Category: News

Star Wars gets Chicken

Star Wars gets Chicken

In a few weeks… in a galaxy not so far away!

The force is with Seth Green and Matthew Senriech, the creators of the stop action animation parody show Robot Chicken.  They are celebrating the 30th Anniversary of Star Wars (30 years??) with a special Robot Chicken episode that will feature the voices of the galactic creator, Mr. George Lucas as himself and the one and only one-armed, Darth’s son, Leia’s brother, x-wing fighter pilot, Yoda-taught Jedi played by Mark Hamill. Hamill is no stranger to the Robot Chicken voice team.

Listen carefully and you will be able to pick out other celebrity voices that I won’t tell you. Here’s a clue: Late Night with Scrubs at the ER with a Hero-ic Ape dancing with the stars. Bye Bye Bye

It’s too early to set your TiVo for this one.  The episode will air on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim block at 10:00 pm on Sunday, June 17.

James Bond’s playground reopens

James Bond’s playground reopens

Last July, Pinewood Studio’s famed 007 Stage – once the largest in the world – burned down like the final action scene in a James Bond movie. Given the type of movies being made these days, that was quite a setback to the British film industry.

The folks in Pinewood immediately started rebuilding, and now the 007 Stage is reopening as the largest sound stage in Europe – all 59,000 square feet of it.

Want to take a tour? Yep, it’s got its own website.

(Glenn Hauman contributed mightily to this story.)

 

The Big San Diego ComicCon Troma Contest

The Big San Diego ComicCon Troma Contest

Via Sean McKeever, Previews magazine, in conjunction with Devil’s Due Publishing and Troma Studios president Lloyd Kaufman (it already sounds like a Hollywood production, doesn’t it?), is having a contest the grand prize for which includes: a $6,500 value! — includes:

  • Round-Trip airfare to San Diego (hotel accommodations not included)
  • Dinner with Lloyd Kaufman in San Diego
  • A pass into the Comic-Con
  • A grab-bag of Troma DVDs
  • The original cover art to the Troma GN
  • A signed copy of the Troma GN, autographed by Lloyd Kaufman and Tim Seeley

Note again, the hotel is not included in this prize package, so if you happen to be the lucky winner and you didn’t book months ago, you’d better be prepared to bunk with a friend or pack a sleeping bag.  Here’s a PDF of the entry form.

Captain America arrested (again)

Captain America arrested (again)

Okay, let’s see if we’ve got all the weird down right:

1) A 54 year old doctor in Melbourne Florida was part of a gaggle of costumed drunks doing a pub crawl. 

2) Dr. Raymond Adamcik was dressed as Captain America.

3) He had a burrito stuffed in his pants. He allegedly groped two women.

4) He got arrested.

5) At the police station, he was caught flushing a bag of marijuana down the toilet.

6) After being charged with battery, disorderly conduct, and pot possession, he was released after posting $2000 bail.

Well, the story is more plausable than 52.  But if you think we’re making this up, the Melbourne police department report is available right here.

(Glenn Hauman contributed mightily to this story)

Heroes in 90 seconds

Heroes in 90 seconds

Thanks, Wired!  A minute and a half video of the only scene in which I’d probably have had any interest from Monday night’s Heroes (even though former DC writer Chuck Kim penned this one). But come on, was the 15-second ad preceding it really necessary? Isn’t a 6-to-1 program-to-ad ratio a bit high? (Or is my math off?)

ELAYNE RIGGS: Money changes everything

ELAYNE RIGGS: Money changes everything

One of my biggest regrets in my years of involvement in the comics industry is the way I would refer to myself as an "industry professional" during my "early Usenet years," when I’d never been paid a cent for any of my comic book storytelling nor hired by any company. The impetus, though wrongheaded, was easy to understand. It hadn’t been that long since I’d discovered comics and online fandom, and I wanted to be a part of the excitement, but — having developed very definite ideas about fannish behavior from briefly hanging out with science fiction fans in my 20’s — I didn’t want to be "just" a fan. I craved credibility and legitimacy; after all, I wrote about comics and corresponded with lots of people who got paid to create them, so didn’t that sort of make me a pro as well?

