DC fans are still grieving over the way brutal Australian tax laws put the kibosh on George Miller’s JLA movie, claiming the film did not have enough Australian content to justify the tax breaks needed to make such a costly film.

Now it seems these Aussie scumbags are endangering the Ryan Reynolds starring GREEN LANTERN film, according to Inside Film. This time, the culprit is the rising Australian dollar, which is up 16 percent since the movie plan was announced in April.

Warner Bros is understood to be negotiating with the NSW State Government to receive a higher level of concessions in an effort to claw back between $US15 and $US25 million in value eroded by the currency gains.

[snip] While most offshore productions lock in finance when a project is green-lit, it is understood that ongoing work on the Green Lantern script delayed that move. Pre-production on the film was originally scheduled for July and filming for November.

Something’s got to be done to prevent these down under spoilsports from blocking our God given right to get more DC movies made so we can complain about them on the internet! Have they no decency?

In preparation for its long-awaited debut on September 11, WB has released a bunch of new WHITEOUT pics. CBR has the whole gallery. Starring Kate Beckinsale and Gabriel Macht, the film is based on the Greg Rucka/Steve Lieber graphic novel.

The trailers for WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE and THE FANTASTIC MR FOX.

Continuing coverage of all things Miyazaki at THE BEAT, let’s look at the opening weekend in the United States for PONYO.

The picture finished ninth this weekend at the box office, with $3.5 million weekend gross on 927 screens, for a per-screen average of $3,782. It was fourth among new films opening last weekend, finishing behind DISTRICT 9 ($37 m on 3049 screens), THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE ($19.2 m on 2988 screens) and THE GOODS ($6.9 m on 1838 screens).

This makes it already the third-highest grossing Miyazaki movie in the US. According to Box Office Mojo, it’s only $1.2 m behind HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE, with SPIRITED AWAY at #1 with $10 m.

It probably goes without saying this is the most screens ever for a Miyazaki movie. SPIRITED AWAY was on 714 screens, a far cry from the paltry 129 for PRINCESS MONONOKE. I remember having to drive over an hour up to Philadelphia to see MONONOKE and that was the closest it came and I think only lasted 2 weeks in the theater.

As for critical acclaim, it’s currently at 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, wth 79 positive reviews and 5 negative. (What’s wrong with those people?)

I saw it Friday afternoon and was thoroughly entertained, although perhaps not as much as some of the more “adult” previous works in the Miyazaki canon. Certainly a hearty review for anyone with kids the age of the characters in the movie.

Posted by mark coale

For those who just don’t have time to read Playboy for the articles, the famed pictorial magazine has been publishing some comics content, including, in the upcoming September issue, a graphic adaptation of a scene from INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, the new Quentin Tarantino movie. The adaptation, with art by R.M. Guera and colors by Giulia Brusco was overseen by Tarantino himself. You can “see” the whole thing here in some kind of flash gallery. Click on the above for a larger version of the first two pages.

Continuing the Playboy/comics crossover, the magazine also spotlights the new Vertigo crime line in this piece.

And if you look closely, you will find a link to photos of a young woman dressed as Catwoman…with parts of her costume missing, if you take our meaning. Everyone loves comics!

The phrase “Lego Spinal Tap” is perhaps the most promising uttered in the English language since “reclining chair,” right? Well, not if you are stinky LEGO.

Okay, let’s back up a bit. It seems that a few years ago a teenager named Coleman Hickey made a stop motion video of Tap’s “Tonight We’re Gonna Rock You Tonight” using Legos. Luckily, the surviving members of the band realized that this was all that was holy under the sun and wanted to include the video on a new concert DVD, the NY Times reports. But the LEGO Company would not allow this.

(more…)

The videos that were forbidden to be filmed are beginning to leak out, and here’s a few of them.

§ KICK-ASS, the indie superhero movie directed by Matthew Vaughn, has gotten an excellent reaction from footage shown thus far. Here’s some footage shown in Chicago, via Bleeding Cool:

The other Most Likely To Succeed video is IRON MAN 2; Ace Showbiz has that VIDEO DISABLED BECAUSE OF ANNOYING AUTOPLAY.

Sorry about that!

More as it emerges.

§ Remember that adaptation of PRIEST, the manga about a priest who fights vampires? A teaser image of star Paul Bettany has been released.

