The first look at Frank Miller’s THE SPIRIT movie and big sneak peeks at HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY and THE INCREDIBLE HULK are the most sure-to-be-blogged about presentation at New York Comic-Con. It isn’t quite up to the level of San Diego’s star fest, but it’s getting there, for better or worse. All details in the jump.
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We’re still a little verklempt over the whole leaked-Spirit-photos thing and getting our very first studio cease and desist letter. Luckily, IGN has the first OFFICIAL Spirit stills a photo of Samuel L. Jackson as the Octopus and ScarJo as, yes, a sexy nurse.
Things on the SPIRIT movie front are definitely heating up, with the website live, including a message board. There’s also this countdown clock:
which, you don’t need to be a mathematician to figure out, is counting down to the SPIRIT panel at New York Comic-Con.
Numerous sources are reporting that Join HETFET.org appears to be a viral marketing site for HELLBOY II. Keep watching.
Some mixed messages for Marvel’s next two films — both of them from the newly launched Marvel Studios.
First, the New York Times rounds up what everyone has been whispering for some time: THE INCREDIBLE HULK movie may be more of a tantrum than a rampage:
Bad buzz. Creative infighting. Superhero gridlock at the multiplex. For Marvel Studios, handling gamma rays is starting to look like a cakewalk compared to turning “The Incredible Hulk” into a movie franchise.
The article covers all the familiar beats: Ang Lee disappointment, blah blah; Edward Norton and studio feuding, blah blah; fan dismay with cgi, blah blah.
The story reports “lip-biting” among investors and worries over Norton’s continued feud with the filmmakers: if he doesn’t get his say over the final cut he may not even do any publicity, a body blow in a summer crammed with competing action/adventure movies. Marvel Studios head David Maisel handles the rumors with the diplomacy one must develop when dealing with volatile stars whom you wouldn’t like when they are angry:
“When you get to this point in the process, there are always lots of passionate discussions,” he said. “Edward is very passionate. He is as passionate about the Hulk as we are.” (For those unaccustomed to Hollywood speak, “very passionate” roughly translates to a seven on the “he’s a difficult person” scale.)
BUT all is not gloomy for Marvel, as trade reporter Anne Thompson delivers a big wet kiss to Marvel’s OTHER summer movie: “Iron Man: Why it Will be Huge”:
Those of us who saw Paramount’s first Iron Man materials at Comic-Con–and witnessed the hordes lining up just to see the damned costume unveiled–don’t need to be convinced that this picture will be a summer boxoffice juggernaut. It should easily pass $200 million. Will it get to $300 million is another question.
Why?
1. NEW ACTION HERO. This may be the robust male action fantasy hero that we’ve been waiting for. A new contemporary complex male who isn’t Batman or Superman. (Face it, they’ve been around for a while.) Check out the latest clip and our photo gallery. Who wouldn’t want to fly around like that? While Iron Man comicbook fans are legion, this is a new modern movie hero who kicks ass. And he’s not a nice guy.
All systems seem to be go for IRON MAN — good buzz, great looking trailers, well received assets. Even people who aren’t familiar with Ol’ Shellhead think the movie looks “fun.”
Our guess? IRON MAN will do very well; THE INCREDIBLE HULK will make money on DVD.
§ Comics2Film, another Web 1.0 comics site — it’s been around since 1997 — has been purchased by Mania.com.
§ Ed Brubaker faces the mini-masses at Whitechapel.
§ At PWCW, Laura Hudson talks to Marvel about the viral marketing campaign for SECRET INVASION:
“We’ve done a lot of mainstream pushes, not just to the industry itself, but to a larger audience,” said Marvel v-p of merchandising and communication Mike Pasciullo. “The characters are icons that people are aware of even if they’re not buying comics regularly,” Pasciullo said, “but if you tell interesting stories, they will seek them out.”
