delivered by surprise guest Matthew Fox.
Q: Will Kate ever see Sawyer again? DL: Not if Jack has anything to say about it! No, yes, Kate will see Sawyer again Prize: A signed âLostâ poster
Q: Now that the island has moved, what happened to the survivors and Daniel Faraday? DL: You refer to the Zodiac boat and the non-line speakers, right? Sadly, there is a monsoon a cominâ for some... Prize: An authentic Faraday tie. âFor those of you wondering why Faraday is wearing a tie on the island, stay tuned,â Lindeloff said.
Q: Flash-forwards, how are you going to limit yourselves? DL: When Season Five starts, you wonât know where and when you are. The way weâre gonna tell stories is gonna be different too. CC: We organized a bit differently; if we were constrained by FF and FB that that was not gonna be the best way to tell our stories. Prize: Hanso foundation hat.
Q: How does this show end? CC: It ends well, we hope -- we canât answer that. Prize: A six pack of Dharma drinks
Q: Do you ever come up with stuff like, letâs make Kate a dude, or do you have it all planned out from the beginning? CC: You canât have It all planned out. We actually try to write ourselves into corners every day. What we try to avoid is filming that without knowing the answers. We try to puzzle our way out of situations. Prize: DryErase eraser signed by CC and DL
Q: How old is Richard Alpert and how many toes does he have? CC: Thatâs a really good question. He is quite old. Weâve hinted that people age differently on the island and people heal. That is hopefully an engaging mystery that will keep you tuning in. You will learn more about Richard Alpert. DL: Youâre gonna see his toes too. Prize: A T-shirt that says: âI asked a Richard Alpert a question and all I got what this lousy T-shirt.â
-- Denise Martin
Photo: Carlton Cuse, from left, and Damon Lindeloff.Credit: Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times
Correction: Danielle Russo was misspelled. It has been corrected to read Rousseau.
The Universal panel begins at 3:45 p.m. in Hall H and one of the films that will be featured is "Land of the Lost," the $100-million Will Ferrell comedy due next summer (and, after visiting the set, I can tell you it looks like it could a great popcorn movie).
Ferrell won't be here (he's sent a taped message) but two of the panelists will be Sid and Marty Krofft, the brother team behind the old Saturday morning shows "H.R. Pufnstuf," "Land of the Lost," "Lidsville" and others. I have a front-page story in The Times today about the Kroffts and their quirky show-biz story, unexpected comeback and a family secret they've been keeping for decades.
The piece is getting a lot of reader response. One industry veteran who wrote in said the brothers were "monsters" to employees and collaborators during their peak years in the 1970s, but most of the e-mails were like this one:
H. R. Pufnstuf! My favorite show of all time. My best friend and I were huge fans with a bigger crush on Jack Wild, of course. It was and remains the only fan letter I have ever penned (no reply, but we kept hoping for one ). Your article took me back to the days when we would wait all week for the show and time stopped while it aired. 'H. R. Pufnstuf' is a classic in so many ways and I remember it well even though I have not seen an episode in decades, gosh, many decades. My regards to the Kroffts. Thanks for publishing your story. Patty Montbriand, Pasadena, CA.
-- Geoff Boucher
Vinatge photo of Sid Krofft, Jack Wild and Marty Krofft on the set of '"H.R. Pufnstuf;"; courtesy of Krofft Picture Archive.
As I’ve said before, my vote is for Neal Adams, so it was a real treat to join him and his family for a big pasta dinner at Buca di Beppo in downtown San Diego last night. Before we even got to the table, I had to ask him if he had seen “The Dark Knight.” “I did and I thought it was great,” Adams told me. But he did have some reservations about the body count in the Christopher Nolan film and the fact that, in his view, the villains seem to triumph in the film. “Batman fails and fails and fails,” said the artist who drew the Batman so definitively in 1970s.
Adams is a champion of artist rights through the decades and we talked a lot about the wear and tear of the comics industry on creators through the years. Adams, who is a portrait of clean living, also talked about the casualties of drinking and drugs in the business, such as the late Marshall Rogers, who “just got eaten up” by his addictions. A brighter note was a great yarn he told me about a trip to Spain with his wife, Marilyn, and sitting watching the setting sun with the late Will Eisner. “It was such a great moment, a great day.” Adams talked about a book he wants to do with Batman, Deadman and the Joker crossing paths in an intriguing way. After way too much food, we walked over to the DC Comics party, where I got to introduce Adams and his son, Josh, to filmmaker Zack Snyder. The two immediately hit it off and talked intently about motion-capture technologies and the state of CG special effects in Hollywood. It was a real treat to listen in and inspiring to hear two guys so passionate about their crafts. The brawny Adams is a locomotive guy and he expects others to keep up. The last thing he said as he headed back to his hotel: “Work hard.”
-- Geoff Boucher
Neal Adams cover for "Batman" No. 241 (1972), courtesy of DC Comics.
Guy Ritchie came to Comic-Con International to promote his crackling London crime film "RocknRolla" (which, he told me, reflects the shifting cultural definitions in the U.K. these days and "the changing meaning in just the past five years of what it means to be British), but I really wanted to hear about his Sherlock Holmes project, which will star Robert Downey Jr. as Arthur Conan Doyle's iconic sleuth.
"I'm very excited about it, Robert is brilliant," Ritchie said. "I came to the character through the books when I was young and what the film will reflect is the intelligence on the page and also the action. There's quite a lot of intense action sequences in the stories; sometimes that hasn't been reflected in the movies. it's been a relatively long time since there's been a film version that people embraced. I want to make a very contemporary film as far as the tone and texture. It's exciting for me to do a period piece, that's a departure."
Ritchie said his Holmes will be a man of adventure in a gritty world, not a prim thinker in staid parlor play. "There's a darkness to the movie we want to make," said Ritchie, who will be adapting Lionel Wigram's upcoming comic book tale about Holmes as opposed to the classic canon.
And what about "The Gamekeeper," Ritchie's foray into comic books? "I still plan to make that a film but, well, I'm quite busy right now."
I interviewed the filmmaker last year about "The Gamekeeper." You can find that after the jump.
-- Geoff Boucher
Photo: Basil Rathbone left, as Sherlock Holmes, and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson in 1939's "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes." (Los Angeles Times archival photo)
Batman, aka Aaron Blossom of Fontana, bravely steps up to the microphone to ask the cast of "Watchmen" a question during the Q&A session that followed a presentation in Hall H at the Comic-Con Convention in San Diego. Hey, where's Robin?
Samuel L. Jackson explains what "BadMoFoKos" are, pays homage to L.A. comics haven Golden Apple, and decides who would win in a battle between the Octopus and Jedi Mace Windu.
Samuel L. Jackson just delivered the best line of the day at Comic-Con:
"Aw c'mon, toilets are always funny!"
That was the payoff line in the wild fight scene from "The Spirit," which for a few minutes at least, appears to meld the physics of Wile E. Coyote with the vivid noir of "Sin City."
The fight scene is in a junk-strewn mud flat between Jackson's character, the villain called The Octopus, and the title hero, portrayed by newcomer Gabriel Macht.
They whack each other with cinder blocks, then a crow bar and then the hero takes a savage blow to the crotch from a giant spanner wrench. Then, in a scene that looks better than it sounds, the Octopus slams a toilet down over the hero's head, pinning his arms to his side.
The movie, by the way, is not based on a true story.
The Christmas Day release will be watched closely by comic-book purists because it adapts the most beloved and enduring character of the late Will Eisner, an anointed figure in comics (he is so revered as the "grandfather of the graphic novel" that the industry awards are called the Eisners).
His Spirit is coming to the screen in the solo directorial debut of Frank Miller, the graphic novelist behind "Sin City," "300" and "The Dark Knight Returns." The problem might be the Spirit losing his comic and sentimental edges in the gritty hyper-reality that has marked Miller's work when it reaches the screen. (He was co-director of "Sin City" with Robert Rodriguez.)
I was the panel's moderator and, looking out over 6,800 fans, I realized how nerve-wracking it is to be on that stage. Miller brought three clips plus a trailer, which is a LOT (that's why there were no questions from the audience) and the reason was Miller and his people wanted to show that the movie included romance and comedy (like the classic Eisner newspaper inserts and comics).
Jackson stole the show on the panel, which also included Miller, producer Deborah Del Prete, Macht and starlet Jaime King (Lorelei). He talked about his favorite action figure of himself during his long career in genre films (he loves Mace Windu figures and wonders why he didn't get an action figure of "Jurassic Park" when almost every else in the cast did) and commented on his upcoming portrayal of Nick Fury, originally a white character in the comics, by saying that America gives anyone the chance to "become a black man."
Photos: Top, Samuel L. Jackson hugs "The Spirit" writer/director Frank Miller before the start of the panel with producer Deborah Del Prete and stars Gabriel Macht and Jaime King, who gathered to show an exclusive preview of the new film based on the classic comic by Will Eisner at Comic-Con International in San Diego on July 25, 2008. Right, "The Spirit" panel moderated by Los Angeles Times writer Geoff Boucher, left. Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times.
UPDATE: An early version of this post had the name of Robert Rodriguez spelled wrong. Sorry for the mistake, that's what can happen when you write a post on your Blackberry backstage!
Faces on the floor of Comic-Con Intl. help tell a story about the character of the event, the people who frequent it, a bit of the history behind it, and where it could be headed.
Unannounced star Benicio Del Toro introduced "The Wolf Man" trailer as he sat beside costar Emily Blunt and makeup/FX guru Rick Baker.
Baker enjoyed the experience, and let it be known that "Bene" is "a monster fan. Everytime we'd do the makeup, he'd come in with a different magazine" showcasing the Wolf Man or another monster movie. And for Del Toro, it was definitely a role he wanted.
"Becoming [the Wolf Man], putting it on and getting in character ... that was exciting," said Del Toro. "It was taking it off that was difficult."
Blunt, for her part, did not believe it was difficult to act in.
"When I heard they were doing a monster movie, I said 'Hey, I can run and I can scream," said Blunt. "The first time I saw it [Benicio in full makeup], it was really disconcerting. ... I really was running. In a corset!"
Many of the questions were directed toward Rick Baker, Here's a sampling:
Is the makeup harder to do on a movie like "Wolf Man" as opposed to "Norbit?"
Baker: The makeup, like a Mr. Wong, an older Asian man played by Eddie Murphy [in "Coming to America"], was actually harder to do than "The Wolf Man."
Practical makeup & effects versus CGI?
I think that if it's done right, they can actually work hand in hand. [For "The Wolf Man], it's more of an old-fashioned gothic film.
Can you comment on Stan Winston's passing?
It's really so sad to lose Stan ... People always thought that we hated each other because we competed for the same jobs. And they're right. I hated him ... He was a bastard ... But really, it's a wonderful thing when you have someone [who's your rival] that cares about what you're doing so much, it helps you out.
-- Jevon Phillips
Photo: Del Toro, Blunt and Baker at Comic-Con. Credit: Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times
Due to consecutive box office hits with "The Incredible Hulk," "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" and the upcoming "The Mummy 3: The Tomb of the Golden Emperor," Universal appears to be printing money with its summer tent poles.
And it looks like Universal would like to make its fantasy franchises a year-round success story. The studio is already priming the well for Spring 2009.
On Friday afternoon at Comic-Con, Universal unveiled a trailer for "The Wolf Man," starring Benicio del Toro as Lawrence Talbot and Anthony Hopkins as his father, Sir John, and Emily Blunt as Talbot's brother's fiancee, Gwen Conliffe. Special effects guru Rick Baker created the nightmarish beast that del Toro transforms into.
We'll have more on Benicio, the trailer, Blunt and the newest "Wolf Man" movie. But in the meantime, here's a look back at a history of werewolves in movies by Los Angeles Times reporter Patrick Kevin Day:
Leave your Sharpies and 8x10 glossies at home, trekkies, because The Royal Shakespeare Company just released a statement regarding the production of "Hamlet" starring "Star Trek: The Next Generation’s" Patrick Stewart and "Doctor Who’s" David Tennant today, stating that fans will not be allowed to bring any Dr. Who or Star Trek memorabilia to be autographed.
"Due to the huge amount of interest in the RSC’s current production of Hamlet, only Royal Shakespeare Company or production related memorabilia will be signed by members of the company. It is very flattering that there is so much interest in this production, but the sheer volume of requests means that we need to set some limits which will be as fair as possible for everyone. We apologize if this causes any disappointment."
This news will no doubt break the hearts of trekkies and "Doctor Who" fans making it out to this year's performance of "Hamlet," but let's examine the facts. There is a time and a place to dress in your finest Starfleet uniforms; classical theater is not that time. I’m sure the performers would prefer fans to go and appreciate their new roles and enjoy Shakespeare, rather than just be there to see a character they’ve played in the past.
On the flip side, I am not entirely sure that RSC handled the heartbreak in the classiest of manners.
It is one thing to ban autograph requests entirely for logistical reasons. The same as it makes sense to limit autograph requests to 1 per person. Or if the actors themselves choose not to sign the memorabilia for whatever reason.
But the facts are, there's no real difference between autographing a play brochure or signing a Star Trek TNG Picard as Locutus action figure, so the statement is more insulting than it ever should have been. How about you just say you want to keep the focus on actors and get your action figures signed at San Diego's Comic-Con?
Hall H was filled, much "Watchmen" ground was covered, and we got to see a special cut of the trailer twice.
Here are the highlights from the question-answer session (because we only provide the good stuff):
Director Zack Snyder, kicking the session off: ‘Watchmen’ has been knocking around Hollywood for quite a while. A bunch of directors had been attached to it … For me, it’s been a labor of love to try and get as much of the graphic novel into the movies as I could.
“Watchmen” artist Dave Gibbons on seeing his illustrations brought to life: It’s the stuff of dreams to see the stuff that comes out of my head become real. Stepping on to the owl ship, smelling the Comedian’s cigar. Having him slap me on the back and show me one of his guns was amazing. It was like being a kid at Christmas.