§ A Wimpy Kid movie? Wow, why didn’t I think of that! More casting news here. Steve Zahn is joining star Zachary Gordon (above) with Thor Freudenthal directing. Zahn and Rachael Harris portraying his parents. Robert Capron will portray his best friend, and Devon Bostick will play his brother.

§ Option of the day: Top Cow’s ALIBIi:

Comicbook, published last year, centers on a well-known socialite whose public presence establishes a perfect alibi for the covert activity of his secret twin brother, a government assassin. “Alibi” was created by Top Cow president Matt Hawkins and Michael Renegar, written by Joshua Hale Fialkov and illustrated by Jeremy Haun. Top Cow CEO and founder Marc Silvestri will exec produce the feature project along with Hawkins and Mandeville VP David Manpearl.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether an internet feud is just an excuse to type or lot or a manifestation of an actual conflict. We’d kind of decided that the Con-vs-Twlight feud was halfway a work, but on the floor we heard enough anecdotal evidence and passing references to decide that the Twilighters are, in fact, the most recent invaders to the con, and since they are from a different demo group, they are being greeted with a bit of xenophobic dread.

This seems to be from one of those websites that’s trying to be bold and tough in the way of a Bill Maher-wannabe, so it definitely be a “work”, but the very fact that it’s touching on these issues shows that they have some juice:

This could be a clear iteration of fear of “the other” and general anxiety over female expression of their own interests and activities (though male-focused)…or it could be someone trying to get hits on the Internet.

What say you?

A special report by Zena Metal

Lost, Lost, Lost, Lost, mother’effen Lost! Arguably one of the greatest—and most heavily expounded upon—TV shows of the last millennium held its annual panel at San Diego Comic-Con, and being that the forthcoming season will also be the series’ last, both stars and creators upped the ante with lots of free giveaways and a ton of surprises.

- Actors Josh Holloway, Jorge Garcia, Michael Emerson, Nestor Carbonell, Dominic Monaghan, plus creators Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse all graced the dais while ducking questions about Season 6.

- Comedian Paul Scheer presented the Lost creators with a painting of the pair with a polar bear. Wanna see? There’s a Web site, of course.

- You can also enroll at Lost University.

- Folks were also buzzing about the V remake, starring Lost’s Elizabeth Mitchell.

Non-Lost Highlights:

- Some fresh dirt from the True Blood panel.

- My Chemical Romance frontman and UMBRELLA ACADEMY creator, Gerard Way, was out and about. Here’s some news he announced at the Dark Horse panel.

- The IRON MAN 2 panel was a star-studded affair, featuring leads Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle, Sam Rockwell, and Scarlett Johansson. For more details on the film footage shown, check out this post.

- Proving that he truly is the nicest guy in comics, Jim Lee gave out cookies at the WildStorm panel.

4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 34

That is all for me, thank you and goodnight.

Photo courtesy of Jimmy Aquino

A special report by Zena Metal

Day Two of San Diego Comic-Con 2009 was a star-studded affair as dozens of Hollywood elites came down to pander their wares. A-list actors like Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Cameron Diaz, Megan Fox, Josh Brolin, and Robert Downey Jr. were among the bigger names making appearances whilst promoting a variety of films, including SHERLOCK HOLMES, DISTRICT 9, THE BOX, JONAH HEX and THE BOOK OF ELI.

- Folks seemed to have embraced the trailer for the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET reboot, which features WATCHMEN’s Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger.

- Other talent making the rounds on Twitpic include Felicia Day, Zoe Bell, Eliza Dushku, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Dominic Monaghan, Emily Deschanel, Kiefer Sutherland, and the ubiquitous Bruce Campbell. And sometimes, it just pays to be Eric Wareheim.

- The oddly titled HOT TUB TIME MACHINE, starring John Cusack, also debuted this red band trailer at SDCC.

- Daft Punk are scoring the forthcoming TRON movie and are considering touring to support the soundtrack.

- My girl crush on Diablo Cody continues. For video footage of her latest pixyish ‘do, check out this press clip for JENNIFER’S BODY.

- Peter Jackson got punked at the Entertainment Weekly panel. According to EW Pop Watch’s Marc Bernardin: “EW’s panel just got punked by a crazy thirsty guy who came on stage and drank Peter Jackson’s water. Security prevailed.” Anybody have video?