Acclaimed Marvel writer Brian Michael Bendis, the writer of Secret Invasion, agreed. “We’re trying to reach out to the millions of people that might never read a comic.” He describes the marketing shift as part of an effort to stop undervaluing the medium. “The comics [industry] in general tends to treat itself like an ugly stepsister of film or TV,” said Bendis. “But it’s not, so let’s not treat it that way. Let’s sell it like they sell a movie.”
No mention of now-squelched Marvel-b0y, but there will be Skrull Masks at NYCC.
§ Meanwhile, over at Marvel’s Agent M Flickr set, you can see editors Tom Brevoort and Nick Lowe sporting evidence of an abandoned crossover event in which the Marvel U was invaded by clones of Mary Jane and Gwen Stacy,
§ BUT Ian Brill wonders if all this marketing innovation this is just like pushing margaritas to people in Tijuana:
While reading Laura Hudson’s article on Marvel’s viral marketing I thought of something. It’s cool to see Marvel branching out and everything. I just wish that instead of using these innovations, innovations for Marvel that is, to sell a book that is going to be a blockbuster no matter what they could use this strategy towards marketing lower selling titles.
§ i09 has an entertaining look at superhero movies not based on comics, like DARKMAN and SKY HIGH. There are more than you might think, since many of them were subsequently adapted into comics.
§ Coming Soon Net has the first video journal from WATCHMEN. No footage just atmospherics.
§ PS here is Scarlett Johansson as a sexy nurse from THE SPIRIT movie. Peruse before Lionsgate makes us take ‘em down.
AW SHUCKS. I got my official Lionsgate C&D. Wow, I feel like I rank now!
Technorati Tags: The Spirit
• Continuing the intriguing trend of Euro comics getting developed for the US, NBC announced a mini series based on XIII, which Kevin Melrose tells us, is an 80s Euro-comic by Jean Van Hamme and William Vance:
XIII, originally serialized in 1984 in the Belgian comics magazine Spirou, begins with a man who washes up on the shore of the East Coast with no memory of who he is, and the only clue to his past is “XIII” tatooed on his neck. His search for his identity leads him to confront a plot to overthrow the U.S. government.
The comic has been reprinted in the US by Catalan and most recently the Dabel Bros. Stephen Dorff and Val Kilmer will star in the mini-series.
• Ving Rhames, Radha Mitchell, and Rosamund Pike have joined Bruce Willis in the cast of The
Surrogates movie, which is based on the Top Shelf series by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele.
• Boom strikes again, as the controversial North Wind has been optioned by producer John Davis . Creator/screenwriter David DiGilio will adapt the tale.
Boom co-founders Cosby and Richie have been experiencing a boom in Hollywood lately. The pair is producing adaptations of their “Tag” and “Talent” comics at Universal with Marc Platt and “The Foundation” at Paramount. Ice Cube’s CubeVision is adapting the Boom graphic novel “10″ for Dimension.
The film will be one of many sci-fi spectacles for Davis Entertainment, which helped bring “I, Robot,” “Alien vs. Predator” and “Eragon” to the screen.
Several sites, including ComingSoon.net debuted a new series of outdoor artwork for THE SPIRIT movie which opens January 16, 2009. In case you forgot, this movie is being directed by Frank Miller, and it may just look a little bit like the Sin City movie. Bonus: note this web address: MyCityScreams.com.
Technorati Tags: Frank Miller
It’s up at Yahoo. Also more stills. We are, like, sooooo looking forward to this movie.
Ben Stiller has joined the graphic novel set! He’ll produce and possibly star in The Return of King Doug based on a yet to be published Oni graphic novel by animation writers Greg Erb and Jason Oremland. The duo will also pen the screenplay. The title joins Oni’s Courtney Crumrin, The Damned, Scott Pilgrim (see below) and Maintenance among the Hollywood set.
MEANWHILE…unstoppable Stan Lee has announced three projects in his Disney pact. Lee and his POW! partner Gil Champion will produce.
