Now that we’re saturated in all things Brave, Disney has ratcheted up the marketing for its November 2 release of Wreck-It Ralph. Featuring the vocal talent of John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, and Jane Lynch the film was directed by Rich Moore (The Simpsons).
Ralph (John C. Reilly) is tired of being overshadowed by Fix-It Felix (Jack McBrayer), the “good guy” star of their game who always gets to save the day. But after decades doing the same thing andseeing all the glory go to Felix, Ralph decides he’s tired of playing the role of a bad guy. He takes matters into his own massive hands and sets off on a game-hopping journey across the arcade through every generation of video games to prove he’s got what it takes to be a hero.
On his quest, he meets the tough-as-nails Sergeant Calhoun (Jane Lynch) from the first-person action game Hero’s Duty. But it’s the feisty misfit Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman) from the candy-coated cart racing game, Sugar Rush, whose world is threatened when Ralph accidentally unleashes a deadly enemy that threatens the entire arcade. Will Ralph realize his dream and save the day before it’s too late?
In time for Father’s Day, Warner Home Video is releasing Blu-ray editions of three overlooked films by some of our favorite performers – Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee, Jones, and Robert Downey, Jr. To celebrate these films, being released on Tuesday, we have one (1) Blu-ray copy of each of the following movies: Blood Work, U.S Marshals, and A Perfect World to give away.
Here’s how you can enter the contest: tell us what, in 300 words or less, Father’s Day means to you. You can write from any perspective you wish, without profanity please, and post your entry no later than 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, June 13, 2012.
Three winners will be selected but you must live in the United States and P.O. Box addresses will not be accepted. The judgment of ComicMix‘s panel of experts will be final.
Marvel Studios sent out a formal press release today announcing the commencement of production on Iron Man 3, despite filming actually beginning May 23, 2012 at EUE/Screen Gems Studios in North Carolina. The film, written by Shane Black and Drew Pearce appears to have been heavily influenced by Warren Ellis Extremis storyline which ran in the Iron Man comic beginning in 2005. Elements of the story were also used in the Iron Man: Armored Adventures episode “Extremis”.
The release did say, “The production schedule will also include locations in Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina, Miami, Florida and China.
“Based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series, first published in 1963, Iron Man 3 returns Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man, Marvel’s The Avengers) as the iconic Super Hero character Tony Stark/Iron Man along with Gwyneth Paltrow (Iron Man, Iron Man 2) as Pepper Potts, Don Cheadle (Iron Man 2) as James “Rhodey” Rhodes and Jon Favreau (Iron Man, Iron Man 2) as Happy Hogan. Set for release in the U.S. on May 3, 2013, Marvel’s Iron Man 3 marks the second feature to be fully owned, marketed and distributed by Disney, which acquired Marvel in 2009.”
The press release did not mention the following cast members although they had been previously confirmed in other reports: Ben Kingsley as The Mandarin, Guy Pearce as Aldrich Killian, creator of The Extremis Virus, Andy Lau as “an old friend of Tony’s from China, Rebecca Hall as Dr. Maya Hansen, Ashley Hamilton as Jack Taggert, and James Badge Dale as Eric Savin /Iron Patriot. The latter, an armored figure worn by Norman Osborn in the Civil War comics saga, was a surprise addition.
At present neither Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) or Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) have been confirmed for the film, although one or both are expected considering SHIELD has been the glue to hold the Marvel Movie Universe together.
“Iron Man 3 continues the epic, big-screen adventures of the world’s favorite billionaire inventor/Super Hero, Tony Stark aka Iron Man. Marvel Studios’ President Kevin Feige is producing the film. Executive producers on the project include Jon Favreau, Louis D’Esposito, Alan Fine, Stan Lee, Charles Newirth, Victoria Alonso, Stephen Broussard and Dan Mintz.
“The creative production team on the film includes two-time Oscar®-winning director of photography John Toll, ASC (Braveheart, Legends of the Fall), production designer Bill Brzeski (The Hangover, DueDate), editors Jeffrey Ford, A.C.E. (Marvel’s The Avengers, Captain America: The First Avenger) and Peter S. Elliot (Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer), and costume designer Louise Frogley (Quantum of Solace, Contagion).
“Marvel Studios most recently produced the critically acclaimed Marvel’s The Avengers, which set the all-time, domestic 3-day weekend box office record at $207.4 million. The film, which is currently in release, continues to shatter box office records and is The Walt Disney Studios’ highest-grossing global and domestic release of all time and marks the studios’ fifth film to gross more than $1 billion worldwide.
“In the summer of 2011, Marvel successfully launched two new franchises with Thor, starring Chris Hemsworth, and Captain America: The First Avenger, starring Chris Evans. Both films opened #1 at the box office and have grossed over $800 million worldwide combined. In 2010 Iron Man 2, starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson and Mickey Rourke, took the #1 spot in its first weekend with a domestic box office gross of $128.1 million.
