I wrote a while back, lamenting over not writing much for or about Star Trek these days and it appeared that my involvement in the franchise was going to become a fading memory.
Perhaps I wrote too quickly.
Back in August, I was contacted by an editor at Voyageur Press on the recommendation of fellow Trek writer, and Voyageur employee, Scott Pearson. Grace LaBatt kindly asked if I was perhaps interested in tackling an Unauthorized History of Star Trek, tracing not only the TV series but the movies, the spinoffs, the merchandise and most importantly, the fan following that kept the dream alive.
My time at the New York Comic-Con has come and gone and a good time was had.
As expected, I had countless whirlwind 30-60 second conversations with people, shaking hands, hugging, kissing, and making rather merry. There were some extended conversations and a few business meetings which was nice.
I arrived early enough on Thursday that getting my badge was a breeze and wish more shows were so well staffed. I began running into people I knew the moment I entered the Jacob Javits Center and was delighted. My first appointment was with an editor about a project I can begin talking about next week. We got to know one another beyond the e-mails and phone calls and I think we got along just swell. She then snuck me onto the show floor two and a half hours early so I got a chance to wander and chat with some people who were going to be otherwise mobbed the remainder of the weekend.
Sure enough, once the doors opened to the four-day pass holders and professionals at 4, the aisles quickly filled and moving around was far less fluid. I did make a point of checking booths that had my stuff on display and was pleased to note DelRey had both The Essential Batman Encyclopedia and The Essential Superman Encyclopedia out for the fans. Across the way, Watson-Guptill had Stan Lee’s How to Write Comics out. And just arrived at the TwoMorrows booth were the first copies of Stan Lee’s Universe, where I acted as a consulting editor in the project’s final weeks (and a spiffy looking book it is, too).
TinTin doesn’t open here until December but it begins to play around the world within the next few weeks. The early reviews have gone live and the general opinion is that Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg have created an energetic film based on the graphic novels from Herge, Beligum’s premiere creator.
The movie blends live-action and CGI motion-capture work with kudos going once more to Andy Serkis, who this time portrays Captain Haddock. Of the actors working today, none have done more work with motion capture than Serkis, known best as Gollum and more recently as Ceasar in the latest Planet of the Apes movie.
Paramount has released a new trailer for American audiences.
Alex Rocco, best known for his role as gangster Moe Greene in The Godfather, returns to his mobster roots as Carmine Falcone in Batman: Year One, the next entry in the popular, ongoing series of DC Universe Animated Original Movies.
The appearance in a Dark Knight-related project brings Rocco’s 44-year career full circle. The Massachusetts-born actor, who was once an adjunct member of Boston’s Winter Hill Gang, got his first on-screen role in the 1960s Batman television series.
Rocco appeared as the thug Block in the back-to-back episodes “A Piece of the Action” and “Batman’s Satisfaction,” which premiered on March 1 and 2, 1967. The episodes also featured the first true crossover appearance of Green Hornet and Kato on the Batman series (aside from a cameo popping out a window in the first season).
Since then, Rocco has been seen on primetime in everything from Get Smart, The F.B.I. and Kojak to The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Rockford Files and Baretta. He has had recurring roles on The Facts of Life, The Famous Teddy Z, Sibs, The George Carlin Show and The Division. His voice is easily recognized as Roger Myers Jr., the head of Itchy & Scratchy Studios on The Simpsons.
In feature films, Rocco’s most notable roles include Moe Greene (and his gruesome demise) in The Godfather, the comically curious police chief in The Stunt Man, and as over-the-top Sol Siler, the head of Playtone Records in That Thing You Do!
Produced by Warner Premiere, DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation, the all-new, PG-13 rated Batman: Year One arrived this week from Warner Home Video as a Blu-ray™ Combo Pack and DVD, On Demand and for Download. Batman: Year One is also available in a special download-for-purchase early window (starting October 11) through iTunes, Xbox Live, Zune, VUDU HD Movies and Video Unlimited on the PlayStation Network & Sony Entertainment Network.