Gibbons on notoriously reclusive “Watchmen” writer Alan Moore’s absence from the panel: I see there is an elephant in the room. I wish that Alan could feel the same excitement and joy I’m feeling right now.
Snyder introducing the amped-up-for-Comic-Con trailer: We tried to include the non-PG stuff for you guys. There’s Dr. Manhattan marching through Vietnam and blowing guys up -- it’s not quite as friendly as it is in the (theatrical) trailer … We wanted to put together shots to say to you guys, ‘This is how we’re doing it!’
Billy Crudup on the challenges of playing Dr. Manhattan: There were two major obstacles. One, Dr. Manhattan is unlike anything I have a reference for. And two, how do you pretend to be the 6’4” buffed-out master of matter while you’re a 5’9, 40-year-old make-believe-playing jackass? Those were my two main obstacles and I did what I could.
Jackie Earle Haley on becoming Rorschach: It was a blast, it was challenging, it was mind-numbing. There’s a lot to Rorschach. I studied the script, I studied the book. I had long conversations with Zack about his multiplicity, what he’s about. And actually I spent a lot of time on the websites and blogs, so I learned a lot about him from all you guys. It was also really empowering when I got into the outfit.
Snyder on his favorite “Watchmen” character: That’s a good question. That’s not really a fair question though. I like them all for different reasons. (The crowd boos.) Everyone likes Rorschach the best -- so that rules him out. Everyone likes the Comedian because he’s a bad-ass and morally, you know. So there’s those two I can’t vote for. Also, you have the girls, which I think ‘awesome,’ but also ‘cop-out.’ Because ‘Oh wow, I like the girls best!’ I mean that seems obvious, doesn’t it? Maybe I’ll stay with the girls, I like the girls best. Fine. Thank you.
The old hits just keep coming back. The "Terminator" franchise reboot is well underway, so it's no surprise really that MGM is moving forward with another 1980s-era brand of mechanical mayhem with "Robocop" redux. The most intriguing aspect is the presence of Darren Aronofsky, one of the more distinctive filmmakers of his generation.
That's the word from Daily Variety's Tatiana Siegel:
Darren Aronofsky has signed on to direct and David Self is penning a new installment about the hero whose tagline is "part man, part machine and all cop."
"RoboCop," which is being fast-tracked for a 2010 release, becomes the first potential tentpole to come together since Mary Parent took the reins of MGM in March. Aronofsky's involvement has been one of the worst kept secrets, with rumors rampant in the blogosphere that "The Fountain" helmer was eyeing the project.
MGM is keeping the logline under wraps, but insiders say it will take the sci-fi vigilante classic in more of a noir direction.
Gerard Butler was sitting under a blue umbrella on a balcony of the San Diego Convention Center after the panel for "RocknRolla," the upcoming Guy Ritchie film. "I was signing posters and my watch kept catching on them so I took it off and put it between my legs and then walked off. Now I think someone has stolen my sunglasses."
Butler laughed. He can afford to leave some things behind after what's he taken away from Comic-Con. "When I came here for '300' I came straight from the desert, I had been shooting for 33 straight days -- I was a week short of Jesus, right? -- and it had been all this sword fighting and so surreal to come into a room with 6,800 people or whatever and I didn't know any of it was going to be like that. The reception was unbelievable. This event is such a platform and '300' was part of showing that to people. There was a buzz all around the world after that panel."
Butler said he was surprised when he was first told that he was returning this year. "I didn't think this was the kind of movie that Comic-Con cared about, but that's the big change right? There's room now for movies that aren't about superheroes and such." "RocknRolla" has the gritty London crime setting that harkens back to the filmmaker's breakthrough projects, "Snatch" and "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels." "It's so great Butler said, to be in Guy Ritchie film. They're so masculine and funny and smart and just daft." Turns out that Butler's watch and his sunglasses were right where he left them and returned safely. The Scotsman grinned broadly. "See? This place is great!"
-- Geoff Boucher
Photos of Gerard Butler (top) and Thandie Newton (center) in "RocknRolla," courtesy of Warner Bros.
As promised, a Comic-Con burning questions session with “Twilight” star Robert Pattinson, who talked to Hero Complex about perfecting an American accent, the pressure to play Earth’s most “beautiful” vampire, and what he really thought of that Entertainment Weekly cover.(Don't forget to check out our video of him and the play-by-play of yesterday's "Twilight" panel.)
First things first: Let’s talk about that EW cover. Um, I guess my hair turned into a little bit of a toupee, didn’t it? I don’t know what happened. Laughs. I just sort of was like, it’s only out for a week anyway.
Tell us about having to play “beautiful.” When I first read the script and heard about the casting I was thinking, ‘This is impossible. This is physically impossible to play this part.’ I kind of preempted what everyone’s reaction would be. There was also a very real possibility that you could get so freaked out by having to look 'beautiful' all the time that you just end up doing the whole thing, like, pouting. Like, ‘Can I just cut all my lines and just stand still so you can shoot it really well?’
So what’d you do? I thought about it a lot. It was kind of a deceptively complicated character to play. When you look at what Edward says, it seems like he always says the right thing. Always just the perfect gentleman. But when you put it in the context of his actual life situation and it doesn’t compute that he would be this completely easygoing, normal guy. That’s what he was before, then he got bit. He’s still trying to be a nice guy, but he’s also killed like 50 people, so he’s kind of in a state of constant penance.
Ah yes, we know you read Stephenie Meyer‘s manuscript for “Midnight Sun,” essentially a re-write of “Twilight” from Edward’s point of view. It won't be published for a while. Any tidbits? Bella never knows what’s going on inside Edward’s head. Throughout the entire series of books, she never really knows who he is. In 'Midnight Sun,’ you find that he hides a lot from her, you find out the things that he’s hidden. Even basic things like there are other vampires who are going to kill her; I mean he kind of lies about it for ages.
Did it help you do anything different with the part? It’s interesting in “Midnight Sun” he’s kind of disgusted with himself, which is kind of how I saw Edward anyways. He knows (his relationship with Bella) is right but he can’t stand the fact that he keeps hanging around her. It’s like ‘I know I’m in love with her, I know that’s all well and good, but I shouldn’t be doing this. I’m a vampire, I should just accept that and kill myself now.’ It’s a lot of self-loathing. Laughs. And I wanted to play it 100% self-loathing the whole time, and nobody would let me. They had to kind of lighten me up a bit.
Might we hear more about this reported journal you kept to prepare for playing Edward? I don’t know where the whole journal idea came from. I mean, I just wrote tons and tons of notes. I had like six versions of the script. I wrote of that while I was in Portland (where the movie was shot) for two months by myself. I was there before (director) Catherine Hardwicke or anyone else.
To get into character? I wouldn’t be doing anything in London that would be of any help, and I thought that just being separated from anything that I knew would be good. Also, the accent. I thought it would be helpful if I just pretended to be American for two months.
How do you think it turned out? It’s supposed to be sort of old-fashioned America. I haven’t actually seen it yet, but hopefully it worked out.
Though it's still early in the convention, the autograph area can sometimes be a lonely place for celebrities.
Tens of thousands will walk by with either a look of worship, a slight tinge of recognition, a glance of bewilderment as they try to figure out who that person is, or even a quick peek of pity for those stars who may have burned brightly, then fallen out of orbit because of time or fickle crowds. The list includes former wrestling stars, obscure artists, semi-popular film and TV stars, and recognizable names and faces that give us pause -- maybe even stirring a memory or two.
Erin Gray is probably one of the latter. A '70s and '80s star for her work in "Buck Rogers" and "Silver Spoons," she frequents the convention circuit looking to give back to fans. In a pretty empty session, she had time to take a few minutes for a few questions.
We'll keep you updated on who sets up camp in the open space.
Rose McGowan says she can't wait to wear the chain mail bikini of Red Sonja, the barbarian queen. Why? "The suffragettes would have loved her. She would only be with a man if he had bested her with the sword first. That was a pretty feminist statement ... well, as far as comic books go back then."
McGowan said she had a "very depressing year" seeking a challenging, nuanced role in Hollywood when most movies present women "not even as straight man, they're the straight man to the straight man." When a script came her way reviving the Marvel Comics character who first appeared in "Conan the Barbarian" under writer Roy Thomas and artist Barry Windsor-Smith (drawing, of course, on the work of pulp icon Robert E. Howard) she was intrigued. She showed it to her boyfriend, filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, and asked if he had ever heard of the character.
And, of course, Rodriguez turned out to be a rabid fan of the Marvel Conan comics and Sonja as well. "I learned to draw by tracing the art in 'Savage Sword of Conan,' John Buscema and all of that. They led back to the books by Howard and loved him, partly because he was the weird guy from Texas like me." The two of them told me all of this on Thursday as they relaxed in a (relatively) quiet corner of Comic-Con after their panel on "Red Sonja." The wide-eyed pair had just bumped into Stan Lee (McGowan: "Wow, he is a salesman") and seemed charmed and a bit overwhelmed by the whole day. "I'm a novice but I love it," McGowan said as Rodriguez nodded.
Red Sonja hit the screen back in 1985 when it was the towering Brigitte Nielsen from Denmark swinging the sword with a certain California governor along for the fun. This new "Red Sonja" sounds as if will have some of the hyper-reality of films like "300" and Rodriguez's own "Sin City." The movie isn't until 2010 but Rodriguez said they would be back next year with a full-on presentation. The curvy McGowan said the costume will be a big hit. "It's, uh, very visually impactful. Sonja lived in a time when men, if they saw a woman with a sword, wouldn't think twice about killing her. She needs any edge or distraction she can get. The costume gives her that."
One last thing: Will the name "Conan" be mentioned in this film? "I can't tell you that," Rodriguez said. "The reason i can't tell you is I don't know yet."
-- Geoff Boucher
Image of Red Sonja courtesy of Nu Image/Millennium Films
I was wandering the showroom floor at Comic-Con International and I came across some big-time wheeling and dealing that had absolutely nothing to do with film options or Hollywood agents.
There was intense buying and selling in the booths where vintage original art from comic books and comic strips was on display in thick, oversized portfolios that were worth far more than their weight in gold.
Take dealer Joe Mannarino, whose booth had amazing original pieces by the brilliant Windsor McCay, Jack Kirby and Neal Adams, who is my personal all-time favorite artist. "The marketplace has never gone down, but we're seeing major interest right now. It's a very robust market." One reason is there are several generations of fans now of collecting age (i.e., they have enough money to jump into a pricey hobby) and the huge Hollywood afterlife of comics properties has also attracted investors who are just looking for a place to double and triple their money in a a few years. Mannarino is right in the middle of it all with one of the most respected appraisal businesses in the scene. He's also worked as an agent for iconic artists such as Frank Frazetta, Mort Drucker, Joe Simon, Carmine Infantino and Jim Steranko.
When I stopped by, Mannarino had just paid $115,000 for a full 22-page story drawn by Adams and inked by the brilliant Berni Wrightson. Yes, you read that number right. "And someone has already offered me a $140,000 for it," Mannarino said, clearly torn about whether to part company so quickly with such a rare find.
"It's the only time Wrightson ever inked Adams, I believe," Mannarino said of the issue, "Green Lantern" No. 84, circa 1971. (The purchase did not include the cover, which is pictured above, but I love the work of Adams so much i thought I would share it with you.)
What's the big downside to the whole original-art scene? I spoke to Adams last year at Comic-Con and he seethes every time he hears about a purchased piece of his old art. He said all of those pages were stolen (his word, not mine) from him during a nasty dispute with DC Comics about artist's rights. It certainly doesn't help when he hears his old labors are fetching six-digit figures and he's getting zilch.
I got a nice e-mail the other day from Adams (which is quite the thrill for someone who grew up staring at his "The Brave & the Bold" covers for hours) and we made plans to say hello tonight at the DC Comics party. It should be a great night so I'm not sure whether I'll even mention Mannarino's big buy.
-- Geoff Boucher
Neal Adams cover art from "Green Lantern" courtesy of DC Comics.
Photo: Joe Mannarino at Comic-Con. Credit: Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times
Costumes are, of course, a big part of Comic-Con. We pull aside a few of the characters, many IN character, to explain who they are and why they're there.
I've been interviewing movie stars and filmmakers for eight years for The Times, and I don't know that any of them are more affable than Zack Snyder, the director of "300" who, today, will have all eyes on him in Comic-Con's huge Hall H during the 10:55 a.m. panel devoted to "Watchmen." (*An earlier verison of this post said the panel would be at 11:55 a.m.) The release of that 1986 graphic novel (which, many people forget, was originally released as 12-issue comic book series) was a pivotal point in the history of comic books and no one is a bigger fan of the masterpiece than writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons.
"It's absolutely literary. It's so great to hand it to people who don't know graphic novels because it's a book. I mean I love 'The Dark Knight Returns,' it's one of my absolute favorites, but it still feels like a comic book, it has Batman and people, 'I know what this.' But you hand 'Watchmen' and right from that first page you get the sense that this is something different."
I have Snyder tell me all this while we're standing inside the Owl Ship, the aircraft from "Watchmen" that Snyder's team in Vancouver, Canada, meticulously built from scratch. It's an absolutely amazing construct and its very solid; it doesn't have the feel of a flimsy Hollywood prop. Climbing inside reminded me of a time I boarded a working submarine in Hawaii for a sea-floor cruise. Snyder says he still can't believe he was "handed all this money and told to go to Canada and make 'Watchmen' real," and that's one of the reasons this big heavy Owl Ship was brought to San Diego and put on display at the Warner Bros. booth (No. 4329) to give fans a sense of the lengths that the movie is going to to create Moore's world with gravity and substance, not just CGI gloss.
"Here's the coffeemaker back here. We even got those coffee cups flown from New York, you know, from Greek delis? The blue cups -- here they are." He opened up a cabinet and found them. "Isn't that great?"
