Archive for November, 2006
98 items.
Producer Jordan Kerner told the Moviehole.net Web site that his upcoming feature-film version of The Smurfs would be computer-animated. “It’s a 3-D/CG Smurfs,” Kerner told the site. “You just can’t make those guys live. It’d be a little weird. But a 3-D Shrek world of them?that’s fantastic.”Kerner says he has been researching the popular ’80s cartoon extensively. “Having seen all 234 episodes of the show numerous times, Herb Ratner and I have been working really hard at looking where all the holes were in the episodes. You know, like all of a sudden another woman appears?it’s not just Smurfette?and what we’ve done is we’ve plugged all those holes in a trilogy of three movies, and we reveal things as we go along.”
Kerner said it took five years to win the rights to the cult franchise. “They were very uncertain about what story we wanted to tell?we weren’t going to tell them until we had the rights, either. Then we got the rights on everyone’s faith that they also had an ability to veto and presented them with the treatment. They just loved it. To be told that they loved it?not just liked it?and to be told that [creator] Peyo would’ve loved it, is a huge blessing and a great thing to have happen.”
Among other things, the trilogy will examine Gargamel’s backstory. Audiences will learn more “about Gargamel and Smurf Soup and how all that began and what really goes on in that castle,” Kerner said. “What his backstory really was. There?s an all-powerful wizard. … There’s all sorts of things that get revealed as we go along.”
Comment
HBO is developing a new series called “Preacher”, a one hour drama based on the comics series from Vertigo. Per Hollywood Reporter, Preacher has been possessed by a combination of angel/demon, and as such has enormous powers, and with two companions is traveling the States in search of God, who the Preacher believes has neglected his heavenly duties.
The series was created by Irish-born writer Garth Ennis and British artist Steve Dillon, who will serve as co-executive producers. Ken F. Levin, who reps the duo, also will serve as co-exec producer.
The series — which developed a rabid fan base — was known for tackling religious and political issues, its dark and violent sense of humor and its observations of American culture. It also was one of the series that helped define Vertigo, the adult-oriented line of comics from DC Comics.
There have been several attempts to bring the comic to the screen, whether big or small, but nothing stuck. A movie version, to have been produced by Kevin Smith’s View Askew, among others, got to the casting stage, with James Marsden attached for the title role and a reported budget of $25 million.
Sean McKeever confirmed on his website that the new artist on ?Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane? will be David Hahn. Hahn has done ?Bite Club? and a few other small press books. I?m not sure if he will be a replacement for Tak, but I?m willing to give him a chance. (Update: McKeever has an interview now posted at CBR)
In other McKeever news, rumor has it that he?ll be writing ?New Warriors? after this whole Civil War mess settles down. When I asked him about it he had this to say:
I generally try not to respond to rumor items; that way, “no comment” doesn’t become a defacto “yes.”
However, McKeever?s often partner and crime/comic book artist Mike Norton later comments in the same thread:
Can I say “no comment”?
So does this mean that McKeever and Norton are preparing another team-up? Fans and critiques alike have been loving Norton?s fill-in work on Runaways so it wouldn?t surprise me if the two were doing ?New Warriors? together.
Forget the Brittney/Paris anti-christ joke I made yesterday. The TRUE anti-christ has shown its face: Verizon & Google! Google has made a deal with Verizon to allow YouTube videos to appear on cell phones. Soon we will be able to access stupid videos via Verizon?s V-cast service.
The concept sounds like a good one, except Verizon will be heavily filtering which videos are available and which aren?t. So don?t expect to watch episodes of ?How I Met Your Mother? (Just watched the whole second season last week) or any other show on your phone through You Tube.
Even worse than just filtering videos, Verizon will be picking one by one, which videos they deem worthy for their V-Casts. That’s sad because most of us know that Verizon has no taste and would never understand the humor behind watching such clips as Darth Vader being a jerk (of course the filters would probably never allow it anyway).
Last night Masi Oka (Hiro) was on Conan Obrien and he let it slip that the first time he appeared on a magazine cover was in 1987! In the photo to the right he?s on the left.
He told O?Brien that a friend of the families was a photographer and was looking for Asian kids for the photo. Oka wasn?t in the article, but still got featured in the cover photo.
It seems Oka isn’t too far removed from his geeky Hiro-character. Once he finished school he went to work for George Luca’s Industrial Light & Magic, doing special effects for films like “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” “War of the Worlds” and the Star Wars prequels. Then, even though he is in a hit show, he’s still working part time for ILM.
This time it’s the New York Post that is talking to comic book artist Tim Sales about his roll on “Heroes”
“Heroes” has introduced characters with extraordinary abilities that have made the show the most popular new series of the season. But the real hero behind this incredibly creative and fresh drama is the show?s artist, Tim Sale.
Sale, 50, not only produces the giant paintings done by artist and ?precog? Isaac Mendez (played by Santiago Cabrera), he also creates the all-important ?9th Wonders!? comic book, also drawn by Mendez, that?s followed religiously by Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka).
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If you haven’t been checking out the “Heroes” comics you really should. They offer interesting side stories or background info. Also, the NBC site says there are secrets hidden in them and I finally found them! Ever comic has a hidden link which I?ve compiled in the list below.