Rocco, an agreeable and funny man in person, spent a few extra minutes after his initial recording session to chat about mob bosses, Burt Ward’s whining, Julie Newmar’s sex appeal, and how to get ahead in Hollywood when your bartending partner takes a bathroom break. Take note … Moe Greene, er, Alex Rocco is speaking. (more…)
Warner Home Video has released the official trailer for Justice League: Doom, an all-new entry in the popular series of DC Universe Animated Original Movies due in early 2012 on Blu-ray, DVD, OnDemand and for Download.
Justice League: Doom finds Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, Cyborg and Batman on their heels when a team of super villains discover and implement the Dark Knight’s “contingency plans” for stopping any rogue Justice League member. The story is inspired by Mark Waid and Howard Porter’s much-heraldedJLA: Tower of Babel.
Primetime television stars Nathan Fillion (Castle) and Tim Daly (Private Practice), the reigning voices of Green Lantern and Superman, respectively, join a group of eight actors reprising their famed cartoon roles, including Kevin Conroy (Batman: The Animated Series) as Batman, Michael Rosenbaum (Smallville, Breaking In) as Flash, Susan Eisenberg (Superman/Batman: Apocalypse) as Wonder Woman and Carl Lumbly (Alias) as J’onn J’onzz/Martian Manhunter. Also returning to their Justice League animated series roles are the villainous voices of Phil Morris (Smallville, Seinfeld) as Vandal Savage, Olivia d’Abo (The Wonder Years) as Star Sapphire, and Alexis Denisof (Angel) as Mirror Master. David Kaufman (Danny Phantom) also reprises his Justice League role of Jimmy Olsen.
The film is executive produced by Bruce Timm (Batman: Year One), and directed by Lauren Montgomery (Batman: Year One), who is also credited as producer alongside Alan Burnett (Batman: The Animated Series). Justice League: Doom is the final script from the late Dwayne McDuffie (All-Star Superman, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths). Casting and dialogue direction is once again in the capable hands of Andrea Romano (Batman: Year One, SpongeBob SquarePants).
A television series reaches middle age around its fifth or sixth season and it rests on the shoulders of the production team whether or not to get rejuvenated or quietly enter the complacency of old age, leading to a far swifter demise. Thankfully, Hart Hanson and the crew of Bones used last season as a chance to shake up the status quo in numerous ways resulting in a reset of sorts when the seventh season begins November 3. Meantime, [[[Bones: The Complete Sixth Season]]] was recently released by 20th Century Home Entertainment and is once more a handsome package.
The show is far more character-driven than its competitor procedurals on the other networks, so we’ve come to know and love not only the staff at the Jeffersonian and FBI agent Sealy Booth, but the interns and extended family that are part of their world. The series does not shy away from dealing with the consequences of their cases and as one menace is finally dealt with, another arrives to keep things interesting. The Gravedigger, Heather Taffet (Deirdre Lovejoy), had her creepy storyline brought to a satisfying conclusion but as one door closed, another opened and in walked Jacob Broadsky (Arnold Vosloo), an ex-Army sniper who has a history with Booth.
This show has always had an appealing cast, with terrific chemistry among the regulars and the producers make certain we see them at work and at play, mixing and matching the characters to see what happens. David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel anchor the show and their “will they or won’t they” relationship kept things going for the previous five seasons. Still, to everyone but one another, it was clear they belonged together, and it finally was addressed in the waning season five episodes. As season six opened, Booth had been in the Middle East for months and returned a changed man, accompanied by Hannah Burley (Katheryn Winnick). Having Booth seemingly happy in love was just the spark Deschanel’s Temperance Brennan needed to get back in touch with her emotional heart. Their arc was a very strong one, a spine for the season that ended with them finally making love, resulting in a pregnancy that will charge the new season. (more…)
Ben McKenzie plays a wealthy young man on a personal quest for justice in TNT’s hit series Southland. Now the actor heads to the streets of Gotham City as the voice of another rich young adult with a need for righteousness in [[[Batman: Year One]]], the next entry in the popular, ongoing series of DC Universe Animated Original Movies.
McKenzie makes his maiden voyage into animation voiceovers as Bruce Wayne/Batman, the title character of comics legend Frank Miller’s classic retelling of the Dark Knight’s gritty, formative days.