Snyder left me around with the controls, and they have tactile feel of a real cockpit. There are small photographs pinned up on the wall, just as they were in the comics, and perched in one corner is a copy of "Under the Hood," a superhero's autobiography that fits prominently into the story's unfolding. "The guys glued the book there, you can't take it out. That's probably a good thing." These details may never been seen on screen but Snyder is such a devoted fan he wanted to start with the DNA-level particulars of the graphic novel so he could bring it alive. When i visited him on the set months ago, he had a battered copy of the graphic novel with him during scenes.
On Thursday, fiddling with the flamethrower controls of the Owl Ship, it was clear that the book by Moore and Gibbons is somehow as important to him as his own film. "If I just end up making a three-hour advertisement for the graphic novel," he said, "I've done my job."
He's already done that. DC President Paul Levitz told me that just the release of the trailer for Snyder's movie has prompted such demand that DC has just ordered another 250,000 copies of the $19.99 trade paperback version of "Watchmen." Last week, 75,000 copies were sold, Snyder said, quoting a stat passed on to him from Warner Bros. Moore, as has been well-documented, has wiped his hands of Hollywood after watching his other creations reach the screen in disappointing fashion, such "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen." I'm wondering if the reclusive British writer will be able to stay soured on the movie industry after Snyder is done borrowing the Owl Ship.
-- Geoff Boucher
Photo: Actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan is shown as The Comedian in the mystery adventure film "Watchmen." (AP Photo/Warner Bros., Clay Enos)
A trademark of Marvel Comics in the 1960s was “the crossover”— when one character would pop up in another hero's title (Spider-Man would meet the Fantastic Four, the Silver Surfer would fly into Thor’s book, etc.) and now they’re doing it with their movies with Nick Fury popping up in “Iron Man” and Tony Stark sauntering into “The Incredible Hulk.”
They are building toward a planned Avengers movie and their longtime rival, DC, has taken note.
We heard a few weeks ago that Warner Bros. executives had decided to look at second- and third-tier characters as movie prospects and for opportunities to have them cross paths on screen (although a previously announced Justice League movie has been put on hold after it lost momentum during the writers strike).
On Thursday, DC Comics President Paul Levitz smiled when asked if DC characters such as Superman and Batman might finally meet on screen. “Keep watching the movies,” Levitz said. “Keep watching.”
It’s a great season for DC with the massive opening of “The Dark Knight” and the critical reception for the trailer for “Watchmen.” “It’s amazing what Christopher Nolan has done with ‘Dark Knight,’ bringing the character into a realistic world, while Zack Snyder looked at ‘Watchmen’ and said, ‘I think I can create this world,’" he said.
In the past week, DC ordered up a new 200,000-copy print run of the "Watchmen" trade paperback because of a flurry of consumer interest after the trailer. “Its all very exciting,” Levitz said. “A graphic novel went to No. 2 on Amazon because of a movie trailer. That’s not something we’ve seen before.”
In two decidedly unrelated panels, the dichotomy of Comic-Con was on display Thursday night.
In the DC Nation panel, DC Comics honcho Dan Didio led a group of writers and editors who talked to and about the core of the convention: comic books and fans. Didio's sessions engage the crowd by asking them to pick favorites and directions that they think comics and characters should go. Shouting things like "Who's the best Flash?" (Wally West and Barry Allen got the biggest cheers) and "Who should replace Bruce Wayne as Batman?" (Dick Grayson pretty much won that, though Tim Drake got a cheer), Didio did his usual cheerleading. And even when someone shouted a criticism ("You want to kill everyone!"), he invited the commenter to come on the stage and sit in as a DC editor, which he gladly did.
In grand style, Didio brought up a secret guest: Kevin Smith. Smith remarked on the fact that the comic book convention had DC, one of the largest comics producers in the world, in a much smaller room than the star-seeking crowd assembled in Ballroom 20. The filmmaker/comics guy revealed that he would oversee a three-issue arc for the Dark Knight entitled "Batman: Cacophony," drawn by Walt Flanigan. The busy mini-mogul joked about not getting his books in on time and wished Didio "good luck" in getting the book out by deadline. He has started projects before, but occasionally falls off, as he noted by saying, "I'm Mr. Foreplay, but if you need me to thrust, forget it."
And speaking of R-rated ... the "Dexter" panel put on a bit of a show. The standing-room-only presentation with Michael C. Hall and crew illustrates how shows sans superpowers continue to make their way towards Comic-Con. The dedicated crowd peppered the assemblage with questions of literary-to-TV plot points, Michael's favorite kill (as Dexter -- "It was satisfying to kill Lil Chino cause he was so big"), and concerns on whether the romance between Rita (Julie Benz) and Dexter could last. On the relationship, Hall said, "I think it's hard to argue that the relationship, in its own way, works." As for Benz: "I honestly believe that every man needs a hobby."
In an aside, Mark Echo of Mark Echo Productions announced that the new Dexter episodic video game would be released on the iPhone and iPod Touch platforms.
Maybe you've seen the bus ads for True Blood, a faux beverage that gives vampires an artificial substitute for the red stuff they crave.
It's a promotional stunt for "True Blood," the HBO series that launches Sept. 7 and, along with "Twilight," promises to make this fall an especially bloody season.
At the panel for the show, Alan Ball, the creative force behind the series, was asked if there would be an actual beverage bottled up to cash in on the curiosity about the advertisements.
"Yes," said the creator of "Six Feet Under," "and it's going to be a combination of V8, valium, vicodin and Viagra."
The show uses vampires as a metaphor for any "outsider culture," Ball told a packed ballroom, many of them fans of the "True Blood" novels of author Charlene Harris, also a panelist.
Relationships and sex are big aspects of the show, Ball said, and he said there were mortals who seek out the blood-suckers because of their prowess in the sheets.
"They're a pretty amazing catch," Ball said, pointing out that they are forever young but have hundreds of years of experience as far as satisfying their partners. "There's a name for the people who try to sleep with them: fangbangers."
On inevitable comparisons to "Twilight": "I think there's room for everything in the world. I don't feel any sense of competition at all."
-- Geoff Boucher
Photo: Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer from "True Blood," courtesy of HBO
The only girls who weren’t at the Comic-Con “Twilight” session were waiting for the “Rocknrolla” one.
And that’s because Gerard Butler was on the bill.
No, really, the place went nuts at the mere mention of “Phantom of the Opera.”
Butler held court Thursday afternoon while promoting Guy Ritchie’s upcoming crime caper. The film “is so good, it’s better than sex,” he told the crowd. “Well, not [sex] with me.”
He managed to come up with the best answer to a Comic-Con fan question yet. Asked if he had a favorite moment while shooting, Butler replied:
“Nothing but getting a shot of B12 in my arse by Guy’s wife, Madonna. I was sick, and she was a nurse. . . . She was amazing. ‘Drop your pants.’ I whipped my little bottom out and she jabbed me in the ass. It didn’t work because I got more sick, but I appreciated the effort.”
Throughout the panel, Butler chucked chocolates meant for the talent to the crowd. The audience ate it up, and so did the actor.
“It’s starting to be like Sea World in here,” he said. In response to another fan question, this one about what’s coming up next for the actor, he kept it randy: “Halle Berry.”
-- Denise Martin
Photo: Gerry Butler at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in 2007. Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times
John Barrowman is clearly comfortable in front of a crowd.
The star of the British sci-fi series "Torchwood" went to school in San Diego and, back in town with a sizable contingent of his family, the actor bellowed, stood on his seat, sang and playfully groped his fellow cast members during a panel in Ballroom 20 on Thursday at Comic-Con.
"I thought I told you to never turn my mike off," he told the tech crew when they muted his microphone during a transitional moment.
Barrowman was asked by a fan during a question-and-answer session whether he would consider "rocking the blond hair" and donning the star-spangled superhero Captain America. Barrowman was emphatic that he would like to do just that if Marvel Studios calls.
"He's one of my favorite superheroes. ... My dad is probably sending the studio an e-mail right now," the square-jawed actor said, nodding toward his parents in the front row of the huge ballroom.
"Torchwood" executive producer Julie Gardner piped up and said she would "intercept that e-mail" to hold on to her action hero.
The rowdy panel like "Torchwood" was laced with sexual innuendo and flirtation and the crowd was delighted with the steady stream of wisecracks by Barrowman about his character, Captain Jack, and his sexual preferences.
The highlight was tender ad-lib moment: A young woman asked if Barrowman and fellow cast member Naoko Mori (who played Tosh until her death this past season) would sing a duet of "Sun and Moon" from "Miss Saigon." The pair starred in a stage production years ago and, after a bit of fumbling to remember the lyrics, they performed it to the delight of the crowd.
I was lucky enough to be the moderator of this panel, and it was pretty easy — all I had to do was stay out of the way of the Captain and his crew.
— Geoff Boucher
Photo: John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness) and Naoko Mori (Toshiko Sato) star in the BBC series "Torchwood," courtesy BBC America.
The screams were deafening. Literally. I think my seat-mate Jevon is actually hard of hearing now.
"Twilight" director Catherine Hardwicke made it even louder right off the bat, telling the audience "When I read Stephenie’s [Stephenie Meyer] book, I fell in love with it just like you did." Screams. “I wanted to see Edward and Bella live and breathe just like you!” Screams.
The screaming continued throughout the duration of a clip they showed in which Bella is trapped by James and subsequently rescued by Edward. Twenty-two-year-old Robert Pattinson, who plays Edward, was smiling but visibly shocked and red at the fan reaction.
"As you can see we’re a little nervous," said star Kristen Stewart, who plays Bella. She later admitted that she hadn’t previously heard of "Twilight" before her involvement in the project.
"I don’t know. I was living under some big boulder rock," she said.
First question to Pattinson from the moderator: What’s it like to have these fans?
"It’s kind of the first time I’ve seen any of them, so I didn’t really expect it. I dunno... I... I... it just baffles me." Screams. "It’s nice, it’s nice though."
But let’s turn the mic over to the fans:
For all the actors, how is it to portray super hot vampires? Screams. Pattinson: “Wait, I’m the only one who’s playing super hot,” Pattinson dead-panned.
What’s on the soundtrack? Muse is on the soundtrack. Hardwicke added: “Rob’s a great musician.” And Hero Complex has learned, he’s writing “Edward’s Song” for the movie. He made up the lullaby on the spot while filming a scene.
Any spontaneous moments on set? Hardwicke: “I’ve got one! In one of the kissing scenes, Rob got a little passionate and fell off the bed onto the floor.” Screams.
Why‘d you get involved with the project, Kristen: Stewart: “It’s like the ideal version of love. As a lame sort of sappy girl, that’s sort of what life is about.” Awwww. “Plus, I got to do this audition with Rob Pattinson. It was on Catherine’s bed.” Screams.
“In her bed,” Pattinson added. Screams. “With Catherine.”
The "Push" star was stuck in gridlock and didn’t actually make it to her session. (An overturned big-rig filled with meat on the I-5 delayed many heading down from Los Angeles this morning.) But she had the good fortune of being ushered in for just a minute, just as the “Twilight” kids made their exits.
Of course, the screaming started back up once she was in view.
An out of breath but smiling Fanning ran to the podium. “I was in a car for seven hours, so I’m late and I’m so sorry,” she squealed. “I just wanted to say hello to all of you and I hope you enjoyed the ‘Push’ footage and that you enjoy the movie when it comes out in February! Thanks guys!"
And with that, she was off and Hall H was quickly emptied.
In "Push," Chris Evans plays one of a group of American ex-pats with telekinetic and clairvoyant abilities on the run from (what appeared to be in the preview footage) some scary, sonic-screaming Asians.
As in, they scream and destruction ensues. During the movie's Comic-Con session on Thursday, one fan asked him if he prefers playing the larger-than-life roles he's best known for, like Johnny Storm in "Fantastic Four."
The 27-year-old thought for a bit and started: "It's not that I go for the fantastical..." Fortunately, he began laughing before most of the room did. "I didn't go to college," he laughed.
Ever endearing, he finished answering her question, then shook his head and said, "Man, I'm good at press. I'm just good at it."
-- Denise Martin
Photo: Jessica Alba (Sue Storm) and Chris Evans (Johnny Storm) looking fit in tight blue suits in the 2007 hit movie "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer."Credit: Diyah Pera/Twentieth Century Fox
Well, now we know what makes Marky Mark "all warm in the pants."
Try a crowd of thousands of young fans at Comic-Con rapt with attention over his upcoming action thriller "Max Payne."
Surprising too, considering that outside of the "Tomb Raider" movies, video game adaptations typically yield limited success.
"Max Payne" dares to throw its hat in the treacherous ring, though, with some popular actors in the lead roles: Mila Kunis, Ludacris and Mark Wahlberg.
Along with director John Moore, all were on hand for the movie's panel. And the crowd's reaction made Mark Wahlberg, in his own words, "all warm in the pants."
Coming off of roles in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and "The Happening," respectively (and for Wahlberg, finishing up "The Lovely Bones"), Mila and Mark were both gung-ho about doing an all-out actioner.
Mila says she's a gamer. Mark was just ready to "break some heads."
Ludacris inspired loud applause, and got a lot of love from Wahlberg, who praised the rapper's commitment, not only to the project, but to acting in general.
-- Jevon Phillips
Photo: Cast and director from “Max Payne,” Left-r, Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Ludacris and director John Moore, right, on stage in Hall H. Photo by Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times
Keanu Reeves is playing an alien in December tentpole "The Day the Earth Stood Still," and he couldn't be more thrilled.
The actor bounded on to the main stage all smiles, kicking off the first Hall H presentation by welcoming the crowd. One guy in the audience was extra affectionate: "I love you, Keanu!" Reeves eyed him in the crowd and yelled back, "I love you too, man!"
In "Day," a remake of the 1951 sci-fi classic, Reeves plays Klaatu, an alien sent to take in the human condition. "The original Klaatu was warm and fuzzy, more human than humans. I’m not that guy," Reeves explained. That's for sure. Preview footage demonstrated Klaatu 2.0's painful- looking mind control capabilities. (Think electric shock therapy).