“Nick Ratchet” will be directed by Richard LaGravenese (”P.S. I Love You”) from a screenplay he is writing. Larry Jacobson and Sonny Grosso are in talks to produce.
“Blaze” is being penned by Gary Goldman (”Next”).
“Tigress” is being written by newcomer Zoe Green. State Street Pictures’ Robert Teitel and George Tillman will produce. Film is not the same as a previously announced project titled “Tigress” that Lee is developing with Michelle Rodriguez attached to star. That project is based on a “Conan the Barbarian” villainess.
Talkative Stan chafed at having to keep plot details under wraps. “You have no idea how frustrating that is for me, because I love these characters so much and want to talk about them.” Lee said, adding that perhaps the properties could even become comic books. “You either have a great comicbook and it becomes a great movie. Or you have a great movie that becomes a great comicbook. These things have a natural progression.”
FINALLY…Michael Cera demonstrates his ability to talk up comics as he told Empire about his casting in SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD (the official title):
“I love the graphic novels, they’re amazing,” gushed Cera. “The first time I met Edgar, we hung out in Toronto [Cera’s home town and the setting for Pilgrim] with Bryan Lee O’Malley [the series’ creator, also from Toronto], and he showed me pages from the fourth book that hadn’t come out yet. It was awesome!”
Yes it was. These things have a natural progression.
Technorati Tags: Stan Lee
Last weekend’s parody “SUPERHERO MOVIE” opened to a very very disappointing $9.5 million and its failure has spawned much commentary, including this from Steven Zeitchik:
There may be a more specific rule governing how and why a genre sendup succeeds, one that has more to do with the maturity of the original genre. Looking back at at the spoof hits over the decades, it seems that in order to work a genre has to be at just the right stage, developed enough to be ripe for satire but not so tired the genre has already begun poking fun at itself (see under Zucker’s 1980 “Airplane,” which came at just the right post-”Airport” moment).
The first part is probably why one-off hits can’t be effectively sent up, as Bob Saget learned the hard way with his straight-to-video “Farce of the Penguins.” (And yet he never seems to learn…) The second part is why “Superhero” will eke out $40 or $50 million instead of twice that. Most actual superhero movies these days are post-superhero movies — see the self-mocking postmodernism in everything from “Superman Returns” to “The Incredibles” — so who needs a spoof? Not to mention that the definition of a superhero movie is a lot more expansive these days, as likely to encompass an anti-hero like “Hellboy” as fearless fighters in cape and spandex.
PS: When we first typed that headline we inadvertently wrote “troubling slop.” Make of that what you will.
Lovely Sir Ian McKellen often answers questions from fans on his webpage, and in his latest installment he all but promises that he will be back as Gandalf in the film version of the Hobbit. “I will, if Peter Jackson and I have anything to do with it, he being the producer and me being, on the whole, a very lucky actor,” he writes.
That’s the good news. More problematic is Sir Ian’s interpretation of life in the undying lands:
Q: I have read lord of the rings and am enamoured by it. what do you think happens to gandalf once he leaves middle earth and goes to the grey havens? does he have someone to return to?
A: I had always supposed that the Grey Havens were an eternal life of some sort. But not even Tolkien would presume to anticipate what a Heaven is really like. As for companionship there, don’t forget that he takes Frodo and Bilbo with him and he loves hobbits. If you meant that there might be a Mrs Gandalf or a civil partner at the end of the journey who knows? But I doubt it.
While we share Sir Ian’s doubts about Civil Partnerships in Valinor, he should have pointed out that Gandalf is Maiar, an angellic spirit and a servant of Manwe and Eru.