Well, no, it didn’t. And by the time I decided to run for a board position in Friends of Lulu, I ‘d decided to stick to both the letter and spirit of the unwritten law. FoL’s charter specified that only a working industry professional could hold certain positions like national president, so I knew that was one I’d never hold. And when I started maintaining the Women Doing Comics list, I made up for past foolishness by leaving my name off of it (even though I’d had work published and my rule for the list was that it should include all current created and published work done by women, not only the work for which the woman got paid). I couldn’t, and still don’t, consider my efforts for charity books to be in the same league as people who did this sort of thing for a living.

We live in a hyper-capitalist society where status and success is measured primarily by one’s ability to make money. This has nothing to do with value or worth — that’s earned by deeds and conferred by friends, and none of us should ever have any doubt as to our individual value or worth no matter what we do to make money (or how much or little take-home pay we see). Professional status is a very serious matter, particularly in the entertainment industry where so many wannabes decide, as I once did, that there’s no difference between "aspiring" and "actual."

But there is. I didn’t realize just how much until I married a freelancer.

(more…)

Pocketful of Kryptonite

Pocketful of Kryptonite

Via Slashdot, "A mineralogist at London’s Natural History Museum was contracted to help identify an unknown mineral found in a Serbian mine. While he initially thought the miners had discovered a unique compound, after its crystal structure was analyzed and identified the researcher was shocked to find the material already referenced in literature.  Fictional literature."

"Towards the end of my research, says Dr. Chris Stanley, "I searched the web using the mineral’s chemical formula — sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide — and was amazed to discover that same scientific name, written on a case of rock containing kryptonite stolen by Lex Luther from a museum in the film Superman Returns.

"The new mineral does not contain fluorine (which it does in the film) and is white rather than green but, in all other respects, the chemistry matches that for the rock containing kryptonite."

Now we know what museum Superboy is referencing in the panel at right.

Artwork copyright DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Update: No Spider-Man 3 bootlegs in China

Update: No Spider-Man 3 bootlegs in China

Cancel those plane tickets to China. Despite what we just said, Reuters reports that all the Chinese bootlegs of Spider-Man 3 are fakes, they’re all copies of Spider-Man 2.

"Contrary to news reports about stolen copies of ‘Spider-Man 3’ being sold illegally on the streets in China, our investigation in China has revealed no case of the film being pirated to date," Sony Pictures said in a statement.

"After an initial investigation of online sites worldwide, we have so far found no pirated copies of ‘Spider-Man 3’ on the Internet," Sony added.

Just wait…

Spider-Man 3 bootlegs already abound…

Spider-Man 3 bootlegs already abound…

If you want to see Spider-Man 3 and you don’t want to wait until May 4th, the inevitable bootleg DVDs are already out and about – in China. And you can get yours for the low, low cost of $1.00 a piece … plus airfare.

According to Reuters, there is even a warning on the back, printed in Chinese, against pirating the product. But, as always, buyer beware: any specific bootleg DVD might not work on your specific player.

China is almost as well known for its bootlegs as it is for its booming economy, Sadly, these sales will not be incorporated into Spidey‘s box office totals.

Batman burns again!

Batman burns again!

First, it was stately Wayne Manor, as seen in Batman Begins. Now it’s the Gotham National Bank, to be seen in the forthcoming sequel, The Dark Knight.

According to The Chicago Tribune, the city’s former main post office – a 17-story building with an Interstate expressway running right through it – reported a roof fire late this morning. A crew was setting up for the next shoot; the Warner Bros. picture is once again using downtown Chicago locations to provide the look and feel of Gotham City.

The fire appeared to have started in a 16th-story marchine room and was extinguished within a half-hour. It is not clear if the fire was related to the filming, but local officeworkers who saw the smoke initially dismissed it as part of the shoot.

Just last week it was revealed that after filming was completed the building was going to be converted into quality shops, condos and offices. The bit about the expressway cutting through the building goes back 100 years, when architect Daniel Burnham designed the passage for horse-and-buggy transportation. It was finally built in the late 1950s.

I guess they could have had the Batmobile in mind at the time.