But if you've already seen the trailer, be warned: "The Day the Earth Stood Still" isn't all aliens and special effects. In the original "Day," Klaatu was sent to warn civilization that it would destroy itself if humans didn't change their ways -- a not-so-subtle commentary about the Cold War and nuclear threat.
The new "Day" will again assess the current state of humanity and the environment through the eyes of Klaatu. It's a message movie, to be sure, but it also arrives on the heels of the critically acclaimed "Wall-E," Pixar's story of a lovable but lonely trash compactor set against the future of a used-and-abused Earth.
Co-star Jennifer Connelly said the movie is actually rather tender. "The idea of an alien that comes to Earth to learn about humanity and Earth from an outsider perspective, it's just such a good story," she said. Connelly plays the mom of a boy who bonds with Klaatu.
Director Scott Derrickson added that it felt like the right time for a remake. "The original was so a product of its time, and commented so well on that early Cold War era," he said. "The idea of updating it made sense since the times have changed and we now have different issues."
-- Denise Martin
Photo: Keanu Reeves stars as Klaatu, an alien whose arrival on our planet triggers a global upheaval in "The Day the Earth Stood Still." Credit: Fox / Doane Gregory
In a Comic-Con surprise, and straight from Australia, Hugh Jackman hopped off a plane and jumped on stage with a trailer for "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," and it was a huge hit! From what I could see, popular characters Sabretooth and Silver Fox were there ... and Gambit!!
Jackman enthusiastically bounded off stage to shake the hand of Wolverine creator Len Wein, who was in the audience. It was a wonderful moment and pretty genuine when he told Wein that he "gave him a career."
-- Jevon Phillips
Photo: A Comic-Con moment, actor Hugh Jackman, right, freshly arrived from the set of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," leaves the stage in Hall H at the Comic-Con convention to shake hands with Len Wein, the comic book writer and editor who helped create the character Wolverine.
More than 125,000 people are expected to attend the four-day event which features the latest and greatest in comic-related books, toys, games and memorabilia. Credit: Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times
Have you ever seen this many girls up front in Hall H at Comic-Con?
They’ve been here since 8 p.m. Wednesday night, people.
Of course, they’re all here for the "Twilight" session at 2 p.m. where the film’s stars, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, will hold court.
But first, they’ll wait through panels for “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” starring Keanu Reeves, and “Max Payne,” with Mark Wahlberg -- two guys who mean nothing to Edward fans.
No saving seats!
-- Denise Martin
Photo: Mobs of eager fans in the San Diego Convention Center's Hall H. / Denise Martin.
The printed schedule for Comic-Con International here in San Diego will tell you that Russell T. Davies, the Welsh writer and producer behind "Dr. Who" and "Torchwood" will be on a panel today, but I spoke with the BBC contingent last night and Davies never got on the plane in Cardiff.
"He's working on 'Torchwood,' he just couldn't get leave at this time," one member of the BBC team told me. "We know people are going to be disappointed." That's absolutely the case, but the panel, which I'm moderating at noon in Ballroom 20, will still have some star power with John Barrowmen (on the left in the photo), Gareth David-Lloyd and others. And, if Davies has his own TARDIS, maybe he'll show up and surprise us all.
-- Geoff Boucher
Photo of John Barrowman, left, with guest star James Marsters on "Torchwood" by Todd Anthony BBC Worldwide
It's just the preview night, but the 'exclusives' sellout frustration, shoulder bumps, stroller trips and aisle clogging fun is already in full stride. A few highlighted items, besides the crowds and $5 pretzel dogs:
-- Every year, there's THE bag. The prized big bags that patrons will most likely carry around throughout the Con and are often completely given out by Friday. Bags from Warner Bros. (a vintage WB network bag with "Smallville," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Veronica Mars," and "Gilmore Girls" pictured (below), and a Wonder Woman bag), Little Big Planet, BET Animation, and a big frakkin' bag from the Sci Fi Channel were the ones making the rounds on the floor. Bag, you say? While it may not seem like much, they are coveted, as evidenced by the fact that many sported last year's well-received Warner Bros. "Smallville" bag.
-- Hot booths included the California Browncoats (fans of Joss Whedon's "Firefly") booth which had an exclusive "Serenity" comic book and were the only booth to sell t-shirts from Whedon's recently released Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along blog); the NBC-Universal booth, which sported two-headed Hiro "Heroes" dolls and a sold-out "Battlestar Galactica" toaster; the Mattel booth, the DC booth (showing the "Watchmen" trailer ad infinitum; the"Star Wars" booth because ... it's "Star Wars"; and the Sideshow Collectibles booth, which showcased some alternative looks at Darth Vader among other things.
-- Wednesday's preview night is usually reserved for shopping the floor exclusively, with no TV or film programming, but in a first for Comic-Con, new TV show "Fringe" had a 6 o'clock airing in the huge Ballroom 20 area. J.J. Abrams sent along a personal video introduction in which he congratulated the crowd on seeing the "first not illegal, unleaked, evil internet screening" of the much-hyped show. A harrowing opening few minutes involving planes, mysteries, government agents in bed and melting faces left some of the sparse crowd gasping.
Making the annual drive down to Comic-Con is never the most pleasant excursion on the open road come summertime. But this year, a handful of journalists were invited aboard a train to travel to the 'Con in classic style.
The trip was organized by 20th C. Fox in honor of "City of Ember," a film directed by "Monster House's" Gil Kenan (in the white button-down, boarding above) and written by "Edward Scissorhands" screenwriter Caroline Thompson.
The studio rented a couple of vintage train cars, hitched them onto an Amtrak train, and decked the old- time rail cars out with "Ember" props for writers to inspect on the journey to San Diego. The "Ember train" came complete with a barber who had a chair and supplies set up at the end of the rail car. Most already-skeptical members of the press were a bit apprehensive due to the old rail cars' occasional jerks and constant rocking.
As publicity events go, this was one of the most unique. The director, screenwriter, production designer Martin Laing (now on "Terminator Salvation") and Oscar-winning producer Gary Goetzman of Playtone were on board offering insights into the film, with Kenan screening bits of the film to smaller assembled crowds in an eight-seat screening room setup.
The "Ember" trailer teased some great-looking, action-filled scenes, many of which were shot in Belfast. Kenan said he went abroad to shoot "Ember" so he could construct the massive sets.
"I knew that I wanted to build the real deal ... the ones that don't get built anymore," Kenan said.
The director -- whom Thompson called "kind," "smart" and "astonishingly young to have all those great traits" -- also has a wife who's an architect. And that didn't hurt. "I relied heavily on her expertise in terms of city planning," Kenan offered.
Goetzman said it may have been difficult to cast "special dude" Bill Murray, who plays the city's mayor, but that it wasn't a hard sell.
"He gravitated towards the idea of playing the mayor," Goetzman said. "He's a totally unctuous character."
And in discussing what journos ultimately ending up coining "the publicity train" while challenging the film's marketing direction, Goetzman took the humorous jabs in stride.
"All of these things have a life of their own. Their own DNA ... we don't really know why they do what they do."
One thing all the "Ember" passengers know for sure is that Fox and the whole "City of Ember" team hopes the movie can not only walk but has very long legs when the film opens October 10.
Before heading down to San Diego, Hero Complex's Geoff Boucher turned in this day-by-day rundown for The Guide.
It's the Cannes of Capes, the World's Fair for Fanboys, the ultimate Bazaar of the Bizarre. Comic-Con International gets underway today at the San Diego Convention Center and 125,000 fans will attend this frothy celebration -- and hard sell -- of pop culture.
Like at a rock festival with multiple stages, you can go to Comic-Con and have an experience completely different from the next fan. If you're lucky enough to get into Hall H, the hangar-sized site where Hollywood sends its stars and filmmakers to promote upcoming films, then the convention is all about getting the fresh scoop on next summer's blockbusters. But you can also devote your Con entirely to video games, anime, horror, television shows, collectible cards, toys or even, if you're old school, actual comic books.
There's a dizzying variety of niche panels. Interested in collecting Asian ball-jointed resin dolls? Check out Room 8 at 11 a.m. on Sunday. Maybe you're a big fan of Little Lulu, the newspaper comic strip that ended in the Nixon era? Grab a seat in Room 24A on Saturday at 3 p.m. Curious about the use of the biblical figure Abel in fiction? That discussion raises some Cain in Room 2 at 5 p.m. on Friday. Read more on The Guide
Some people say Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has a temper like the Hulk, others think Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is more slippery than Aquaman -- but did anyone expect the two presumptive presidential candidates to be getting their own comic books?
IDW Publishing, a comics company best known for horror titles (most notably "30 Days of Night") and adaptations of movies and television shows, is going into the beltway world by publishing "Presidential Material: Barack Obama" and "Presidential Material: John McCain," a pair of graphic novels that chronicle the life of the two men who both want to be riding on Air Force One for four years.
The Obama book is written be Jeff Mariotte (autor of the novel "River Runs Red") and drawn by Tom Morgan while the McCain edition is authored by Andy Helfer (who has done comics biographies of Ronald Reagan and Malcolm X) and drawn by Stephen Thompson. Both have covers drawn by J. Scott Campbell ("Gen13," "Danger Girl"). The $3.99 books hit stores on Oct. 8 but you can order now here.
“We’re tremendously proud of these books,” IDW president Ted Adams said in a press release. “Comics and graphic novels speak to millions of people encompassing all demographic, social, cultural and economic stripes. It’s a great way to get beyond the headlines on these two candidates.”
In addition to the print versions, mobile phone users can purchase the books for downloading through Uclick’s GoComics.
The question, of course, is which candidate will sell the most copies? We'll check back in on that in the weeks to come. Our bet? Well, IDW is also putting the two titles together in a flip book (a cover on each side, the stories run in opposite directions inside) and, well, Hero Complex will just declare itself an undecided voter at this time.
Horror fans should drop by fearnet.com to check out the first chapter in a six-part mini-movie called "30 Days of Night: Dust to Dust," which stars "Saw" scream-queen Shawnee Smith. Each chapter of the vampire tale "Dust to Dust" picks up after "Blood Trails," a FEARnet miniseries last fall that the website says was viewed more than 5 million times.
There's a limited edition "Dust to Dust" tie-in comic book (only 10,000 copies printed) and poster that will be given out at Comic-Con International in San Diego. Shawnee Smith and others involved in the project will be signing stuff at the Sony Pictures Entertainment booth (#4313) on Saturday at noon.
Here's the lowdown on "Dust to Dust" from the press release:
'Dust to Dust' continues the New Orleans storyline from Blood Trails where fans first met George, an ex-junkie who, while trying to expose the vampires, got captured by the authorities and blamed for the trail of bodies. Our new series begins as Detective Nick Maguire learns that his sister Sara, a nurse at the local penitentiary, disappeared during a mysterious prison break in which George escaped. Nick ignores the wishes of his former partner, Gina, and begins to search for Sara himself. While scouring the gritty streets of New Orleans, Nick finds George and learns that there was more to the prison break than anyone thought, and that the wounds inflicted upon Sara may be changing her into a blood-thirsty vampire. Now, in order to save his sister, Nick will have to learn to trust George, and become a believer in the evil that stalks his streets at night.
Dust to Dust’s spine-tingling action will premiere in July at Comic Con San Diego. The chilling story unfolds over six, 3-7 minute mini-sodes that will be released on a weekly basis. Ben Ketai, who wrote Blood Trails, makes his directorial debut with a script penned by Ed Fowler. Steve Hein, who produced the Boogeyman Franchise, returns to produce this second series with Ghost House Pictures’ Aaron Lam. Jim Burns, Steve Niles, Rob Sebastian and Shawnee Smith serve as executive producers.
Both FEARnet projects followed the "30 Days of Night" film which adapted the graphic novels written by the always spooky and smart Steve Niles. In other Niles news: He's doing a signing at Meltdown in L.A. to promote "Lost Ones" (an upcoming Zune Arts graphic novel) on July 31. You can find the press release after the jump.
-- Geoff Boucher
Photo of Shawnee Smith in "Dust to Dust," courtesy of FEARnet.com
"When you can live forever, what do you live for?"
That's a tough question, but I do know what fans of the"Twilight" novels are living for right now: The dream of seeing their beloved, breathless (but not bloodless) romantic tale on the big screen. Catherine Hardwicke's film is due in December and already she's feeling the heat from fans of the novel who worry about its afterlife in Hollywood. There was, for instance, the great debate about chest hair that was spotted on Edward, the vampire.
At Comic-Con International, the cast and filmmakers of "Twilight" will both calm nerves and goose excitement for their project. Here's some things to watch for in San Diego:
The Panel: The "Twilight" panel is the third and final film in the 90-minute panel presentation by Summit Entertainment that begins at 1:15 on Thursday (July 24) in Hall H, the 6,500-seat main hall at the convention. Seats are first-come, first-serve. Here's the description of the "Twilight" panel from Summit:
TWILIGHT – Director Catherine Hardwicke (THIRTEEN, LORDS OF DOGTOWN), book series author Stephenie Meyer and the cast including Robert Pattinson (Edward), Kristen Stewart (Bella), Cam Gigandet (James), Rachelle Lafevre (Victoria), Edi Gathegi (Laurent), Taylor Lautner (Jacob) will answer questions about bringing these characters to life on the big screen as well as showing exclusive footage from the film.
Photo op and autographs: At the Summit Entertainment booth (#4413), you can get your photo taken with life-size (or undead-size) standees Edward, Bella, James, Laurent or Victoria and have it instantly e-mailed to friends. There's also some prizes and contests and such. In the Comic-Con autograph room, "lucky winners will have the opportunity to participate in a limited autograph session with the panelists from 'Twilight,' " according to Summit publicists. So go to the booth as soon as you can.