Technorati Tags: Hobbitses
Studio chieftain Harvey Weinstein struck a devious blow to the dreams of fanboys everywhere when he decreed that cuts must be made to FANBOYS, a long awaited films about some, er, fans who sneak onto the Skywalker Ranch for a sneak peek at PHANTOM MENACE. One of them has cancer, making the beak-in a matter of great urgency. This film has been in the can for two years, and with the involvement of such now-well known players as Seth Rogen and Kristen Bell and delighted screenings at Comic-Con you’d think all would be well, right? Not so fast, says the Hollywood Reporter. The movie has lain frozen in carbonite while Weinstein demanded a recut:
Bryan Lee O’Malley was sort of non-plussed by all the news reports about the Scott Pilgrim movie last week
The Hollywood Reporter prints a story hastily sent in by someone’s publicist. Nobody fact-checks anything. The rest of the internet / world hastily copies the facts in the article into their own hastily-published articles. It’s amazing!
Anyway, I can “confirm” that Michael Cera is going to play Scott Pilgrim in this movie adaptation.
It is not called “Scott Pilgrim’s Little Life”, as the whole internet has been saying. Gee, I wonder why they took out “precious”, the internet wonders? Maybe because some idiot made an error while filing the story? No, couldn’t be. There must be some deeper meaning.
It isn’t even called Precious Little Life, but I defer to the film’s creators as to when and how they want to make their announcements.
Technorati Tags: Bryan Lee O’Malley
Now here is the interview we have been waiting for! Hugh Jackman and Marc Guggenheim are teaming up on the latest Virgin Comics panel-to-screen project, Nowhere Man. Is it about a guy who doesn’t have a point of view and knows not where he’s going to? Not really, but he may be just a bit like me and you.
Story was being kept under wraps, but Jackson’s Seed Productions partner John Palermo said it features a protagonist reminiscent of the one Will Smith played in “I Am Legend.” The concept is a futuristic world where mankind has traded privacy for safety, a premise that sprouted with Seed, Virgin CEO Sharad Devarajan and chief creative officer Gotham Chopra.
“This is our first comic, and we feel the concept is transferable to other arenas, perhaps first as a videogame, and then a movie,” Palermo said.
You don’t’ say! According to Variety, Jackman is in love with the comic book world. “I’ve had so much fun in the graphic novel world with the ‘X-Men’ franchise that I wanted to get even more involved.”
We want you to get more involved, too, Hugh. Very very involved. We’re here to help you every step of the way. Just say the word.
The first picture of Snake Eyes, played by Ray Park, from the GI JOE movie has been released. We give this its own spot because it’s a nice spot to salute Larry Hama, who wrote tons and tons of GI Joe comics and is a creative consultant on the film. Hama is the kind of storytelling craftsman you don’t see much in comics any more because, well…there just isn’t much call to write 155 issues of a licensed comic book any more. He’s currently writing some stuff for Devil’s Due. In addition to writing comics, he also played roles in MASH and was in the original Broadway cast of the Stephen Sondheim musical Pacific Overture. In other words, he was also a comics crossover star long before it became fashionable. Plus, he’s just one of the coolest dudes to talk to you’ll ever meet.
§ Has Tintin been cast? The Daily Mail thinks so. This is only a rumor, but they claim Thomas Sangster, 17, is on the job as the boy adventurer. Sangster is an experienced thespian, having already been adorable in Nanny MacPhee, and cute in Love Actually. The Daily Mail doesn’t identify when this picture was taken, but that is one youthful looking 17-year-old if it’s remotely contemporary.
Just to remind everyone of TINTIN movie facts: thus far it is slated to be THREE movies, one directed by Steven Spielberg, one directed by Peter Jackson, one by UNKNOWN and they will be mo-cap cgi. Mocap mogul Andy Serkis has been cast as Captain Haddock. Of the filming process, Jackson said
“We’re making them look photorealistic; the fibers of their clothing, the pores of their skin and each individual hair. They look exactly like real people — but real Herge people!”
Other than this, little is known. So far.
§ AICN is reporting that Matthew Vaughn (LAYER CAKE, STARDUST)will adapt Mark Millar and John Romita Jr’s KICK-ASS.