- Pop Culture Geeks have uploaded a great collection of photos from the Con, giving special attention to action figures. Meanwhile, Parka Blogs focuses in on cosplayers.

- The big talk of last night’s party scene was the free Gwar concert sponsored by Vice. According to Zuda Comics’ Andy Belanger, it was “arguably the greatest metal show of all time… Walked out covered head to toe in fake blood, gross!”

Wonder how it’ll compare to tomorrow night’s Robot Chicken Skate Party. Tonight’s entertainment: Daughtry. Really.

- One of the big revelations at today’s Dollhouse panel was that revered comic artist John Cassaday will be directing an episode of the show’s second season. For more Dollhouse dirt, check out this recap. Spoiler alerts abound for this one.

- Everyone was abuzz about The Mighty Boosh panel. Have you seen this exclusive T-shirt?

- On the media gearhead tip, I’m happy that the hashtag [#sdcc] has finally taken off… far more elegant than the “Comic-Con” that’s been trending.

OK, time to drown my sorrows in a tall boy of Sapporo.

*Photo courtesy of Jimmy Palmiotti (who else?)

Variety reports that a bunch of new comic book movie deals are on their way, and first out of the gate is Terry Moore’s SF tale ECHO, which has been acquired in a six figure deal by Lloyd Levin, who produced WATCHMEN.

According to the piece while comic book movies remain incredibly popular, studios are looking increasingly to non-superhero fare.

Via TheOneRing.net:

UPDATE: Via TheOneRing.net news of a San Diego scavenger hunt:

TheOneRing and Weta launch ‘Hunt for dragon’s treasure’ after panel Thursday at Comic-Con

http://tinyurl.com/nayl4u

Thursday at Comic-Con, immediately following its about an unofficial and speculative (but informed) look at the forthcoming pair of films based on “The Hobbit,” TheOneRing.net, with a big assist from Weta, will launch a physical scavenger hunt for dragon’s gold at the San Diego Comic-Con. Prizes will be provided by Weta and include the book “The Art of the Fellowship of the Ring,” signed by Richard Taylor, Alan Lee, John Howe, Gino Acevedo and Daniel Falconer and 50 Weta Dollars. Read on for all the details!

Weta chief Richard Taylor, TORn’s guest at the panel, will officially send
listeners and anybody else who wants to participate, scurrying for the loot with a clue regarding its location.

The item to find is a large “gold” coin, handmade by Weta Workshop and then hidden in the Convention Center. The winner will receive acclaim and glory at both Wetanz.com and TheOneRing.net where we will post the winners.

Those wishing to claim the prize will be required to be visibly wearing a temporary Weta tattoo (whilst stocks last), provided at the Weta booth and to those at the panel by TORn staffers.

http://tinyurl.com/nayl4u

Technorati Tags: Tolkien

From the lowbrow beginnings of Beavis and Butthead, Mike Judge has gone on to create quite a body of work — his new cartoon, The Goode Family, and the classics Office Space and King of the Hill. His last film, IDIOCRACY, was buried in its studio release but has gone on to become a cult favorite. His new film, EXTRACT, will be getting the San Diego treatment, and like everything else he’s done, it may be worthy of some attention.

Saturday, July 25, 2009
EXTRACT Panel
1:30-2:30pm, Hall H
 
Join writer/director Mike Judge and stars Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis and Kristen Wiig for a discussion and sneak peek at scenes from their new film.
 
Judge, Bateman, Kunis and Wiig will also participate in a press line and select 1:1 interviews beginning at 2:30pm in Press Room 28E.
 
Also…
 
We’d like to invite you to stop by the “Extract” booth (#3913) to check out our fun green screen setup where you can insert yourself into the “Extract” trailer. Videos will be edited and encoded for your video-sharing enjoyment on a collectable USB drive that will also contain exclusive “Extract” photos, posters and other Miramax goodies. 

“Extract,” is the latest comedy from writer/director Mike Judge (“Office Space,” “King of The Hill,” “Beavis and Butt-Head”).  Joel, played by Jason Bateman (”Juno,” “Arrested Development”), is one step away from selling his flavor extract factory and retiring to easy street when a freak workplace accident sets in motion a series of disasters that put his business and personal life in jeopardy.  