Trading cards: Inkworks is releasing a set of "Twilight" trading cards in November, and packs will be sprinkled with autographed cards and Pieceworks costume cards, which has a chunk of wardrobe worn during the making of the film. There will be four different Comic-Con exclusive promo cards at Summit Entertainment booth (#4413). For more information about the set, collectors can visit the Inkworks booth (#2629) or website (www.inkworks.com).
Right this minute, the L.A. Times has a group of writers, photographers and video journalists taking planes, trains and automobiles down to San Diego to cover what many consider THE entertainment festival of the year. Geoff Boucher described the convention on the front page of The Times this morning thusly:
Like some mutant cousin of the Sundance Film Festival, Comic-Con has outgrown its original mission and its limited geography, which is making life complicated for the movie studios that have been going to San Diego in recent years to dazzle fans with stars and early footage from blockbuster films, sometimes more than a year in advance. Comic-Con is still the place where movie buffs go dressed as Darth Vader and browse acres of rare comics, toys, video games and DVDs. But in this era of people who use the Internet to spread their entertainment passions like apostles, the expo is also the place to spark pop-culture wildfires.
"Comic-Con has become the single most relevant event for the movie industry now. All you have to do to see that is to look at the films that are successful right now, and it's all comic-book event movies," said Jon Favreau, the director of the hit film "Iron Man." "Last year, before we went to Comic-Con, nobody was talking about 'Iron Man,' but by the end of our presentation to those 6,500 fans [in the main hall] they were sending instant messages and writing blog posts, and we instantly had a buzz around the world."
If that story isn't enough, Jevon Phillips and Denise Martin combined forces to create a pre-con photo essay that you can find right here. Expect multiple posts, photos and videos every day from Comic-Con here on Hero Complex starting today through Monday including exclusive interviews with all the movers and shakers and some of your favorite stars.
-- Tony Pierce
Photos of last year's Comic-Con by Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times
The British press is spinning like a top: Not only is "The Dark Knight" (with an English director and Welsh-born star) making history at the box office, now it has two tawdry off-the-screen subplots. Heath Ledger's overdose death in January would seem to have very little to do with Christian Bale's recent family feuding, but not according to MailOnline.
The Batman star is accused of confronting his mother after she allegedly insulted his wife, MailOnline has learned. According to its account: "Sources close to the actor said he 'flew off the handle' at London's Dorchester hotel after Jenny Bale said 'some outrageous things.' "
Tuesday, the Welsh-born actor was arrested and released over an assault claim, which he has denied. According to MailOnline, "a source close to the 34-year-old actor says Bale is confident he’s done nothing wrong, and blames his mother." More excerpts after the jump.
Gerard Way, the lead singer of My Chemical Romance and the author of "The Umbrella Academy," is our featured contributor on The Essential Shelf, and this is the final installment of his Top 10 all-time graphic novels. You can find the first installment here and the second one here. Below are Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 on his list:
"Watchmen" by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons This is the first graphic novel I tell people to read if they are slightly unfamiliar with comics, and it is the graphic novel that changed the way I thought about superheroes and mainstream comics. I often refer to 'Watchmen' as a gateway drug because that’s exactly what I think about it. It’s the one graphic novel that leads you to more cerebral, “outside-thinking” works. In suggesting this first to people, I realized that it actually does help to have an understanding or nostalgia for traditional superhero works, because that’s exactly what it deconstructs.
"The Dark Knight Returns" by Frank Miller The other work that comes to mind from the '80s that pushed what you thought about traditional superhero comics, specifically Batman. A total deconstruction of the character, altering everything you thought about the character, his supporting cast, and even Superman, who is portrayed as a government tool. This is Batman past 50 years old, at his grittiest, his darkest, and it paved the way for a whole generation of “darker heroes.”
"The Doom Patrol: The Painting That Ate Paris” by Grant Morrison This is the 2nd collection of Doom Patrol stories by Grant Morrison, and you should definitely pick up the first volume before reading this one, but this is the one where it really cements itself as the first “post modern superhero comic.” There are insane concepts and wild ideas on every page, from sleepwalking super-villains to sentient streets. This was the main influence in starting "The Umbrella Academy" and Grant Morrison is my favorite writer of all time for the sheer volume of ideas on every page, and the wit and style in which he presents them. Way more than deconstruction of the hero, Grant actually loves superheroes and writes with a nostalgia for the Silver Age of comics while at the same time creating something entirely new.
"The Sandman: Preludes And Nocturnes" by Neil Gaiman.
I remember this being the first comic where the best way to describe it was "literary." Drawing upon folklore, mythology, mysticism, and Shakespeare, Neil Gaiman created one of the most original comics of our time, using a very simple concept as a vessel for imaginative and thought-provoking stories. This is the kind of idea and storytelling you are jealous of as a creator, because you will always wish you had dreamed it up.
Thanks Again to Gerard for taking the time to share his favorites with Hero Complex. Check back here for more guest commentary in The Essential Shelf feature.
This post just in from Sam Adams, our Newsboy Legion member in Philadelphia. He has a Q&A with "Spaced" star Jessica Hynes after the jump.
Although this week marks the first official U.S. release of the British sitcom "Spaced," the show already has legions of devoted American fans, thanks to the bloody-good success of "Shaun of the Dead" and the wonders of region-free DVD players. As Tim and Daisy, marginally employed Londoners in their mid-20s, Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes (nee Stevenson) are a sort of slack-world Ross and Rachel, making half-hearted stabs at their dreams while working off the previous night’s hangover. Pegg and "Spaced" director Edgar Wright carried their brand of reference-heavy, geek-friendly humor through to "Shaun" and "Hot Fuzz," but Hynes has kept a lower profile since the show’s second and final season in 2001, turning up most recently in the Sundance hit "Son of Rambow." (She is currently appearing in Alan Ayckbourn’s "The Norman Conquests" at London’s Old Vic and preparing a BBC comedy show with Julia Davis, tentatively titled "Peppatit.")
Tonight, Hynes, Pegg and Wright will host a screening of three "Spaced" episodes at the ArcLight Hollywood, followed by a Q&A with Kevin Smith. Tickets, which are free, are available first-come first-served on the day of the screening. The "Spaced" trio also will be at Comic-Con International doing a panel chat and Q&A Friday (12:30 p.m., Room 6A). There will be "Spaced" screenings at Comic-Con as well (Friday, 10:15 p.m. in Room 6A and Saturday, same time and place).
If you have been following the DC Universe Online MMORPG development, you know it's been a stop and go project for quite some time. It now appears that all things have been green lighted and as a result, DC has finally released a few screenshots and some delightful concept art (easy access courtesy of IGN). Oh yes and it's about time too. I for one hope DC Universe Online is a thriving success and I think with Jim Lee onboard it stands a fighting chance. Perhaps by the time it goes into beta, I will be bored to tears with Age of Conan. Unlikely, but surely I can multi-task both. Goodbye, social life. Be sure to watch the promo video for DCU too and please try to ignore the really awful voiceover.
In completely unrelated news, Hasbro will be debuting G.I. Joe: Resolute webisodeswritten by Warren Ellis next year. Umm, hello Excited much? WHY YES I AM. Supposedly, the five-minute PG-13 shorts are a touch more violent than before and *dun dun dun* “major characters may die.” My prediction is that Dusty will straight up murder everyone and feed them to Sandstorm. Anyone want to place some bets? It's Internet money, it's not real, what do you got to lose? Except your dignity...*DUN DUN DUN*
Once J.J. Abrams and "Fringe" stars Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson and John Noble wrap their Saturday Comic-Con panel, potential "Fringe" fans will embark on a scavenger hunt to find...well, that's top-secret, but we hear the payoff will be worthwhile.
Participants need to sign up at ExploreTheImpossibilities.com to register to receive their first clue -- it will be sent out Saturday after the session, so laptops, iPhones and other Web-friendly cellphones are recommended -- but we here at Hero Complex have already secured an *exclusive* sneak peek at the first clue for you. Here's your jump start:
During last year's Comic-Con, Warner Bros. put on a similar interactive event for "Dark Knight," where crowds slowly morphed into the Joker -- the studio provided the makeup -- as they chased clues throughout San Diego.
The Associated Press is reporting that "Dark Knight" star Christian Bale has been questioned by police and arrested after allegations that he assaulted his sister (!) and his mother (!!). The alleged incidents took place on the eve of the European premiere of Bale's superhero smash.
UPDATE: An earlier version of this post stated that Bale's parents were on the set of "Terminator Salvation" in New Mexico last week. That's not the case. The couple who crew members pointed out to me as being Bale's parents were in fact the parents of movie producer Jeff Silver.
The Associated Press story is after the jump.
-- Geoff Boucher
Photo: Actor Christian Bale appears at the London premiere of "The Dark Knight." Credit: Joel Ryan / Associated Press
Forty years and four months ago, the last episode of "Batman," the campy television series starring Adam West, aired. That feels like a long time but, for headline writers and entertainment reporters around the world, well, it seems like just yesterday.
Take a look at the headlines and beginning paragraphs from newspapers around the world, all from this calendar month.
The Atlanta paper had three!
Los Angeles Times: Holy opening weekend, Batman! Baltimore Sun: Holy box office records, Batman! Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Holy smokin' movie projectors Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Batman! Holy heel, Batman! Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Holy gee, Batman! 'Knight' a hot one Daily News (New York): Holy box office, Batman! The Sunday Times (London): Holy joy, Batman! Brits soar in US The Times (London): Holy megabucks Batman! New Zealand Herald: Holy superlatives, Batman! The Globe and Mail (Canada): Holy, hint, Batman! Holy Blu-ray, Batman! That's one sharp picture Chicago Sun-times: Holy highs and lows, Batman! Harborough Mail (UK): Holy hellraisers Batman! Birmingham News (Alabama): Holy authenticity, Batman! Holy blockbuster! Batman Redlands Daily Facts (California): Holy campout, Batman! Times Colonist (Victoria, British Columbia): Holy human superhero, Batman! Toronto Sun: Holy white-nose syndrome, Batman! Toronto Star: Holy impressionist Batman! The Vancouver Province (British Columbia): Holy IMAX scenes, Batman! The Cincinnati Enquirer: Holy replica, Batman! The Cincinnati Enquirer: Holy gangsters, Batman, this Joker was wild! The Miami Herald: Holy collectibles, Batman! The Sunday Mail (Queensland, Australia): Holy Schumacher, Batman! Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Florida): Pow! Bam! Armani! Holy pinstripe Batman! Prince Rupert Daily News (British Columbia): Holy Cow Batman, heroes are out there Star Tribune (Minneapolis): Holy muscles, Batman! Star Tribune (Minneapolis): Holy High-Def, Batman! The Boston Herald: Holy ticket sales, Batman! North Bay Nugget (Ontario): Holy flashback; caped crusader returns! The Charlotte Observer: Holy halibut, Batman! Dothan Eagle (Alabama): Holy pepperoni, Batman! Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville): Holy L.A. Jaguars, Batman! The Oregonian (Portland): Holy Batman (& Robin)! Look what's on high-def The Wichita Eagle: Holy marketing, Batman! The Capital Times (Madison, Wisc.): Holy variety, Batman!; Dark Knight’s library expands Welland Tribune (Ontario): Holy DVDs, Batman! Bedford Today: Holy film time Batman! South China Morning Post: Holy Anime, Batman! Sunday Star (England): Holy cash cow! Sunday Star (England): Holy sex scandal, Batman! Sunday Herald Sun (Australia): Holy pit stop, Batman! Kingston Whig-Standard (Ontario): Biff! Bap! Whap! Blammo! Holy camp, Batman! The New York Post: Holy show stealer, Batman! The Clover Herald (South Carolina): Holy history, Batman! The Monitor (McAllen, Texas): "Holy technology, Batman! We're on Blu-ray!"
And last but not least, a very fitting one:
The Orlando Sentinel: Holy coincidences, Batman!
-- Geoff Boucher
Photo of Adam West and Burt Ward, the dynamic duo of the 1960s ABC series and 1966 tie-in film.
Congratulations on the avalanche of rave reviews for "The Dark Knight" as well as this staggering box-office success that's unfolding right now. It is, in my opinion, the best comic-book movie ever, and I'm genuinely happy for you and your team. Now, though, you have a big problem: What can you possibly do for an encore?
Warner Bros wants to keep this gravy train running, especially since the "Harry Potter" is moving toward a franchise expiration date and the fact that Bryan Singer's Superman reboot fizzled. But where should you start? That's easy: Call your best wardrobe designers and have them start envisioning Angelina Jolie in Catwoman's black-leather body suit. (What about the recent birth of her twins, you say? No problem. I'm guessing that new-mom Jolie will be back in lean, cat-suit shape by, oh, next week or so.)
I'm not sure anyone can actually top Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker (and you don't dare bring any other actor in portray the Joker) but it would be catnip to fanboys everywhere if Jolie was lured to your Gotham to be Catwoman opposite Christian Bale's Batman. And frankly, you have some serious limitations on where you else to turn for your next Bat-baddie.
Here's a surprising (and exclusive) tidbit: In the 1990s, when Marvel's fiscal situation was in shambles, upstart Dark Horse comics was making covert plans with Disney to take control of their far more established rival.
"This hasn't been out there, but we were in serious talks with Disney about buying Marvel," Dark Horse founder Michael Richardson told me the other day. "I met with Michael Eisner, who is a good friend of [my mentor, producer] Larry Gordon, and they were going to buy Marvel and put Dark Horse in control of it."
Richardson told me this over lunch in Milwaukie, Ore., the small town near Portland where Dark Horse is headquartered. (I was there working on a Sunday Calendar cover on the Hollywood success of Dark Horse.) Richardson told me that he thought the proposed take-over of Marvel was quite viable and he was absoutely giddy at the prospect of taking control of the Fantastic Four, Captain America and the other iconic characters he adored as a young fan in the 1960s.
Why did the gambit fail?