“In the summer of 2008, Marvel produced the summer blockbuster movies Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. Iron Man, in which Robert Downey Jr. originally dons the Super Hero’s powerful armor and stars alongside co-stars Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges and Gwyneth Paltrow, was released May 2, 2008, and was an immediate box office success. Garnering the number one position for two weeks in a row, the film brought in over $100 million in its opening weekend. On June 13, 2008, Marvel released The Incredible Hulk, marking its second number one opener of that summer.”
The problem with being a trendsetter is that if you’re successful, you get imitated time and time again. Such was the fate that befell Edgar Rice Burroughs’ pulp heroes Tarzan and John Carter. The thriller-seeking readers of pulp magazines were enthralled by ERB’s pulse-pounding, straight-forward prose, which was strong in ideas and weak in word craft. A century ago, Burroughs, writing as Norman Bean, serialized his first Martian saga in All-Story between February and July 1912. It found an eager audience and was later collected in book form as A Princess of Mars. Through the years, there came more adventures with and without Carter set on the red planet natives named Barsoom.
I discovered the stories through the compelling Frank Frazetta covers on the Science Fiction Book Club editions and thought the stories were interesting. Clearly I was not alone because time and again, people in comics tried to adapt the stories with varying degrees of success. Similarly, Bob Clampett in the 1930s and then others tried to mount a screen adaptation. While Barsoom proved inspirational to countless writers, artists, and filmmakers, the planet remained elusive. Over the last century, many a story has been set on Mars — from swashbuckler pastiche Gulliver of Mars to Philip K. Dick’s “I Can Remember it for you Wholesale” (a.k.a Total Recall) – meaning our celestial neighbor has been well-mined. (more…)
Somewhere between the proofreading stage and the going to press stage, the folks over at Dynamite Entertainment changed the cover to my The Art of Howard Chaykin book.
While browsing at Amazon the other day, I was surprised to see this new image, but think it looks pretty cool. The book itself remains on track for being in stores in mid-July. While the checklist will be nearly a year out of date, the rest of the book remains a contemporary look at a pioneering creator.
According to Amazon, the on sale date for that and Art of Ramona Fradon, featuring an extensive interview between Howard and the wonderful artist, which I edited, is July 10. Both are projects I’m proud of and hope you find a place for them on your shelves.
Everywhere you look, dystopia stories abound. Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games became the movie event of the spring while the most talking about new NBC series is J.J. Abrams’ Revolution. Little surprise then that basic cable’s ratings darling in 2011 was TNT’s Falling Skies. With the show’s second season debuting June 17, the first season has been released on DVD from Warner Home Entertainment. The premise is not necessarily an original one: aliens have arrived and have largely conquered Earth while small bands of resistance fighters struggle to free humanity. What the aliens want remains a mystery.
The series, which has been in development since 2009, was conceived by Bob Rodat, writer of Saving Private Ryan, and has been produced by Steven Spielberg, who enhanced many of Rodat’s notions. The showrunner for season one is my old pal Mark Verheiden (who handled a different dystopia on Battlestar Galactica), who brought his own point of view to the project. Verheiden’s sure hand made the ten episode first season quite entertaining and he’ll be missed when he moves to consulting producer (at least he wrote the two hour season opener for a smooth transition).
A history professor turned soldier, Tom Mason, is the series’ protagonist and is well played by Noah Wylie, mixing his knowledge with some grit while putting his two sons ahead of all else. He is part of a regiment, the Second Massachusetts (near Concord, get it?), periodically receiving intelligence from nearby groups and sporadically getting news from armed forces elsewhere in America. The enemy, known as “Skitters”, are insectoid and reside in mammoth craft looming over key cities around the world. Using mechanical soldiers dubbed “mechs”, they maintain martial law and kill adults who oppose them, taking the children. (more…)
“This is the year two thousand and twenty. The place is the Challenger Sea Mount, the top of an underwater mountain, a complex beneath the sea. Two hundred and fifty men, women and children live here. Each of them, a scientist pioneer. For this is our last frontier, a hostile environment which may hold the key to tomorrow. Each day, these oceanauts meet new challenges as they build their city beneath the sea. This is Sealab 2020.”
Hanna-Barbera had to change with the times and as the 1970s dawned, kids and adults alike were tuning into the difficulties planet Earth was facing. Ecology and Earth Day were on everyone’s lips. At the same time, parents’ groups were insisting Saturday morning cartoon shows do more than shill cereal and have characters hit one another.
The dust has barely settled on the 2011-2012 television season, but the studios are already gearing up the season box sets in anticipation of the fall premieres. Among them is Grimm, which was a major ratings surprise for NBC when the mid-season series debuted. It takes an entirely different look at fairy tales, compared with ABC’s ratings success with Once Upon a Time proving once more that it all comes down to execution.