[Vaughn is] evidently holed up with Jane Goldman (his writing partner on STARDUST) right now and working hard to get the script right. Considering Millar’s only got the first two issues out at this point, this may turn out to be a case like Edgar Wright and SCOTT PILGRIM, where Vaughn is working directly with Millar, already privy to where the series is headed.
KICK-ASS, you’ll recall, is an Icon title, meaning Millar and JR JR should get a nice piece of any ensuing film. Good one.
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§ First off, Bryan Lee O’Malley will be appearing this Saturday at Meltdown in LA. Hope Larson will also be lurking.
§ NEXT, Alex Zalben has a review of the SCOTT PILGRIM movie script!
There’s spoilers here, not just for the movie version, but for the books as well. Because, at least in the draft I read, the movie covers every single book. That’s right. This isn’t the first book in the series, adapted into one movie Chronicles of Narnia style. You’re not going to get six (or seven) Scott Pilgrim movies, at least none that are based on the series of books O’Malley is in the process of writing. This is all of the books, packed into one two hour film.
§ FInally, Matthew Pack writes to tell us that O’Malley will be appearing on the Public Radio International show FAIR GAME tonight. The show will be available at the link.
Technorati Tags: Bryan Lee O’Malley
Michael Cera is taking a break from the world of Judd Apatow to star in the SCOTT PILGRIM’S LITTLE LIFE movie, The Hollywood Reporter reports. Edgar Wright is set to direct the Michael Bacall screenplay.
Cera and Wright had mutual admiration for each other’s work, which manifested itself when Wright stepped in to act alongside Cera and Jonah Hill in a viral promo for “Superbad.” Wright acted as a snarky interviewer of an exasperated Cera and Hill.
ITEM! In case you haven’t heard, Kazu Kibuishi’s kids GN AMULET came out a few months ago, but it is already optioned and on the fast track, with Will Smith’s kids Willow and Jaden set to star as siblings who must traverse a strange world in search aided by a sinister amulet after their mother is kidnapped. Kibuishi comments on his blog:
I never imagined we would be moving so quickly on the film side of things. I better get the next few books done a little faster! Anyway, I’m really looking forward to meeting the Smiths. I’ve been a huge fan ever since the early Fresh Prince days, and seeing the kind of work they’ve been doing lately, I can see that we’ll be on the same wavelength on this project. This is going to be cool.
A total of five AMULET volumes are planned.
ITEM! According to a terse trade report, that Virgin Comics/Sci Fi Channel deal is paying off. The Sci Fi Channel is developing a TV series project around The Stranded, (left) one of Virgin’s Sci Fi branded comics. It’s written by Mike Carey and involves regular folks who discover they are really aliens,
ITEM! Speaking of the Sci Fi Channel, they are also developing a pilot for TRUE BELIEVER, a series created by Rosario Dawson and David Atchinson (OCCULT CRIMES TASK FORCE) about a comic book enthusiast who hires a former superhero to teach him about crime-fighting.
ITEM! Director James Mangold ( 3:10 to Yuma, Girl Interrupted, Walk the Line) has signed on the graphic novel express with French gn CYCLOPES by Alexis Nolent :
Variety reports that Warner Bros. has secured the rights to Alexis Nolent’s French graphic novel Cyclopes, set in a dystopian future where soldiers wear cameras in their helmets and broadcast what they see in real time. One soldier realizes that what he’s fighting for isn’t justice, but commerce.
Nolent is now a two-fer, as another one of his books, KILLER is being developed for David Fincher.
ITEM! More obstacles for the JUSTICE LEAGUE movie. It appears that the Australian government is refusing the film a 40% tax rebate which is offered to Australian productions of Australian films. Despite Aussie helmer George Miller and a few native actresses in the cast, the movie is under great suspicion:
Since Warner Bros suspended filming plans in January, citing uncertainty over the new incentive, opponents have argued that the offset should not be available for big-budget movies not developed by Australian filmmakers from inception.