"There was some skepticism about numbers we were getting from Marvel. And in the end the [Disney] family just didn't like the idea of seeing Wolverine products on the same shelf as Mickey Mouse." Dark Horse Comics today has sales approaching $40 million a year (which doesn't include their Hollywood ventures, such as "Hellboy 2") and almost 10% market share, but gobbling up Marvel, the sector's no. 1 seller, a decade ago would have been a case of the canary eating the cat.
"I know," Richardson said with a smirk, "it would have been great, wouldn't it?"
-Geoff Boucher
Update: An earlier version of this post was missing a few words that changed the meaning of a quote. It previously identified Michael Eisner as a good friend of Mike Richardson. This updated post reflects what Richardson actually said, which is that Eisner is a good friend of producer Larry Gordon, Richardson's mentor.
Photo of Michael Richardson in Milwaukie, Ore., malt shop by Robert Durrell/Los Angeles Times
The other night, I went to the Pauley Pavilion at UCLA to watch a tribute to the Who (Pearl Jam, by the way, was amazing) and who should be sitting just a few seats down? Jon Favreau, the director of the summer's sleekest joy ride, "Iron Man." I spent some time on the set and then at Favreau's office in the weeks before the film's release, so the filmmaker stopped in the aisle after the show to chat. I even snapped a picture of him with a fan who handed me his camera. (Knowing that Favreau is a bit weary with strangers who bellow lines from "Swingers" when they meet him, I quietly advised the guy not to shout 'Money!' when the flash went off.)
As we were headed for the exit, I told Favreau that everyone is hoping he and Marvel Studios have sorted out the oddly protracted discussions about the "Iron Man" sequel. After the box-office totals and the reviews praising Favreau, it seemed like Marvel would be jumping at the chance to lock in the director. I get the feeling there was some issue beyond money involved, but I can't back up that theory when any real facts. Anyway, Favreau smiled when I badgered him about the status of the sequel. "You'll hear something soon." He and I then traded a few friendly text messages over the next couple of days, but (at this point) I can't tell you anything beyond that. I can tell you that "Iron Man" fans will be smiling soon too.
After the jump, you can find The Times story I wrote on Favreau back in May. The biggest surprise? How Dungeons & Dragons helped shape him as a filmmaker.
"The Dark Knight," the long-awaited superhero sequel from Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures, sold an estimated $155.3 million in tickets this weekend, setting a record for biggest three-day take and cementing the primacy of superhero movies at the cineplex.
Batman's haul surpassed the bar set last year by "Spider-Man 3" by $4.2 million and set the pace for what turned out to be the top-grossing overall box office weekend in U.S. history, with an estimated $253 million in ticket sales. The previous top weekend was a $218 million take two years ago, when "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" opened.
Wait, did he really write "Holy opening weekend!" Yes, I'm afraid he did. Groan. I haven't met Ken yet, and I don't like to throw stones at my fellow staffers, but c'mon, that was a painful cliche when Batman fans read it the first time ... back in 1989. It's like using "satisfaction" in a Rolling Stones headline or yelling "Freebird!" at a concert. Please, people, can we just move on? It's not like the 1960s television show has anything to do with this dark new movie ... ah, well, whatever. Sorry. You know us fanboys, we get stirred up easily.
Anyway, more from Bensinger's piece:
" 'The Dark Knight' overshadowed everything, but a rising tide lifts all ships," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracking company Media by Numbers. "This was just a great weekend for the entire industry."
The weekend's No. 2 film, Universal Pictures' ABBA musical "Mamma Mia!," brought in $27.6 million, followed by Sony Pictures' holdover "Hancock," starring Will Smith, at $14 million.
Batman's latest triumph means that three of the top five opening weekends of all time now belong to comic book-inspired films. The original "Spider-Man," which brought in $118.4 million in its 2002 opening weekend, ranks No. 5 overall.
Despite huge expectations going into the release, the Caped Crusader's sixth film was massive by practically any measure. The PG-13 movie set the record for top single-day receipts on Friday, hauling in $67.85 million on a record 4,366 screens, according to Media by Numbers.
Patrick Day, a member of the newsboy legion here at Hero Complex, has a great photo gallery on the history of the Joker, tracing the roots of the creepiest clown all the way back to the 1929 film "The Man Who Laughs," which had Conrad Veidt in the title role. Stills from that Victor Hugo adpaptation were used to design the cackling visage of the Joker, which means Veidt's rictus grin inspired the most instantly recognizable villain in the history of American comic books.
Veidt is best known to movie fans for his portrayal of Major Strasser, the stern-eyed Nazi heavy in "Casablanca" but he almost became famous for wearing a cape -- Universal Pictures boss Carl Laemmle, a titan of early Hollywood, wanted Vedit to be the star of "Dracula" but eventually the career-shaping role went to a Eastern European fellow by the name of Béla Ferenc Dezsõ Blaskó, better known as Bela Lugosi. Dracula, of course, was one of the key visual inspirations for Batman, especially in his earliest apprances.
Here's another interesting little link-up between "The Man Who Laughs" and "The Dark Knight": The 1929 film and Veidt's protrayal in it figure prominently in the plot of the 2006 Brain De Palma movie "The Black Dahlia" In essence, a central conceit of the De Palma film (as well as the brilliant James Ellroy novel of the same title) is that "The Man Who Laughs" inspired the real-life fiend who carved up Elizabeth Short. Short, whose murder was never solved, was left with gruesome facial wounds not unlike those that mar the face of Heath Ledger's Joker in "The Dark Knight."
More than that, Aaron Eckhart is a star in both "Black Dahlia" and "The Dark Knight." In the first film he portays a lawman in pursuit of a deranged killer that finds himself moving toward his own dark side. In the second he portrays... a lawman who is in pursuit of a deranged killer that finds himsef moving toward his own dark side.
I talked to Aaron Eckhart about both movies for a May article in The Times, you can find it after the jump.
-- Geoff Boucher
Movie still of Conrad Vedit from the 1929 film "The Man Who Laughs"
Artwork of the Joker by Brian Bolland from "The Killing Joke," courtesy of DC Comics
I'm going to moderate the panel on "The Spirit" film down at the International Comic-Con Friday (July 25), and I'd like to open up the Hero Complex comments board to any fans who want to post some suggested questions.
There's a lot of excitement about the panel and I know firsthand that there are some surprises planned by Frank Miller, who makes his solo directorial debut with the film, and his close partner in the project, producer Deborah Del Prete.
The hour-long panel begins at 2:45 p.m. at Hall H. In addition to Miller and Del Prete, attendees at this point include cast members Samuel L. Jackson (who portrays the Octopus), Gabriel Macht (Denny Colt/the Spirit) and Jaime King (Lorelei Rox).
(No, Scarlett Johansson and Eva Mendes are NOT part of the panel, due to scheduling issues. It's just as well, really, I would have a hard time putting coherent sentences together if those two and King were all sitting next to me.)
I was in San Francisco a few weeks ago, and visited with Miller and Del Prete and sat in while they worked on the visual effects post-production process, and the movie, much like urban fever-dream of "Sin City," has a striking, hyper-reality to it. That's going to make a lot of fans of "Sin City" (which Miller co-directed, of course, adapting his own comics work) happy, but he already knows that fans who adored the late Will Eisner and his grand, often sentimental work on "The Spirit" are already sharpening their knives. "I'm prepared," Miller told me, "and I'm making the right movie, I know that."
-- Geoff Boucher
You can read the Sunday Calendar cover story I wrote about Miller last year after the jump.
photo of Samuel L. Jackson as Octopus via Lionsgate
Gerard Way, the lead singer of My Chemical Romance and the author of "The Umbrella Academy," is our featured contributor on The Essential Shelf, and this is the second installment of his Top 10 all-time graphic novels. You can find the first installment here. Below are Nos. 5, 6 and 7 on his list:
"The Invisibles: Say You Want A Revolution,” by Grant Morrison: I could make a Top 10 list of graphic novels of Grant Morrison’s work on its own, telling you to read "We3," "The Filth," "Seaguy" and others, but I realize I need to make this list more broad. I am including "The Invisibles" because of its volume, ambition and scope. Drawing upon everything from “The Prisoner” (the old British sci-fi/spy show) to the Beatles, this series contained some of the craziest concepts ever put into a comic. At times you question if you are even reading a comic and that’s why this work is so important. Visionary and wonderfully experimental.
"Blankets," by Craig Thompson: Moving away from breakthrough work within the mainstream, this is one of the best autobiographical comics I have ever read, being able to relate to it in a number of ways, including the wonderfully rendered relationship between Craig and his younger brother. A story about faith, love, loss and coming of age, it’s also one of the best drawn graphic novels of all time.
"Stray Bullets: The Innocence of Nihilism,” by David Lapham: This collects the first issues of Dave Lapham’s crime/drama comics of the same name. One of the more interesting aspects of the book, aside from its all-too-human way of portraying everything from cold-hearted killers to traumatized little girls, is the fact that this comic exploded onto the scene seemingly from nowhere. Dave Lapham created a book, from the previous confines of work for hire, that was better than anything he had done and better than any other book at the time. This book will scare you and the only monsters in it are the ones you can find hanging out in the alleys of the city you live in.
Mike Richardson's Dark Horse Comics empire has put the sleepy town of 21,000 on the map.
MILWAUKIE, ORE. — IT'S A three-block stroll from the leafy banks of the Willamette to Main Street here, but on most lazy afternoons, it's so quiet you can hear the river's lulling drone the whole way. As one local said the other day as he walked toward the malt shop on Main: "It's like this town got to about 1959 and said, 'This seems good, we'll stay here.' "
Unless there's a remake of "Stand by Me" in the works, it's hard to imagine this town grabbing the attention of distant Hollywood and its Bluetooth brigades of executives and agents. But it has managed to do that very thing because mild-mannered Milwaukie has a secret identity. The "Dogwood City of the West," it turns out, is also "Dark Horse, U.S.A."
Dark Horse is a pop-culture content company that has grown so steadily over the last 20 years that it currently occupies six separate storefronts along Main Street, and with 150 employees, it's now one of the top five employers in the town of 21,000. Dark Horse made its mark as an upstart, indie publisher of comic books, but now its ventures go well beyond that, which is why its founder, Mike Richardson, hops a flight to Los Angeles every week to tend to Hollywood pursuits.
"Hellboy 2: The Golden Army," which opened as the No. 1 movie in America last weekend, is the latest Dark Horse property on the screen, joining the florid parade that includes "300," "The Mask,""Sin City,""Time Cop" and "Alien vs. Predator." In May, Universal Pictures and Dark Horse announced a three-year production and distribution deal. That's not especially shocking in this era -- Marvel Studios, born from a comic-book company, delivered its first film that month, the massive hit "Iron Man," followed by "The Incredible Hulk" -- but for Dark Horse, the Universal deal is a validation of its long, quirky odyssey. "This," Richardson said, "is a major moment in our history."
That history reflects the personality of both Richardson and the place where he grew up. Richardson is a big man in this small town (literally: He's 6-foot-9), and the small town is very much in him. In the 1980s, when New York City was still considered the only place to publish big-time comics, Dark Horse shook up its industry by luring star writers and artists with unprecedented deals that gave them ownership of their work and a share of profits. The nimble little company with a fondness for edgy work became the Miramax Films of comics. Eventually, Hollywood types noticed and came dangling option money.
"I told them, 'That's great, but I want to produce it,' " Richardson said. "I got laughed at and I got cussed out and I got called an idiot. They were shocked. One guy told me that if I didn't take his deal I'd never get a chance to work in Hollywood. I said, 'OK, great, I'll stay in Oregon and do comics. That's what I like to do anyway. You go back to your world. I'll stay here in mine.' "
Richardson knows his world and seems to be in tune with his times. Marvel and DC have household-name heroes that yield bigger films, but almost every one of them is based on characters created before 1970. Marvel has long billed itself as the "House of Ideas," but since the Reagan years that title might rightly belong to the Oregon upstarts.
The company is making a big push on MySpace now looking for readers as well as new talent. Dark Horse is "the place I wanted to be and the place where you can find the most sophisticated stuff, but it also has a sense of comics history," says Gerard Way, lead singer of the band My Chemical Romance and writer of "The Umbrella Academy" comics for Dark Horse.
Everyone in Hollywood is shaking their heads in marvel at "The Dark Knight." It looks like the film is headed to a historic opening weekend. The Associated Press story has the math about all-time top-grossing Men in Tights, Batman and Spider-Man:
Batman's joust with the Joker has set another box office record.
Stoked by fan fever over the manic performance of the late Heath Ledger as the Joker, "The Dark Knight" set a one-day box-office record with $66.4 million on opening day, Warner Bros. head of distribution Dan Fellman said Saturday.
The movie's Friday haul surpassed the previous record of $59.8 million set last year by "Spider-Man 3." "The Dark Knight" might break the opening-weekend record of $151.1 million, also held by "Spider-Man 3."
Warner Bros. Digital Distribution and Warner Premiere have joined forces to launch an online "Watchmen" series, sold in chapters through iTunes. Fret not! They have just taken the graphic novel and incorporated voiceovers and music to help generate excitement for next year's anticipated "Watchmen" feature film. Warners Bros. are offering the first 22-minute installment as a free iTunes download through Entertainment Weekly. As of Aug. 2, fans will be able to download the episode directly from the iTunes Store for $1.99.
Well, I just finished watching Chapter One... and I'm not angry. So that's something. The added feature that makes this venture worth your time is definitely the animated panels, which allow the characters to move and shift throughout scenes. If you're a fan of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, you will appreciate this short homage to all things "Watchmen" for $1.99 at iTunes, even if Mr. Moore doesn't...
Image courtesy Entertainment Weekly, used with permission
Edelstein writes film reviews for New York magazine and he walked away from "The Dark Knight" with a strong opinion that the film was ponderous and bleak with a disturbing cruel streak. Here's an excerpt:
"We’re now in a modern, untransformed Manhattan, where the Joker’s opening bank heist unfolds in a tense, realistic style with multiple point-blank shootings. It’s a shock — and very effective — to see a comic-book villain come on like a Quentin Tarantino reservoir dog. But then the novelty wears off and the lack of imagination, visual and otherwise, turns into a drag. The 'Dark Knight' is noisy, jumbled, and sadistic. Even its most wondrous vision — Batman’s plunges from skyscrapers, bat-wings snapping open as he glides through the night like a human kite — can’t keep the movie airborne. There’s an anvil attached to that cape."