Universal Home Entertainment will be releasing the first season of Grimm on August 7 and if you haven’t sampled the series yet, it’s worth a look. Here are the details:
OVERVIEW: Classic Grimm’s fairy tales come to life like never before in the “dark and imaginative” (Mike Ayers, CNN.com) supernatural series Grimm, from the producers of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Homicide detective Nick Burkhardt (David Giuntoli, Privileged, Grey’s Anatomy) discovers he is descended from a long line of criminal profilers known as “Grimms,” protectors who are charged with keeping the balance between humanity and the creatures of myth. With newly awoken abilities to detect the evil lurking among us, Nick struggles to keep his old life separate and safe as he becomes ever more entrenched in the ancient rivalries of the Grimm world. Available on Blu-ray™ and DVD on August 7, 2012, Grimm Season One allows fans to experience all 22 chilling episodes back-to-back and uninterrupted. (more…)
Hard to believe it’s been thirty years since that magical summer when tons of great films were released including Steven Spielberg’s E.T.: The Extraterrestrial. The film will celebrate the occasion with several events beginning with an exclusive airing Friday on The Hub on at 9 p.m.
It’s the season of Spielberg, it seems, as first Jaws, then E.T. and the Indiana Jones films finally make their Blu-ray debuts. The sea thriller will be out in August while the other two are scheduled for October releases.
Here are the E.T. release details from Universal Home Entertainment:
Universal City, California, May 30, 2012 – E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Academy Award®-winning director Steven Spielberg’s magical adventure, celebrates its 30th Anniversary with its first-ever release on Blu-ray™ this October. Featuring an all-new, digitally remastered picture that delivers six times the resolution of DVD, as well as all-new 7.1 surroundsound, the E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial Anniversary Edition Blu-ray™ Combo Pack includes the 1982 theatrical movie, an all-new interview with director Steven Spielberg, and “The E.T. Journals” featuring never-before-seen footage from the set of the film. The Blu-ray™ Combo Pack also includes UltraViolet™, a DVD and a Digital Copy of the film, offering fans a chance to relive the mystery, laughter and wonder of the iconic movie anytime, anywhere on the platform of their choice.
George Newbern makes his triumphant return as the voice of the Man of Steel in SUPERMAN VS. THE ELITE, the latest DC Comics Premiere Movie coming June 12 from Warner Home Video.
Newbern put all the resounding tones of truth, justice and the American way into the commanding vocals behind the animation of Superman in both the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited television series. He last reprised the character’s voice for the DC Showcase original animated short, Superman/Shazam! The Return of Black Adam.
Newbern is a constant on primetime television, appearing on current hit series like NCIS, The Mentalist, Castle and Grey’s Anatomy, to name a but a few. He’s widely recognized for his starring turn opposite Steve Martin in Father of the Bride, and for the NBC series Providence. His latest projects include a recurring role on the new ABC hit series Scandal.
In SUPERMAN VS. THE ELITE, Superman’s effectiveness as a super hero comes into question when a new group of super powerful crusaders, known as “The Elite,” appear on the scene. As super heroes, the Elite know no bounds, and are more than willing to kill, even on a massive scale, to stop villainy — putting them on a collision course with the ever-ethical and decidedly non-lethal Man of Steel.
Newbern is joined in the core cast by NCIS star Pauley Perrette as Lois Lane and versatile voice actor Robin Atkin Downes (Babylon 5) as Manchester Black, leader of The Elite. David Kaufman (Justice League: Doom) also reprises his Justice League TV series role as Jimmy Olsen.
Produced by Warner Premiere, DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation, the all-new, PG-13 rated film arrives June 12, 2012 from Warner Home Video as a Blu-ray™ Combo Pack and DVD, On Demand and for Download. Both the Blu-ray™ Combo Pack and DVD will include an UltraViolet™ Digital Copy.
Newbern offered a few thoughts about playing Superman in a short chat following his final recording session for the film. (more…)
Now that we’re saturated in all things Brave, Disney has ratcheted up the marketing for its November 2 release of Wreck-It Ralph. Featuring the vocal talent of John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, and Jane Lynch the film was directed by Rich Moore (The Simpsons).
On his quest, he meets the tough-as-nails Sergeant Calhoun (Jane Lynch) from the first-person action game Hero’s Duty. But it’s the feisty misfit Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman) from the candy-coated cart racing game, Sugar Rush, whose world is threatened when Ralph accidentally unleashes a deadly enemy that threatens the entire arcade. Will Ralph realize his dream and save the day before it’s too late?
Somewhere between the proofreading stage and the going to press stage, the folks over at Dynamite Entertainment changed the cover to my The Art of Howard Chaykin book.![[Bloglines]](http://www.comicmix.com//wp-content/uploads/2012/06/bloglines.png)
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