The Dune remake that was supposed to be headed to theaters may be so much sand in the wind after all. Deadline reports that Frank Herbert’s estate has issued an ultimatum for Paramount to announce production dates for the film by spring 2011 or they’ll lose the Dune license. This is hardly the first trouble the remake has seen — it’s been through two or more directors already, and one iteration was already completely scrapped, as seen in old concept art. If Paramount does end up losing the license, with hundreds of thousands of dollars already paid in optioning and pre-production funds, that money is basically sandworm food. Read more…
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” goes the old saying, so it only makes sense that Harry Potter and his friends would be able to make an easy transition from contemporary fantasy to hard sci-fi. Kathryn Hudson cooked up this variation on the Potter theme, making Harry and his school pals the crew of the ISS Griffin, fighting against the Slytherin Alliance and the alien lord Voldemort. My only complaint, besides the misspelling of “Ginevra,” is that Ron looks handsome. What the! And an earring? How very un-Weasley. Read more…
Surprising no one, Todd McFarlane’s upcoming Spawn animated series on MTV will continue to be “adults-only programming.” The original Spawn series, which won two Emmy awards, functioned pretty much the same way — lots of violence, gore, language, and sex — so it’s a relief that MTV has essentially given McFarlane free reign to, in his words, “keep doing what I’m doing.” There’s no ETA on the new series, but even with that in mind, it’s a small miracle it’s happening at all, with legal troubles having put new Spawn properties on hold for the past decade. Hopefully this’ll be comeback worth going through hell for. Read more…
Ryan Reynolds’ upcoming superhero flick (well, one of several, anyway), Green Lantern, just had its first preview footage hit the net, courtesy of Entertainment Tonight. In terms of “feel,” it resembles Iron Man, with lighthearted humor on top of action scenes. The footage is a little rough and pixelated (you’ll recall that the first Iron Man clip looked pretty much the same way, and that film turned out okay), but you can still get a good look Hal’s suit with its odd musculature. And devoted fans will immediately recognize Kilowog, Hal’s Green Lantern Corps trainer.
ET has even more footage from the film ready to go for Tuesday’s episode, so keep an eye out after the weekend!
Posted by Michael Sacco on Nov 12, 2010 in Comic Books
I see superhero t-shirts in stores all the time, but they’re usually lacking that certain something, you know? In this case, that “certain something” is “Dr. Doom riding a unicorn,” and thankfully Mighty Fine has me covered in that regard. On top of the truly excellent Dr. Doom shirt shown above, they also have several other gems — Thor in a classic Frazetta Conan pose, Galactus eating Pegasus, and … a whole lot of Squirrel Girl shirts for the ladies. Yeah, I have no idea either, but somehow I can’t look away. Read more…
Legendary producer Dino de Laurentiis passed away yesterday morning at his Los Angeles home. At 91 years old, De Laurentiis had a long and fruitful career — he was responsible for funding and producing several classic genre films, including Barbarella, Dune, Army of Darkness, Conan the Barbarian, and Flash Gordon. Laurentiis was a truly influential individual who will be sorely missed. Read more…
Casting for the Spiderman reboot has legs (eight of them, specifically)! Hot on the heels of other casting announcements, like Gwen Stacy and the film’s unknown villain, we now know that Martin Sheen is in final negotiations to play Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben. Additionally, Sally Field is said to be in talks to play Aunt May. Honestly, I’m just not sure you can beat Cliff Robertson and Rosemary Harris, who played Ben and May in the previous three Spidey films, but I’m sure that Sheen and Field will do fine in the roles, all things being equal. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Nov 8, 2010 in Comic Books
Talk about seeing superheroes from a different angle! Or several of them, really. Mike and Matt of Wonder Bros. created these Cubist paintings of several superheroes, and they’re available as prints from their Etsy shop. Personally, I love these kinds of reinterpretations, though other people get so used to seeing superheroes presented in the same ways over and over that they tend to freak out when they’re not rendered “accurately,” and it’s hard to get more inaccurate than Cubism. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Nov 6, 2010 in Animation