Yes, he made a bit of a hometown error there (the Gotham scenes of the movie were made in Chicago, not in his own New York) but it's his point of view that really sent fans into a rage. The hate mail reached such a avalanche level, he responded with a second essay. Here's his intriguing explanation:
"Why — apart from narcissistic injury — do I respond to the abuse? Because there has been a lot of chatter in the last few years that criticism is a dying profession, having been supplanted by the democratic voices of the Web. Not to get all Lee Siegel on you, but the Internet has a mob mentality that can overwhelm serious criticism. There is superb film writing in blogs and discussion groups — as good as anything I do. But there are also thousands of semi-literate tirades that actually reinforce the Hollywood status quo, that say: 'If you do not like The Dark Knight (or The Phantom Menace), you should be fired because you do not speak for the people.'"
Well, the people don’t need to be spoken for. And a critic’s job is not only to steer you to movies you might not have heard of or that died at the box office. It’s also to bring a different, much-needed perspective on blockbusters like The Dark Knight.
Columnist Patrick Goldstein, my distinguished colleague here at The Times, has a take on this too at his must-read Hollywood blog, The Big Picture.
-- Geoff Boucher
Update: Some readers inferred from my post that Edelstein left the screening of "The Dark Knight" early. He didn't (as far as I know) so I have edited the post above to eliminate the imprecise language. The line "walked out of 'The Dark Knight'" is now "walked away from 'The Dark Knight.'"
Image from "The Dark Knight" courtesy of Warner Bros.
How big a weekend is "The Dark Knight" going to have? It's off to a historic start, topping the midnight-show record of "Revenge of the Sith," according to a Warner Bros. press release that just came over.
IT’S A RECORD-BREAKING NIGHT FOR WARNER BROS. PICTURES’ “THE DARK KNIGHT”
BURBANK, CA, July 18, 2008 – Just past the stroke of midnight, Warner Bros. Pictures’ “The Dark Knight” broke the record for a 12:01 a.m. film opening, earning an unprecedented $18,489,000 at the box office, it was announced today by Dan Fellman, President of Domestic Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures. That total does not include the grosses from the subsequent 3:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. showings.
The 12:01 a.m. grosses soared past the previous record of $16.9 million, which had been held by “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith” since May of 2005. “The Dark Knight” also surpassed Warner Bros. Pictures’ own studio record for midnight showings, previously held by “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.”
This post in from Christie St. Martins, blogger extraordinaire of Funny Pages 2.0:
Every year, I check out the fall line-up and pray that maybe I'll get something to fill in the gap between my lost and beloved "Star Trek" series and of course the lulls between "Battlestar Galactica" seasons and their often questionable TV-made movie attempts. Every year, I see a few potential hopefuls that are always squashed for me by cynical bloggers getting the scoop before I see the pilot. You know that, OR I find out that the sci-fi show I was excited about was produced in Canada. Either way, every year I lose a little more hope.
You would think, with the success of the box office for the last eight years for graphic novel film adaptations that they would really try to up the ante for prime-time television. "Heroes" sure, thank you Fox, but guess what? We rather patient and loyal geeks have to wait months and months with only awful reality TV ("So You Think You Can Dance," excluded. Whatever. Mock me all you want, it's great.) to keep us company.
This brings me to the potential ray of light in my sad geekless televised world, "Fringe." "Fringe" is the fourth TV series created by J.J. Abrams, of most recent "Lost" fame, that aims to explore mysteries of the paranormal as well as the relationships between the characters while steeped in yummy mythology. I was even one of Abrams loyal viewers with "Alias." (Yeah, I loved "Felicity" too, but this isn't a sleepover so I'll keep my mouth shut. Sort of.) Although, I am not particularly proud of the "Alias" years. After the fourth person died, but didn't really die, because, oh look, they are back in Sydney's life again, it was just a bit too much. Then "Lost" came around, oh happy day! Plane disaster stories. Delicious.
I'm excited to be moderating several Comic-Con panels this year for the first time and by "excited," of course, I mean "paralyzed with fear."
Here's the press release about three of them, all for the BBC, which is coming to Comic-Con in a big way with "Torchwood," "Dr. Who," "Spaced" and their new show, "Primeval":
The BBC is coming to Comic-Con 2008 with its first ever BBC AMERICA booth plus an army of creators and stars from international hit series Doctor Who, Torchwood, Primeval and Spaced. The booth on the exhibition floor will promote BBC Video, associated merchandise as well as BBC AMERICA’s Supernatural Saturdays, home of Doctor Who, Torchwood and Primeval.
Thursday, July 24 kicks things off with a panel featuring Britain’s most successful sci-fi franchise. The Doctor Who panel includes the BAFTA winning executive producer and lead writer Steven Moffat and executive producer Julie Gardner. It is followed by a Torchwood panel - BBC AMERICA’s highest rated television show ever - with actors John Barrowman, Gareth David-Lloyd and Naoko Mori and executive producer Julie Gardner.
Friday, July 25 sees a panel for the clever and edgy comedy Spaced with creator-stars Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), Jessica Hynes (Shaun of the Dead, Son of Rambow), and director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz). The panel will be moderated by Drew ‘Moriarty’ McWeeny, West Coast editor of Ain’t It Cool News. Created for fanboys and fangirls, Spaced will be available for the first time in North America in a DVD set on July 22 and on sale at the BBC booth. Later that evening, there will be a special screening of three episodes as chosen by the fans, log on to www.spacedinvasion.com to get involved.
BBC AMERICA’s newest sci-fi hit, Primeval, will also be represented with a panel on Friday, July 25 featuring actors Douglas Henshall, Juliet Aubrey and Karl Theobald discussing their onscreen battle to save humanity from prehistoric creatures invading the present day world.
The Doctor Who, Torchwood and Primeval panels will be moderated by Los Angeles Times writer Geoff Boucher. Boucher, who has written about Hollywood and the music industry for a decade for The Times, is also the lead blogger on Hero Complex, which has insider coverage of genre films, graphic novels, science fiction and all the other heroic pursuits in pop culture.
BBC AMERICA’s booth (#3629) on the exhibition floor will host various signings on Thursday and Friday related to all four programs. Fans will be able to purchase DVD sets from BBC Video and merchandise from a range of licensees
Update: The press release came over from the BBC with some dates scrambled, they are corrected in the text as it appears above.
- Geoff Boucher
photo of John Barrowman, left, with guest star James Marsters on "Torchwood" by Todd Anthony BBC Worldwide
We're starting a new feature here at the Hero Complex called The Essential Shelf in which we invite some esteemed talents to tell us about their favorite graphic novels. Our first guest is Gerard Way, the lead singer of the rock band My Chemical Romance and the writer of "The Umbrella Academy," the wonderfully surreal Dark Horse series that (we hear) may be coming to a theater near you in the next few years.
Here's No.'s 8, 9 and 10 on the list of 10 that he e-mailed me, the rest will be posted here over the next few days.
"Hellboy: Seed of Destruction," by Mike Mignola This book was an inspiration in the format I chose to do 'The Umbrella Academy' in, as well as the publisher, Dark Horse. This comic is extremely pure, it is the opposite of pretentious, and an exercise in storytelling. Combining elements of old-school E.C. Comics horror, adventure, and the occasional history or mythology lesson, it also frees itself from the confines of continuity typically found in mainstream comics. It has a continuity but does not remain chained to it, hopping around the many years an[d] aspects of the main character's life, telling the stories Mike Mignola wants to tell.
"Akira, Vol. 1," by Katsuhiro Otomo I do enjoy manga but would not consider myself a "super-fan," only really connecting with certain works such as Lone Wolf and Cub, or Tekkon Kinkreet, the more breakthrough works, and Akira, to me, is the daddy of them all. This book collects the serialized comic originally found in 'Young Magazine' in Japan, which must have been very exciting coming out weekly and serialized, and also must have taken a lot of time, as the series is massive. It takes place in a futuristic version of Tokyo, which has rebuilt after another seemingly atomic explosion, and deals with a corrupt government, psychic children, and motorcycle gangs. Some of the best characters I have ever encountered in a comic.
"Wanted," by Mark Millar
I love this book. It came out of nowhere for me, and literally forced me to read it in one sitting. It has a way of tapping into that nihilism of "Fight Club" without being redundant and is a great example of a great modern comic with original ideas. The concept is another brilliant one that makes you jealous you didn't come up with it first, but in reading it you realize that Mark Millar is the only person that could have written it. I haven't seen the film but I imagine, if they at least kept the narration intact, that it is probably an excellent translation, as the main character's inner monologue is what really keeps you hooked, especially from the opening line.
"Dark Knight" is the new peak of a summer that brought the gentle sci-fi masterpiece “Wall-E,” the witty and rollicking “Iron Man” and Guillermo del Toro's latest dispatch from magical realms, "Hellboy II." "Wanted" and "Hancock" took the antihero genre into very different places and stirred considerable debate among critics.This is also the summer that brought back Indiana Jones and (next month) Anakin Skywalker, as well as a revamped Hulk and a revived "X-Files." There was a new, grimmer "Narnia" film and the latest from M. Night Shyamalan, who seems a million years removed way from "The Sixth Sense" these days.
But the best summer ever?
For debate's sake, take a look at the amazing barrage of films released in 1982, just between May 14 and June 25:
“Blade Runner” The best science fiction movie ever. If you don’t like this movie, I don’t trust you.
“E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial” It's sweeter and smarter than you remember. Is “Wall-E” better? I’d say no.
“Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” J.J. Abrams will pay homage to the Kobayashi Maru in next year's "Trek" reboot.
“John Carpenter’s The Thing” Roger Ebert called it “a great barf-bag movie.” And he liked it.
“Poltergeist” This was Heather O'Rourke’s sixth sense.
“Conan the Barbarian” What is best in life? "Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of the women."
Update: "Mad Max 2" Thanks to the readers that pointed out that this George Miller film was also released in America in May of 1982. It came out in its native Australia in 1981 and that's the date by which it is indexed on IMDB so I missed this when I was scanning 1982 films. It's a classic, of course, and a template for a whole generation of post-apocalyptic films.
Update: "Tron" Anthony Nihilistic (a cheery fellow, I'm guessing) writes in to point out that this brilliant Disney film also came out in the summer of 1982. "That easily tips the scales in favor of 1982," he wrote.
-- Geoff Boucher
Photo: Warner Bros. / The Blade Runner Partnership
Update: I made a bad blunder in an earlier version of this post and said that Drew Barrymore was in "Poltergiest," I guess I had "E.T." on the mind while typing. Thanks to the pople that pointed it out.
Earlier this week Geoff Boucher wrote about the fact that the new "Watchmen" trailer would hit the theaters this weekend right before the screening of "The Dark Knight."
Thanks in part to those crazy kids at Trailer Addict we can enjoy the trailer today -- which is probably OK since everyone and his mother will see "The Dark Knight" this weekend anyway, no doubt.
Enjoy the two-minute peek into the much-awaited film above or at TrailerAddict.com and yes, that is the Smashing Pumpkins' "The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning" playing under the footage.
This just came in from the folks at Adult Swim and wins our coveted "Press Release of the Day" trophy. A No-Prize is in the mail now...
Adult Swim today announced the nationwide search for a Carl look-alike to appear in the first-ever live action episode of "Aqua Teen Hunger Force." The search will begin Saturday, July 26, from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m., at the Omni Hotel in San Diego during this year’s Comic-Con convention, what some consider to be the epicenter of Carl-like men.
Aqua Teen Hunger Force, one of Adult Swim’s most popular animated action-adventure, comedy-dramas, follows the strange everyday lives of three human-sized food products who live in New Jersey. Their next-door neighbor is Carl, a simple man who’s endearingly sweaty, hairy, lewd, fashion-challenged, horny, nasty and oftentimes annoying. All men remotely fitting that description are encouraged to show up. It would also help to be bald, have a mustache and wear a dirty white tank top, sweat pants and flip-flops. For background, video of Carl’s awesomeness can be seen at AdultSwim.com. Aqua Teen Hunger Force co-creator, Dave Wills, who is also the voice of Carl, will be on site at the San Diego search.
I'm making a mental note to avoid the Omni at all costs on Saturday afternoon.
I'm here in Albuquerque, N.M., to visit the set of "Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins" and I can tell you....absolutely nothing, at least not yet.
Who could be happier these days than Lawrence A. Gordon?
"At my age, to be working with two truly brilliant young directors? It's a real honor, I have to tell you." The 72-year-old producer was referring to Guillermo del Toro ("Pan's Labyrinth"), who just happens to have the No. 1 movie in America right now with "Hellboy II," and Zack Snyder ("300"), now in post-production on "Watchmen," which is nothing less than the Holy Grail of fanboy films.
"The trailer for the film will be on 'The Dark Knight,' which is exciting for everybody," Gordon said. "And at Comic-Con, it's going to be like an earthquake when people see what Zack has done and what he's bringing. He has done a magnificent job. Wait until you see this film."
The "Watchmen" panel at the International Comic-Con in San Diego is Friday, July 25, at 11:55 a.m., in Hall H. The movie is due in theaters in February. I was on the set in Vancouver late last year and everything I saw suggested that "Watchmen" was going to do for comic book films what "GoodFellas" did for Mafia movies, which is to introduce a complex, gripping masterpiece that transforms an entire genre.
Snyder told me then that it was going to be more than three hours long with an R rating. Gordon said now that he though it would come in under the three-hour mark, though he added: "We haven't finalized everything, but over three hours? I don't think so. No matter what, it's going to a great success. The fanboys are not going to let us get away with anything less."