The director of the equity section of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, Simon Whipp, has lobbied against Justice League Mortal’s eligibility, describing it as an American story that will be performed in American accents.
Has this guy no desire to see Green Lantern up on the big screen? With a $200 million budget, the tax rebate was an important financial element of the film, which could be forced to shoot somewhere else. Miller was non-plussed with the decision : “A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the Australian film industry is being frittered away because of very lazy thinking,” Miller said.
Cinematical has more analysis.
The problem seems to be that it is an American film, with American accents, and it will not do the Australian film industry any favors. But native director George Miller points out that the country needs movie franchises, even if they aren’t “recognizably” Australian, to boost production and bring in jobs. I can’t really say which side is right — it seems Australia is a bit miffed Warner Bros shut down production in January over uncertainty about the incentive, and they punished them for their doubts. (I’m really curious if X-Men Origins: Wolverine is getting that tax break. Everyone knows Hugh Jackman is Australian, but come on, that’s not going to be seen as a Down Under movie either.)
The film is also apparently called JUSTICE LEAGUE MORTAL.
ITEM! Fox heard ka-ching when the animated HORTON HEARS A WHO slew at the box office this weekend. It’s $45.1 million opening weekend was the biggest this year thus far and restored studio faith in both G-rated CGI films and Dr. Suess. The movie was produced by Blue Sky.
ITEM! Will Jim Sturgess, an English actor who starred in Julie Taymor’s ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, reunite with the director to play Spider-Man in the upcoming stage show? That’s the rumor..
“I haven’t spoken to Julie about it but we did do a two-week workshop for it over in New York, and it was just a real chance to hang out with Julie again,” the British actor told us. “I love Julie, she’s like a mentor to me, and Evan’s just a great friend, and the three of us are just so bound by the experience we had doing ‘Across the Universe.’ It was a lot of fun. I was just playing music with Bono and Edge from U2, singing songs about Spider-Man. The project is definitely happening. Julie will definitely make this piece of theater. Whether I’ll be in it or not, I have no idea at this point.”
Sturgess seems like a sprightly lad. He gets the Beat seal of approval if its true.
ITEM! Frank Miller has been blogging about The Spirit movie but it’s in Flash so we can’t link to it or quote it. Luckily, Cinematical has more patience than we do, and quotes his comments on Ellen Dolan:
“I love writing tough, powerful women.” And he has set out to do just that with one chick specifically — Ellen Dolan, love interest of the title character. The character has proved to be a challenge, a weak stereotype of the age in which she was created. Miller calls her “a lousy character” and complains, “[The Spirit] even tossed her over his knee and spanked her. And she took it. Ellen Dolan made Donna Reed look like Angelina Jolie.”
More in both links.
§ ITEM! Andy Serkis VERY BRIEFLY comments on working on the TINTIN movies with Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg.
§ ITEM! A new Speed Racer trailer is up and it’s even more TRON-tastic than the last one. Prediction: This will be the love it or loathe it film of the summer.
ITEM! Long-banished director Alex Cox has been getting a lot of press lately for the comics-only sequel to REPO MAN. The AV Club has a much more extensive interview with him:
AVC: Several of your recent films haven’t had much theatrical distribution in the States. Does that bother you, or do you just consider it a byproduct of the kind of films you make? AC: What can you do, you know? Distribution is controlled by the studios, and I’ve been on the blacklist of the studios for the last 20 years. It’s not very likely that I’m going to get New Line to come along and distribute one of my films.
ITEM! Longtime Disney Watcher Jim Hill digs up some rumors and info about Pixar’s upcoming JOHN CARTER OF MARS movies. Among the speculations: the film will be live-action.