Earlier this year, it was announced that classic 80s animated series Thundercats would receive a new animated “reimagining”, and now we have some solid information on what the new series will entail! The series’ producer, Michael Jelenic, says that one major change is a simplification of the show’s mythology — everything is taking place on one planet rather than three, for example. Of course, the question on everyone’s mind, eyes bulging, is “Will Snarf be in it?!” The answer is yes, with the caveat that everyone’s unfavorite cat beast thing won’t be speaking in this incarnation. Looks like Jelenic has foresight beyond foresight. Read more…
That’s right, this guy. Zac Efron is rumored to be in talks to star in Warner Bros.’ live-action remake of the classic anime film. The remake is said to take place in the USA rather than Japan, in a ruined Manhattan. He’d be playing Kaneda, who’s somehow still named Kaneda, despite looking American and the film being set in…well, you get the idea. I’m not sure how I feel about this one. Wait, no. I’m 100% positive how I feel about this one. Though, to be fair, that’s hardly Zac Efron’s fault. Read more…
Back to the Future is 25 years old this year, and to celebrate the occasion, Profiles in History is auctioning off a handful of incredible (and memorable) props from the film. Proceeds from selling the items, including the vanishing newspapers (above), Marty’s self-drying jacket (note: does not actually self-dry), and the classic Gray’s Sports Almanac, will go to Michael J. Fox’s charities for Parkinson’s research. Read more…
Any comic book fan worth their salt knows the name “Stan Lee” — the man behind Marvel Comics since its birth, the creator of Spiderman, the old dude with the mustache and the glasses. And now fans of the man himself can check out his new biography film, “With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story,” this Sunday at the American Cinematheque in Santa Monica. The 80-minute film by Terry Dougas, Nikki Frakes, and Will Hess will be accompanied by a Stan Lee signing session. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Oct 31, 2010 in Cinema, Horror
It’s Halloween, and that means it’s horror movie season! But man, watching all those scream queens can be an awful lot of work. Why don’t you let the Fine Brothers do all the legwork for you? They’ve compiled one hundred spoilers for horror movies of all stripes and put them all in one convenient five-minute video. Want to know about Draculas? They’ve got you covered. Wondering who meets their maker in Final Destination? They’re all over it. Wish I had one of these for my college lit classes. “100 Puritan Texts Spoiled in Five Minutes,” anyone? Read more…
Great news for the astronomical number of you out there who saw (and liked) James Cameron’s Avatar — Cameron has officially signed on for two more films set in the Avatar universe. Not terribly surprising, given that the film grossed almost $3 billion worldwide, but good news nonetheless. Cameron, who’s currently working on At the Mountains of Madness with Guillermo Del Toro, will begin writing screenplays for the two sequels shortly, and he’ll decide whether or not to film them back-to-back once that task is complete. Regardless of the filming schedule, the expected release dates for Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 are 2014 and 2015, respectively. Read more…
Do you like Popeye comic strips? No? You don’t? Well, I suppose that’s probably because you’ve never read one, because why on earth would you have occasion to? But I bet you like Indiana Jones, in which case this most excellent adaptation of Raiders of the Lost Ark done in the style (and speech patterns) of classic Popeye comics. Now all we need is Last Crusade done Tintin-style and we’ll be all set. What’s that? There’s an Indiana Jones movie between Raiders and Crusade? I don’t know what you’re talking about. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Oct 30, 2010 in Cinema, Star Wars
Brock Davis, graphic artist for Wired and several other publications, broke form recently and released this great 70s-style invoice addressed from Boba Fett to Jabba the Hutt, requesting payment for services rendered. Even bounty hunters need to keep their paperwork straight, especially when a cool quarter-million credits are on the line. Makes you wonder what the invoices all those independent contractors sent Vader for Death Star construction (and repairs) looked like. Read more…