Produced by Warner Premiere, DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation, the all-new, PG-13 rated Batman: Year One arrives today, 2011 from Warner Home Video as a Blu-ray™ Combo Pack and DVD, On Demand and for Download. Batman: Year One is also be available in a special download-for-purchase through iTunes, Xbox Live, Zune, VUDU HD Movies and Video Unlimited on the PlayStation Network & Sony Entertainment Network. (more…)
There have been few original characters created for the screen in the last decade that have been memorable enough to be welcomed back for at least an encore. The exception could well be Captain Jack Sparrow, with Johnny Depp taking the stereotypical pirate imagery and turning it on its head with a madcap performance that is brilliant. I still delight in the first film which had yet to be crusted with barnacles of backstory, mythology, and larger-than-life special effects. Its unexpected success required those to be affixed to the Black Pearl for the sequel and then it became a trilogy. Screenwriters Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott were required to go back and fill in the gaps they unwittingly created, resulting in a somewhat convoluted mess.
The third film in the [[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]] series, At World’s End, nicely tied off several threads and gave Elizabeth Swann and Will Turner a bittersweet ending to their story. Freed from complications created in the bloated trilogy, Rossio and Elliott could have told us a nice new pirate story in On Stranger Tides, showing us new sides to Sparrow or the world of pirates in which he is but one of many such plunderers. After all, it was largely taken from a far stronger novel by Tim Powers. Instead, we get more magic and mythology robbing the fourth installment of any sense of fresh beginnings. And while I adore Geoffrey Rush’s Captain Barbossa, he was not required for the film.
Instead, the story could easily have been King George II dispatching Sparrow in search of the Fountain of Youth while encountering the feared Blackbeard and see what happens when legends confront one another. That core notion is lost within layers of other events (the missionary and the mermaid for example) and the screenwriters are mostly at fault, although producer Jerry Bruckheimer never knows when to leave well enough alone. Director Rob Marshall, joining the franchise for this film, brought none of the dazzle he used in adapting Chicago to the screen. (more…)
Crisis on Infinite Earths reset the playing field for DC Comics (at least for a little while before it was reset again and again and again), allowing management to refresh their top trio of heroes. Given the groundbreaking work Frank Miller did on The Dark Knight, he was invited to help editor Denny O’Neill essentially reboot Batman from the beginning. In November 1986, fans were delighted with the effort in the form of Batman #404, the first installment in “Batman: Year One”. This not only reset the Darknight Detective and his mythos, but gave publishers the mini-series within a series, which became a template along with the chance to revisit the past with the Year One moniker.
Partnered with artist David Mazzuccehlli, who worked so well with Miller on a run of Daredevil, they helped give us fresh takes on Bruce Wayne, Alfred, and most notably Jim Gordon. Controversially, it also gave us Selina Kyle as a prostitute, something creator shave been trying to paper over ever since. Still, the story of corruption, adultery, redemption, and a man learning to become a hero was gripping stuff.
There’s little wonder then why Warner Premiere decided to adapt this seminal tale as part of their largely successful line of direct-to-video animated features. Much like the source material, this film runs a spare 64 minutes. Everything from the four issues is present and we really see that this is more about Gordon than Batman, giving him some deep roots for the first time. (more…)
Eliza Dushku has taken command of Catwoman and she’s not about to give her back.
The star of Dollhouse and Tru Calling, and a vital part of the amazing Buffy the Vampire Slayer cast, provided the voice of Selina Kyle/Catwoman for Batman: Year One, the next entry in the popular, ongoing series of DC Universe Animated Original Movies. A few short months later, Dushku was quick to accept a return to the role as the title character of the DC Showcase animated short Catwoman.
From the moment she accepted the role, Dushku was keen on making this character her own – and coming back to play the character as often as possible. Given her performance, it’s doubtful casting director Adnrea Romano and executive producer Bruce Timm would look elsewhere the next time the sometimes vigilante, sometimes villain appears in a script. (more…)
I wrote a while back, lamenting over not writing much for or about Star Trek these days and it appeared that my involvement in the franchise was going to become a fading memory.