According to what Mouse House insiders recently told me, Mark Andrews (i.e. the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of “Ratatouille”) has allegedly already completed a first pass on a screenplay for the first film in the proposed “Mars” series. And given that both Pixar and Disney execs have reportedly responded very enthusiastically to Andrews’ script … Well, both companies are now anxious to put this project in the development pipeline ASAP. “So what sort of timetable are we talking about here?,” you ask. Well, really serious work on the first “Mars” movie can’t get underway ’til this Fall. Which is when Stanton will finally be through with all of his “WALL * E” -related promotional obligations
Hill also mentions that Disney might be cooling on the idea of making all seven Narnia movies, especially if PRINCE CASPIAN isn’t a monster hit. That bums us out because the next two movies DAWN TREADER and THE SILVER CHAIR are the best books, but apparently DAWN TREADER will get made regardless.
What was rumored is true. HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS will be split into TWO movies. There was just too much struggle and plot to fit into one.
After months of rumors, Warner Bros. and the producers of the massively successful movies will announce Thursday that they plan to split “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” J.K. Rowling’s seventh and final “Potter” novel, into two blockbuster films — one to be released in November 2010 and the second in May 2011.
The films will be titled, simply, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I” and “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II,” according to producer David Heyman. Director David Yates, who returned for his second tour of Potter duty with “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” and is quite popular with the cast, will direct both “Deathly Hallows” films, which will be filmed concurrently. Screenwriter Steve Kloves also returns and, by completion of the franchise, will have written seven of the eight films.
Of course this means twice the dough for WB, but it does make a lot of narrative sense. There is just too much dramatic and fantastic stuff to be compressed as so much was in the last movie. We’re not over-excited about Yates as director (Order of the Phoenix was just workmanlike, like all the rest of the movies except Azkaban) but he’ll know the terrain by then. The two films will be shot concurrently.
Technorati Tags: Harry bleedin’ Harry Potter
I thought the Hulk was supposed to be red! What the…?
First thought: CGI…not compelling.
Second thought: New York in the crosshairs AGAIN.
§ Yes there WILL be a Superman Returns sequel, director Bryan Singer tells Empire and he WILL be directing it:
“That movie made $400 million!” Singer says incredulously. “I don’t know what constitutes under-performing these days…Look, I can understand, I suppose, what some people mean. Perhaps some people went in with the expectation of it being like an X-Men film, and Superman is a tougher character than that. Especially bringing him back. It really goes back to the fact that you can only please some of the people some of the time. But, yes, I’m just getting back with writers after the strike. We’re just in the development phase. I’m starting to develop a sequel…with the intention of directing it.”
According to THR, the deal was for low-six against seven figures, which means TenNapel, once best known for creating the video game EARTHWORM JIM, must be pocketing a lot of simoleons, with that sweet Image deal. Although his previous graphic novels have not yet been brought to the screen, they all generated a lot of Hollywood interest:
TenNapel’s graphic novels have a strong track record of generating heat. In 2004, Universal shelled out $1 million for his “Tommysaurus Rex,” while his “Creature Tech” prompted a bidding war the same year before ending up at Regency. Dennis McNicholas (”Land of the Lost”) recently came on board to adapt “Creature Tech.”
While IRON MAN has been everywhere, this summer’s upcoming HULK movie has been a little publicity shy. A few stills have been released, a very brief teaser trailer is up on YouTube, with the full one debuting TONIGHT on MTV. However, Nikki Finke has a juicy rumor about star Edward Norton’s meddling delaying final cut of the picture. Norton (who has written two films and directed another) is known for wanting to get a lot of input into the movies he stars in, and, according to Finke, Marvel apparently had to promise him a lot of say in the final cut in order to get him to sign on board for the movie.
Says one insider, “There’s a lot of posturing going on between Edward’s camp and Marvel over how you edit the final version.” Sources also tell me that, starting last night and continuing at least throughout today, the actor will be holed up with Marvel Studios chairman David Maisel, Marvel Studios president of production Kevin Feige, and director Louis Leterrier to try to “reach an amicable resolution” to this $150+ million film feud.