We’ve been pretty pumped about Christopher Nolan’s next (and possibly last) Batman film, and some recent casting news has helped that feeling. Now we have some big news — the film’s title! Nolan spoke with Hero Complex and divulged that the movie will be titled “The Dark Knight Rises.” But that’s not all: we also know who the film’s villain won’t be. Nolan confirmed that the Riddler is out of the running as antagonist. There’ve been rumors swirling around that recently-cast Thomas Hardy will be playing Bane or even Killer Croc, but at this point it could be anybody — except for Mr. Freeze, who Nolan also recently deconfirmed. Read more…
Entertainment Weekly’s cover story this week has Chris Evans as Captain America in his full costume, including the iconic shield. But that’s not all! EW was kind enough to release several other photos, including shots of Cap in his USO uniform, Hugo Weaving as Red Skull, HYDRA goons, and more! The suit looks pretty great in the photos — Cap’s cartoony “flag pajamas” are nowhere to be found here, just some nice period-friendly superhero digs. Chris Evans also looks right at home in this particular film universe. Color me red, white, and excited. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Oct 25, 2010 in Comic Books
Comic books have been around for quite a while now — so long, in fact, that it’s hard to remember just when certain characters debuted. Letters of Note uncovered this 1941 sketch of Wonder Woman’s original design by artist Harry G. Peter, replete with notes from William and Peter Moulton Marston. “I slapped these two out in a hurry,” Peter writes. The design’s main motif — the golden eagle on her chest — was eventually scrapped in the following months before her heroic debut in favor of the famous golden Ws for which we know her best. Iteration is expected, though — when you’re inventing the first real superheroes, like these men did, you don’t have any others to base your creations on! Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Oct 25, 2010 in Dr. Who
Karma Orange posted these awesome Doctor Who fan posters, using very little visual real estate to convey some major themes from the show, from Daleks to the sonic screwdriver to the spoilery bits from this latest season of the classic sci-fi series. It’s pretty neat how much information is conveyed with so little. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Oct 24, 2010 in Comic Books
Francesco Francavilla, currently working as artist on Marvel’s Black Panther, whipped up this amazing re-imagining of The Avengers in the year 1500 for Comic Twart. The Hulk is seen as a, well, hulking Celtic druid, Captain Amerigo wields the familiar star shield, Thor is the actual Norse god, and there’s a man walking around in what appears to be iron. Don’t know who that guy is supposed to be. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Oct 24, 2010 in Cinema, Star Wars
IESB recently published a pretty substantial rumor that George Lucas was working on a new Star Wars trilogy to be released after the current two trilogies both receive their 3D conversions, citing a “super-secret Lucasfilm insider.” IESB has been right about several big rumors before — Joss Whedon directing The Avengers, for example — so it seemed that this could also be true. Expectedly, Lucasfilm flat-out denied that any new Star Wars movies were in the works once the rumor made its rounds.
Denial is expected when it comes to PR, of course, especially when discussing unannounced projects, but it’s still pretty interesting (and slightly terrifying) to think of what would come next in the Star Wars film universe. Read more…
Following on the heels of the dubiously successful Caprica, SyFy has greenlit another Battlestar Galactica prequel, this one titled Blood and Chrome. The series is set to explore the career of William Adama as a Viper pilot in the first Cylon War. While we’re pretty excited for more BSG, or at least more kind-of-BSG, experts have indicated that we may be running out of Adama family background to mine in television shows. Read more…
Peter Jackson officially announced casting for The Hobbit today, with the title role going to Martin Freeman, as was previously rumored. Richard Armitage will play Thorin Oakenshield, and Aidin Turner and Rob Kazinsky will play the brothers Kili and Fili. Other possibilities (as in not-yet-confirmed) include fan favorite David Tennant, Stephen Fry, Saoirse Ronan. Nice to see this film finally going somewhere, though where it appears to going is “not New Zealand” due to union issues. Read more…