The film also stars Kristen Wiig (SNL, “Ghost Town”), Mila Kunis (”Forgetting Sarah Marshall”) and Ben Affleck (”He’s Just Not That Into You”).

§ Willem Dafoe has been cast as Tars Tarkas in the John Carter movie! BUt he only has TWO arms? What?

§ Heartbreaking news we’d long expected as Stephen Chow has dropped out of the Green Hornet movie. Guess he had bigger fish to fry.

§ Comics Alliance runs a mysterious photo of Gwyneth Paltrowin ‘Iron Man 2′ that doesn’t even look like Gwyneth Paltrow, along with possible interpretations.

§ The other day it was announced that Natalie Portman has been cast as Jane Foster in Kenneth Branagh’s THOR movie. Topless Robot had an irreverent observation:

Call me crazy, but I really didn’t need a token love interest in my Thor movie, especially Jane Foster. When you’re dealing with Norse mythology, you have access to Hela and Sif and the Valkyries. If you’re doing Marvel’s Thor, you also can use the Enchantress without shame. So why, when you have all these warriors and goddesses and sorceress would you decide to have some boring, plain-jane Earth nurse (no offense to nurses) who’s barely been in a handful of Thor comics, virtually none of them meaningful? Whatever.

We’re all for Hela and Sif, as long as they aren’t portrayed by Kim Kardashian and Aubrey O’Day.

§ Rick Remender’s FEAR AGENTmoves along the development path.

§ Commercial director Fredrik Bond has come aboard as director of the “Hack/Slash” adaptation.

Not too much movie/tv news coming out with all the big announcements being saved for next week, but here’s an odd one: a book that got optioned when the author posted on Eddie Campbell’s blog? It’s true, as Don Murphy picked up the rights to The Flock, a novel by James Robert Smith about giant birds that…fight crime or something. It’s also said to be a graphic novel, although we couldn’t readily find the info on that.

Murphy, a producer on “Transformers” with Tom DeSanto and Lorenzo DiBonaventura, discovered Smith and his book by chance. Murphy was on the blog of Eddie Campbell, the artist of “From Hell,” an Alan Moore graphic novel whose big-screen translation was produced by Murphy.

Smith was posting comments critical of the film, putting Murphy on the defensive. Eager to find out more about the poster, Murphy discovered Smith had written a book. He quickly ordered it, expecting to hate it and ready to trash it. To his surprise, he fell for it.

You heard it here folks — the internet works. Now, where is Eddie’s cut?

OHMIGOD! Years more image surfing. YESSSSSSSS. Reynolds is hot off the success of THE PROPOSAL, a romcom opposite Sandra Bullock, and his turn as Deadpool in WOLVERINE, proving both women AND men like him. Four quadrant appeal? Reynolds beat out Justin Timberlake, Bradley Cooper, and Jared Leto for the role, according to recent trade reports.

The Martin Campbell-helmed GREEN LANTERN film is due for release in 2010.

Superhero Hype! has a new poster for THE SURROGATES, starring Bruce Willis, based on the comic book of the same name by Robert Venditti and Brett Weidele.

The movie is out in September.

Collider reports that at a presser for the new WATCHMEN Director’s Cut Blu-Ray, director Zack Snyder said the Director’s Cut of WATCHMEN would be screened in four cities in one theater each, the weekend before Comic-Con. The cities are Los Angeles, Dallas, Minneapolis, and New York and you know what?

WE ARE GOING.

We said it.

WE LIKED WATCHMEN.

Megan Fox is thinking about dressing as Slave Girl Leia at Comic-Con.

San Diego might explode.

Re our discussion yesterday of GHOSTBUSTERS 2, which The Beat found disappointing, punk rock band Art Brut frontman and comics fan Eddie Argos is apparently among those who watched GHOSTBUSTERS on Sunday, and had this to Tweet:

If you don’t like Ghostbusters 2, I don’t like you.

Unless your my girlfriend. In which case I’ll forgive you for falling asleep, drink your wine and (when its finished) carry you to bed.

Reading or conducting an interview with Norwegian comics genius Jason can be kind of frustrating, because he’s just not a fountain of words. But Brian Heater gets him to yap about as much as possible:

That multimedia aspect doesn’t interest you? Doing slides and presenting the work?

No, I don’t really like to talk about my comics. They should speak for themselves.