Gordon is no stranger to success or genre flicks. His career is pretty astounding. Check out this short list of the films he's brought to the screen: "The Warriors" (1979), "48 Hrs." (1982), "Predator" (1987), "Die Hard" (1988), "Field of Dreams" (1989), "The Rocketeer" (1991), "Waterworld" (1995), "Boogie Nights" (1997), the "Lara Croft" films (2001, 2003) and Del Toro's two "Hellboy" movies (2004, 2008). (Gordon was also an executive producer on the wonderful "Hellboy Animated" features, which you should check out if you haven't.)
One last word from Gordon before he had to hang up: "I'll see you down in Comic-Con. Be sure you don't miss that 'Watchmen' panel."
-- Geoff Boucher
Photo: Still from "Watchmen." Credit: Warner Bros.
These days, every major genre film and hit show has a significant presence on the Internet, but that wasn’t the case when "The X-Files" became a spooky sensation in the 1990s. David Duchovny said that, like his character Fox Mulder, the relentless faith of true believers is astounding to behold.
" 'The X-Files' was said to be the first Internet show," Duchovny said over coffee on a recent morning in Los Angeles. "We had chat rooms and fan sites and all that. Look, I’m usually five or six years behind whatever is hip. So it was around 2000 that I started doing e-mail and finally started understanding what all that was about."
And what was it about? The answer is religion, apparently.
"My initial response — and I still hold this to be true — is that it takes the place of some of the functions of a church in a small town: A place where people come together, ostensibly to worship something. But really what’s happening is you’re forming a community. It’s less about what you’re worshiping and more about, ‘We have these interests in common.’ Someone has a sick aunt and suddenly it’s about that, raising money to help her or sharing resources to make her life easier. That’s what it was about with 'The X-Files' on the Internet."
Duchovny and co-star Gillian Anderson are back on autopsy and trench-coat duty on July 25 as "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" pulls the FBI tandem away from the complicated conspiracy plots of the old series and puts them in the "monster of the week" mode of investigating an isolated supernatural threat.
Duchovny said that he has come to view the most loyal fans of the show as celebrants of self, not of celebrity.
"When I was at Comic-Con it felt the same as the small-town church thing. I’m not denigrating 'The X-Files,' but that fellowship isn’t essentially about the show. The fans came to Comic-Con to honor us but I think they’re honoring us because we inspire them to have a certain kind of fellowship. Now, I’m not saying we’re not worthy of that kind of honor. I want to be clear about that.”
Oh, that’s very clear; essentially, his point is that "The X-Files" is bigger than God and religion, right? "No, no! You’re going to get me in trouble. I didn’t say bigger than God. I said 'The X-Files' is equal to God."
-- Geoff Boucher
Photos: David Duchovny, Karen Tapia-Andersen/Los Angeles Times; Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, Diyah Pera / 20th Century Fox
I just got off the phone with Seth Green, who is getting excited about attending his 13th International Comic-Con. He'll be there as a fan but also to spread the word about the July 22nd release of a DVD collection of stop-motion sketches from "Robot Chicken," the wonderfully subversive "Star Wars" parody that he hatched with co-creator Matthew Senreich. This DVD has voice contributions from George Lucas (see? he does have a sense of humor), Conan O’Brien, Seth MacFarlane, Malcolm McDowell, Hulk Hogan, James Van Der Beek, Robert Smigel and Joey Fatone.
Green recently finished filming "Old Dogs," a Disney comedy due next year. It also stars John Travolta, Robin Williams, Matt Dillon, Bernie Mac and Kelly Preston. Green said when he greeted Williams for the first time the comedy icon cursed him: "I love 'Robot Chicken,' [expletive]!" Green was overjoyed. "I told him, 'Dude, you don't even know, I'm going to swag you to pieces! I Fed-Exed him tons of 'Robot Chicken' stuff. I really want to get Robin Williams for 'Robot Chicken'. But it's going to have to be something really special."
The trick, Green said, is hatching a skit seanrio that lives up to the scattered riff-genius of Williams. Green said he would also like to draft Travolta for some "Chicken" duty, but that may require more coaxing. "John hadn't heard of it," Green said a bit glumly. "I had to explain it to him a bit."
-- Geoff Boucher
Photo: Robin Williams in "Man of the Year." Credit: Universal Pictures
Over at the Show Tracker blog, Denise Martin is talking strong about the new George Lucas foray into television animation, "The Clone Wars." She says it "just might be better than all the live-action prequels put together."
The episode looked great -- not Pixar-amazing, but certainly in line with movies like "Kung Fu Panda" -- but it's the writing that puts it heads above the franchise’s more recent additions. Sure, the series is ultimately aimed at kids, but this audience was laughing. And the comedy here is expected -- in a good way. It doesn’t come from Anakin saying things like, "I don’t like sand. It’s coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here everything is soft and smooth,” -- as amusing as that was in "Attack of the Clones."
Reporters did get a load of Gothic villain Ventress in action. She's an apprentice of Count Dooku, whom the series’ supervising director David Filoni describes as "a bit sensuous" and "serpent-like." She’s genuinely frightening.
One of the strangest projects brewing right now is the dream of David Maisel over at Marvel Studios to bring Spider-Man to the Broadway stage.
Not only that, he's brought in Julie Taymor, the Tony-winning director of "The Lion King" on stage and (this is not a joke) Bono and the Edge of U2 for the music. I just got an e-mail about a casting call in New York so, if you think you have the chops to climb walls on the Great White Way, maybe you should take a whirl.
Here's the text from the e-mail:
OPEN SINGERS/ACTORS CALL FOR SPIDER-MAN A NEW BROADWAY MUSICAL
Directed by Julie Taymor, Music and Lyrics by Bono and The Edge of U2
WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR:
Peter Parker: male, 16-20’s, great Rock voice, can be nerdy with understated sex appeal, good sense of humor
Mary Jane: female, 16-20’s, beautiful girl next door, strong pop/rock singing voice
Principal Woman: female, 25-35 years old, Amazing Rock vocals, think Sinead O’Connor with a Middle Eastern /Bulgarian/Greek/ twist. Foreign, world music types are great, foreign accents are great! All ethnicities.
JULY 28, 2008, 10:00am-5pm THE KNITTING FACTORY, 74 LEONARD STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10013
WE ARE ONLY LOOKING FOR THESE CHARACTERS AT THIS OPEN CALL. IF YOU ARE NOT RIGHT FOR THESE CHARACTERS, YOU MAY NOT BE SEEN.
Please prepare 16 bars of a pop/rock song that shows range. Please bring sheet music. Also a photo/resume stapled together, IF YOU HAVE ONE. IT’S COOL IF YOU DON’T!
"The Dark Knight" is getting some pretty intense ramp-up and the fan excitement for the Christopher Nolan film is intense. But Batman fanboys and fangirls aren't the only ones jazzed for an upcoming popcorn thrillride, Watchmen fans are filling YouTube with homemade trailers, like the one you see above.
Those fans will soon be able to go back to their day jobs as I’m told that the first official trailer for Zack Snyder’s "Watchmen," due in theaters next March, will be greeting comics fans who are already arriving in the theaters geeked-up.
How is this for fitting confluence: Nolan’s film borrows its name and a good deal of its grim spirit from “The Dark Knight Returns," Frank Miller’s 1986 graphic novel masterpiece, which changed the ambition and tone of comics. And of course, 1986 was also the year that Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons brought the world “Watchmen,” the most ambitious epic ever told in comics.
Nice to see that it only took Hollywood a little more than two decades to put two classics together again.
On July 24, there’s a great chance to revisit director John Badham’s cerebral 1983 thriller “WarGames” at theaters across the country . Those theaters will also be showing new interview footage with cast and crew and a preview of a new sequel “WarGames: The Dead Code,” a direct-to-DVD release being made available on July 29.
“WarGames” was just the second film for Matthew Broderick and what a script the young actor was handed. The screenplay earned an Oscar nomination for Walter F. Parkes and Lawrence Lasker, a team that also would go to produce the best-picture nominee “Awakenings” (1991).
Random trivia: Lasker is the son of Jane Greer. The actress was four-months pregnant with Lasker while filming “The Big Steal” (1949) in Mexico with the hard-living Robert Mitchum, who ended up in jail during filming. Director Don Siegel wrote in his 1993 autobiography that he fretted about Greer’s state: “With a little care in how I shot her, no one was aware; but I must confess that at times, I worried about a miscarriage."
-Geoff Boucher
photo of Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy before asking to play Global Thermonuclear Warvia MGM/UA
David S. Goyer is headed to International Comic-Con in two weeks to promote “The Unborn,” the horror film due in 2009 that finds the “Batman Begins” screenwriter back in the director’s chair and working with Meagan Good, Carla Gugino, Jane Alexander and Gary Oldman. Goyer is a familiar name to comics and genre film fans, of course, and he hopes to solidify that stature in the next few years with two more heroic projects: “The Flash” and “Green Arrow.”
Here’s Goyer’s approach on each:
“The Flash”: “To me, Wally West as the Flash has always been the most-Marvel of all the major DC characters. He’s like Peter Parker. He’s screwed up a lot, he’s overwhelmed. He wasn’t born as the last son of Krypton or some Amazonian princess, he’s a person who just ends up with these powers. He’s not even the first Flash, he’s sort of had this costume passed on to him by Barry Allen, he’s had to live up to this other guy who everybody admired. I like all of that. I don’t think we’ve seen a movie like that, where someone is trying to live up to the legacy of someone who came before him.”
“Green Arrow”: “We’re not even going to tell an origin story. The movie starts with Green Arrow framed for a crime and sent to a prison for meta-humans. He has to survive in this special, high-security prison with a lot of people that he put in there. And of course, he has no super powers and he’s always been such a black-and-white, moralist kind of guy, and he has to make certain relationships inside that cause him to reexamine some of his beliefs and assumptions.”
This post by Mewsboy Legion member Tony Pierce, who writes Bus Blog.
Mark Caro of the Chicago Tribune has seen "The Dark Knight" and, without giving away much of the film, goes into a pretty interesting theory about why sequels are pretty rotten in traditional films but can pull it off in genre flicks.
“The Dark Knight” doesn’t open till next Friday, but already Christopher Nolan’s “Batman Begins” sequel is being favorably compared to the first film. I’ve seen “The Dark Knight,” and I can tell you a big reason:
A lack of explanations.
Although most sequels turn out to be inferior to their predecessors, superhero movies operate under a different set of rules. The introductory installment invariably must detail the hero’s origins. In subsequent movies the hero can get down to business.
“Spider-Man 2” was superior to “Spider-Man.” Many enjoyed “Superman II” more than “Superman”; I’d at least argue that the original 1978 “Superman” gets going only after it dispenses with the back story and fits Christopher Reeve in his cape and tights.
This all makes sense. If you’re a comic-book fan, is your favorite issue the first one or a greater adventure down the line?
Agreed, which could explain why "Evil Dead II" was far superior to the O.G.
Photo: Still from "The Dark Knight." Credit: Warner Bros.
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About the Blogger
Growing up, Geoff Boucher always wanted to be a mild-mannered reporter working for a major metropolitan newspaper....or maybe a wookiee. He came to the Los Angeles Times in 1991 and, after years covering crime and local politics, he switched to the Hollywood beat covering film and music. Now he's the paper's go-to geek.
Also contributing:
The Legion of Super-Bloggers here at the Hero Complex includes Jevon Phillips, a Times staffer who specializes in our favorite television shows, especially "Heroes" and the frakking brilliant "Battlestar Galactica;" Denise Martin, another Times staffer, who has an undying passion for "Twilight" and anyone ever enrolled at Hogwarts; and Gina McIntyre, a Times editor who learned her craft by watching too many slasher films.
I haven't made it yet to see "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" (I'll blame those five days gobbled up at Comic-Con) and I think a lot of other longtime X-fans fell into that category on the movie's first weekend of release. Maybe it's the passage of time or this summer's glut of must-see genre fare, but I just haven't felt a great sense of urgency to get out to see the movie.
Here's one more Comic-Con International 2008 anecdote as I clean out my notebook from the long weekend:
Comic-con has come and gone but the stories are still filing in. Mostly roundups showing you what you missed, what the convention missed, what was hot, what wasn't hot.
"This is madness, I love it," Bill Nighy said as he wandered around at his first Comic-Con to promote "Underworld: The Rise of the Lycans," the prequel in the supernatural franchise that is due next year.
This news will no doubt break the hearts of trekkies and "Doctor Who" fans making it out to this year's performance of "Hamlet," but let's examine the facts. There is a time and a place to dress in your finest Starfleet uniforms; classical theater is not that time. I’m sure the performers would prefer fans to go and appreciate their new roles and enjoy Shakespeare, rather than just be there to see a character they’ve played in the past. 
The printed schedule for Comic-Con International here in San Diego will tell you that Russell T. Davies, the Welsh writer and producer behind "Dr. Who" and "Torchwood" will be on a panel today, but I spoke with the BBC contingent last night and Davies never got on the plane in Cardiff.
It's the Cannes of Capes, the World's Fair for Fanboys, the ultimate Bazaar of the Bizarre. Comic-Con International gets underway today at the San Diego Convention Center and 125,000 fans will attend this frothy celebration -- and hard sell -- of pop culture.
Duchovny and co-star Gillian Anderson are back on autopsy and trench-coat duty on July 25 as "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" pulls the FBI tandem away from the complicated conspiracy plots of the old series and puts them in the "monster of the week" mode of investigating an isolated supernatural threat.
One of the strangest projects brewing right now is the dream of 
David S. Goyer is headed to International Comic-Con in two weeks to promote “The Unborn,” the horror film due in 2009 that finds the “Batman Begins” screenwriter back in the director’s chair and working with Meagan Good, Carla Gugino, Jane Alexander and Gary Oldman. Goyer is a familiar name to comics and genre film fans, of course, and he hopes to solidify that stature in the next few years with two more heroic projects: “The Flash” and “Green Arrow.” 