Some insiders blame Marvel for not accepting Norton’s POV about the movie. “There’s a problem. Marvel won’t listen to Norton about the cut,” one source claims. Some blame Norton, known to be prickly. (Remember his problems with Paramount over The Italian Job and with director Tony Kaye over American History X?) “Never let an actor write a script,” one insider commented. “Marvel made a mistake letting the wolf into the hen house.”
§ Chris Butcher is on a tear this week, first with a calling-a-spade-a-spade . post
So yeah, most of the 3300 graphic novels released in 2007 sucked. Godwin’s Law Sturgeon’s Law is that 95% of everything is crap, and that’s about right in this case. Of course, the fact that there’s a “Godwin’s Law” “Sturgeon’s Law” at all should tell me that this is no surprise to any of you, but I just feel like someone had to come out and say it: There are a lot of awful, awful graphic novels coming out these days. Whoever’s guarding the gate, be it retailers, journalists, “journalists”, whatever, I beg you; be discerning in your praise, don’t pass along PR without having vetted the project yourself, stand behind your recommendations and, if you can’t, own up to your mistakes.
He followed it up with a post where is picked up the spade and did some digging to put his money where his mouth is:
That said, I just read the new Amazing Spider-Man, #552, and it’s awful. That’s no surprise, I read about 20 comics this week and half of them were pretty bad, but this one is written by Bob Gale, who wrote Back to the Future. Why is that important? Other than the failure of the writer on this one, there’s the failure of the editor as well for hiring him… This is the same Bob Gale who wrote Daredevil #19-25 (current series). A story-arc so mediocre that they didn’t even bother to collect it in trade paperback, and considering Marvel was collecting nearly everything at that point, including every Daredevil story, that’s saying a lot.
§ HARBINGER, a long ago title from the great Valiant Age of comics may get the movie treatment courtesy of director Brett Ratner. Ratner had fun with X-MEN 3, but now he wants his OWN comics movie franchise to get rolling. The deal was negotiated via the Valiant Entertainment Group, a privately financed company headed by CEO Jason Kothari and chief creative officer Dinesh Shamdasani, both of whom will be co-producers on the film. Apparently more Valiant comics and movie deals are on the way.
§ SLG head Dan Vado presents his March line-up in this slide-show webcast. The internet makes all things possible.
§ Marvel EIC Joe Quesada’s popular feature Cup O’ Joe in which he takes on fan questions will be returning as a regular feature at MySpace:
Every week, Quesada will tackle questions posed directly by True Believers on the world’s most popular social network in this brand new weekly feature on MySpace Comic Books. Like a might Marvel team-up, the online community known for connecting legions of fans with the most exciting creators, projects, and events in the industry comes together with the leading comics publisher to present your chance to get inside the mind of one of comics’ most popular personalities.
Cup o’ Joe was long a regular feature at Newsarama, but word on the street has it that Marvel and the comics news giant had a falling out over a broken embargo.
§ Via the Vanity Fair blog (!) comes a little piece of comics history we had just forgotten about. Radio host Joe Franklin’s appearance at last week’s MOREOLD JEWISH COMEDIANS event was a burying of the hatchet — and not in someone’s back:
That Franklin was in attendance at all, let alone getting laughs, was a big surprise to a number of people at the party, given that, in 1984, he sued Friedman for $40 million after the cartoonist published a hilarious comic strip called “The Incredible Shrinking Joe Franklin” in Heavy Metal magazine. The case was dismissed because the comic strip was an obvious parody, and almost 25 years later Franklin has apparently gotten over his anger. Friedman emailed me this morning to let me know that one of the highlights of his party was when Franklin walked up and embraced him.
Franklin was clearly an early adapter in the cartoon legal battle derby but it’s great to see old feuds left behind in the dustbin where they belong.
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