Indeed. But in news we’re surprised that Splash Page hasn’t jumped on already, Jason lets slip the info that I KILLED ADOLF HITLER, his time travel masterpiece, has been optioned for a film.

Have you been approached by anyone about adapting one of your comics?

People have expressed interest in doing movies versions. One of the books, I Killed Adolf Hitler has been optioned. I’m not holding my breath though. If it happens, it happens. It just seems like a small miracle every time a good movie is made, especially in Hollywood.

We won’t hold our breath either — and it’s certainly not necessary–but it would be a great story for a movie. Is there anyone who would be up for the task of directing this tale? What do YOU think?

Charlie Jane Anders (again) rounds up the two most recent clueless dissings of female genre fans. In the first, as Johanna reported, the huge, Fox-owned gaming site IGN ran a contest for a trip to Comic-Con that was originally only open to

males who are both legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and Washington D.C. and who are at least between 18-24 years of age as of July 23, 2009

Well, this spawned a bit of hue and cry. As some pointed out, this was not just a “lucky winner gets a ticket” contest but “the lucky winner gets to be IGN’s lucky guest blogger/video talent/reporter.” And so, IGN explained the contest thusly:

The eligibility requirements for this contest were determined by Columbia TriStar Marketing, the marketing team behind the District 9 film, and were passed on as a directive to IGN as Sponsor of this particular Sweepstakes running on the IGN.com site. While IGN supports gamers of all ages, genders, shapes and sizes, these guidelines were created to foster a buzz for the film among a very narrow target group that the film’s promoters felt would be extremely passionate about the film’s subject matter. Thanks for listening, we hope this provides some clarification…

…which, amazingly, calmed things down entirely, if by “calmed down” you mean “threw a can of gasoline wrapped in excelsior into the fireplace.”

Torie Atkinson at Tor.com pointed out the irony in that the movie DISTRICT 9 is about societal tensions caused by the arrival on Earth of insectoid aliens.
(more…)

• Another one of those mysterious comics that hasn’t been published yet is optioned to the gills, this time by the shingle run by former New Line heads Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne:

Warner Bros. has committed to develop “7th Son,” a drama based on a trio of graphic novels by J.C. Hutchins. Seven strangers, assembled after the assassination of the U.S. president, each realize they are the same man, with the same memories. Originally published as a digital download, the first novel, “Descent,” is being released in the fall by St. Martin’s Press. Justin Britt-Gibson is writing the script.

Hutchins’s website includes the opening line of the story:

The President of the United States is dead. He was murdered in the morning sunlight by a four-year-old boy…

Yep, that’s how you get an option!

• Apparently, the trailer for WHITEOUT was up for a while yesterday, but Warner Bros. made everyone take it down because, gosh, you wouldn’t want to actually market the film, now would you?

UPDATE: Greg Rucka explains:

There’s a Whiteout trailer that’s apparently making the rounds at the moment. It is not the official movie trailer, but rather the teaser that WB put together for San Diego the year before last. It’s not bad, but it’s not the trailer.

• Splash Page chats with producer Don Murphy, who talks up the potential WE3 movie. No real developments on the adaptation of the Morrison/Quitely classic — a script and director are lined up but no studio — but it’s good to know the project isn’t dead.

• At io9, Charlie Jane Anders has a frustrating piece entitled 8 Superhero Movies That Broke The Mold (Please Copy Them!), to which we say PLEASE DON’T, because by Anders’ own admission more than half of them SUCKED. However, the sight of a still from WATCHMEN revealed to us that we liked that movie and would like to see it again, so some good was achieved.

THR is reporting that Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins, both recently seen in WOLVERINE, have been cast in Andrew Stanton’s upcoming JOHN CARTER OF MARS. The role of the Virginian gentleman was hotly contested, the trade reports:

The role of Carter was considered one of the “gets” for a young actor, and Disney has spent months meeting and testing a wide swath of names from Jon Hamm to Josh Duhamel during its search.

Jon Hamm…hm, that would be our pick but…we won’t complain too much. Kitsch didn’t suck in his brief role as Gambit, and he will certainly look fine in a Martian loincloth (it was hard finding a picture of him with his shirt on.) Collins is quite lovely, but is she “incomparable”? We’ll see — the Julliard-trained thesp did much better with a really dumbass character in WOLVERINE than you would expect.