To find the links yourself, use “Interactive Mode” then switch to “Read Mode” and normally the link is on the second page of the comic.
1. The Hiro comic preview
2. The Nathan comic preview
3. The Nathan campaign commercial
4. Claire Bennet’s MySpace page
5. No secret hidden link in 5th comic (besides the regular Nissan Versa ad on the first page)
6. The painting of Peter with locker doors in the air? (A clear view of the picture in the upper right of the set Peter arranged) Note: This link was on the third page of the comic in “Read Mode”
7. A colorized version of the unfinished painting that Peter completed that Jesse Alexander shared here. Click for original image. Found on the last page of the comic.
8. Painting of Hiro and Ando under the Homecoming Banner. If that link doesn’t work, try here.
9. Behind The Scenes Pic from “Homecoming”.
10. A Pic of Audry and Matt with guns drawn found on first page of the comic.
Also, as a quick way to get to the graphic novels, change the number 001 in the full URLs to get to another one, if it is available. For the interactive novels, novel_001.shtml can be changed to novel_002.shtml, etc., and likewise the pdf version of the novel, Heroes_novel_001.pdf, can be changed to Heroes_novel_002.pdf.
Last night was the first episode of ?Heroes? that I was disappointed with.
Spoilers beware?
Scott McCloud finally posted chapter 5 ? on his website. The mini-chapter is a supplement to his latest book ?Making Comics? and covers things like creating color art, and panel layouts for web comics.
I?m a tad disappointed he didn?t go into the details of HOW to do coloring because in the book he implies that was what he was going to do. But even so, its an interesting read and if you were unsure about buying ?Making Comics? this should give you a good idea of what the book was like.
Major leaders in the African-American community asked the entertainment industry to stop using the ?n? word. Reverend Jesse Jackson (and others) met with film studios, record labels, tv networks, and the media asking everyone to ban the ?n? word.
“We want to give our ancestors a present,” Jackson said at the press conference. “Dignity over degradation.”
?now I?m sorry, but I wonder if Jackson is aware that the ?n? word is most commonly used by BET, rappers, and black comedians. The major networks don?t use the word on their TV shows nor do you find it in country music. I mean come on! He’s preaching to the wrong audience.
Of course all of this is steaming from Michael Richards (Kramer) using the word last week. Richards hired a publicist and has been doing the media circuit making apologies. He even appeared on Jackson?s radio show, though this didn?t stop Jackson from telling everyone to not buy the ?Seinfeld? season 7 which goes on sale tomorrow. However, I think someone forgot to tell him that only white nerdy guys buy the ?Seinfeld? DVDs and most don?t even know who Jackson is.
I dunno the whole thing seems silly. You can?t ban the ?n? word from rap songs because of free speech. You also can?t get rid of it because? DUH ? it?s rap. It?s sad but I almost feel Jackson and the rest are just using the media coverage of the Richard?s incident for their own self serving purpose.
Don?t get me wrong. It would be nice if no racial slurs were ever used, but its unrealistic to think you can just get rid of one of them because you told the media not to use it. If they really want to make a difference they should target the rappers, actors, and educate children.
The trailer for “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” has hit the internet.
Robin Sparkles, Canadian pop-star, has a myspace account and if you are a fan of ?How I Met Your Mother? you gotta go check it out, at least once to watch her video in full.
For those of you who don’t know, in the most recent episode of “How I Met Your Mother,” we learned that the very hot Robin (Cobie Smulders) had a secret past. Everyone thought she had done porn, but by the end of the episode we learn that she was a Canadian teen idol.
Her hit song was called “The Mall” and she spent the better part of her teen years, traveling in malls all along Canada performing, which is why in present day she hates malls and refuses to go to them.
Proof that the anti-christ isn?t a single being, but two separate people that when in union form the anti-christ.
Panda Porn is real(don’t worry the link goes to CNN not actual Panda Porn). I’m not joking.
What really gets me is, who are the people filming and editing the Panda Porn? Like working in the porn industry would be embarrassing enough, but Panda Porn has to be 100 times worse.
Can you image going home with a hot girl for thanksgiving? You meet her family for the first time and then when they ask you what you do you say, ?Panda Porn.? Like that must be a crazy reaction. Actually, now that I think about it, I totally need to put this in a screenplay.
Sci-Fi Channel is doing a re-make of ?The Wizard of Oz? which will run as a six-hour miniseries called ?Tin Man.? The series will be based off L. Frank Baum?s novel as opposed to the classic 1939 movie. Production will begin in January and ?Tin Man? will premier in December 2007.
The premise is a little odd because the film stars a young woman named DG (Dorothy Gale) who gets snatched and thrown into a magic realm called The Outer Zone (oz) that is oppressed by dark magic.
Along the way, DG befriends the half-brained man Glitch, the wolverine-like Raw who seeks courage and the emotionally scarred, heroic Cain, who was once part of the police force known as Tin Men in the O.Z. DG is journeying along the Old Road to seek the Mystic Man, but in the end, has a showdown with the wicked Azkeadellia, who has curiously close ties to DG herself.
Yeah its like ?The Wizard of Oz? meets Neil Gaimen on crack and written by moronic TV execs who have no idea what they are doing.
