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Host Mike Raub takes you though all things new, classic and cool from Tina Fey to Frank Miller to the Christmas Eve Miracle of Apollo 8.
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Batman’s next animated incarnation will take on the form of Batman: The Brave and the Bold debuting on the Cartoon Network wnext Friday night. This is based the DC Comics titles that evovled into a team-up title between super-heroes and ultimately featured Batman as its co-host from issues #73 though its cancellation with issue #200 in 1983. The animated series targets a younger demographic than the most recent animated incarnation.
Each episode will introduce Batman to a partner and a villain from the DC universe. Fans of Frank Miller’s comic book Batman and Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight movie franchise should take note that this particular series focuses on the more jubilant and innocent aspects of the iconic character. The color palette seems to be brighter than the animated series of the mid nineties, and viewers can expect a throwback to the golden and silver age DC Comics.
After speaking with Story Editor Michael Jelenic, it became clear that this series was a throwback to an older more simple time for comics and super-heroes. Jelenic said that the dark, brooding Batman had become the norm, and by creating this series they were doing something different that the hardcore comic heads and kids could all enjoy together.
“Previous incarnations of Batman were serious. This was an opportunity to go into a new series, and see how Batman interacts with different characters from the DC Universe.” These different characters all come from the extensive DC mythos, and many of these characters have never appeared in cartoon form before. Animated versions of the rarely seen Blue Beetle and Red Tornado will make their small screen debut with Brave and the Bold. When asked if this new take on the Batman will affect die hard fans of Frank Miller’s Batman or Christopher Nolan’s movie version, Jelenic responded by saying, “You will always have people that think you got it wrong. Anytime you deal with icons you run that risk, but if the series doesn’t talk down to the viewer, then you can get it right.”
At the Spike TV 2008 Scream Awards last night, Watchmen director Zack Snyder and actors Malin Akerman, Carla Gugino and Jeffrey Dean Morgan introduced a never before seen extended trailer for the film. Highlights of the trailer include:
– Dr. Manhattan with Silk Spectre on Mars
– Rorschach investigating The Comedian’s apartment after his death
– A glimpse of Adrian Veidt’s arctic lair
– Manhattan blowing up a tank, a Vietnamese soldier, and sticking his hand in the middle of Ozymandias’s base
– The dream sequence where Nite Owl and Silk Spectre kiss against an atomic backdrop
– An extended look at The Comedian’s death, including a good look at the bloodied smiley face button.
To check out the trailer for yourself, as well as a rundown of new scenes featured in the trailer, head over to Watchmen Comic Movie.
Additionally, Yahoo! has premiered a featurette for Frank Miller’s upcoming The Spirit. The video offers a behind-the-scenes look at the history behind the character and the making of the movie. Highlights include:
– Samuel L. Jackson as the Octopus, wearing a never-before-seen samurai garb
– The Octopus beating down on the Spirit while shouting, "There’s nothing I like better than kicking your ass all night long!"
– Frank Miller’s insight into the character: "He can’t fly, he’s not super strong, but he can take an awful lot of punishment."
– Beautiful women, including Scarlett Johansson’s Silken Floss, Eva Mendes’ Sand Saref and Paz Vega’s Plaster of Paris
– Frank Miller’s claim that "this film is not a tribute to Will Eisner, it’s a tribute to The Spirit."
Check out the featurette by clicking here.
With the wild success of Zack Snyder’s 300, it’s hardly a surprise that there’s a sequel in the works. Yes, most of the cast is dead by story’s end, but before you call call madness, remember that this, is, SPARTA!! we’re talking about here.
IESB caught up with Snyder at a Watchmen event in Hollywood the other day, and got his two cents on the film’s follow-up. According to the director, development on the film project will only occur when Frank Miller has finished writing and illustrating the graphic novel’s sequel. Snyder wants Miller to have full creative control of the novel’s story, as was the case with 300.
It’s hard to imagine a sequel to 300 with Leonidas and the gang considering the film’s ending. There’s been speculation that the project would be a prequel rather than a sequel, thereby allowing Leonidas to return to fight again. Snyder set the record straight by pegging the film’s timeline between the Battle of Thermopylae and the Battle of Platea. In the film’s final narration, which takes place just before the Battle of Platea, Dilios reveals that Leonidas "died barely a year ago." Snyder says that the sequel will take place during this time, so the odds of Leonidas returning are pretty slim unless it’s in rotting carcass form.
300, based on a graphic novel of the same name by Frank Miller, is a dramatization of the famous Battle of Thermopylae where 300 Spartan warriors battled against the Persian Empire. The film, released in March 2007, was the biggest March opening weekend of all time and the third biggest opening for an R-rated picture. The untitled sequel will be based on an as yet completed graphic novel, also by Frank Miller.
Hey, kids. Have you ever watched someone on TV and thought to yourself "Man, that presidential candidate seems almost like a parody of Frank Miller’s aging Batman from The Dark Knight Returns"?
Well evidently, Matt Sheperd at www.shep.ca had that very thought cross his own noggin. And here is what he did with it.
Enjoy!
Those who got red in the face over the historical discrepancies of Frank Miller’s 300 and the massively successful film adaptation might have more to grumble about, as reports are airing that a sequel is in the works.
You might be thinking that almost all the 300 Spartans died at the graphic novel and film’s conclusion, and that such a lack of protagonists would be a major obstacle for a sequel. Apparently not, writes Cinema Blend.
This morning Variety is confirming news that probably won’t surprise anyone. 300, the graphic novel adaptation that cost virtually nothing to make but grossed over $200 million last spring, is getting a sequel. Well, probably. Legendary Pictures, which is also developing The Watchmen, is interested in the graphic novel Frank Miller is currently working on, which may be a prequel or some kind of spinoff.
300 director Zack Snyder, as he said to Collider.com last week, will probably be as much a part of it as Miller is. That is, if the graphic novel is any good, Snyder will be on board. It almost seems beside the point for a 300 sequel to exist, given how many parodies have cropped up since the movie became such an unexpected success. And, of course, there’s the issue of revisiting the same characters, given that — SPOILER ALERT — most of them died at the end of the first film.
At the very least, it can’t be worse than Meet the Spartans… Right?
The always worth reading Variety Bags and Boards blog has an update on the upcoming The Spirit movie, adapted by Frank Miller from Will Eisner’s cherished comics series.
We recently spoke with "The Spirit" producer Deborah Del Prete, who says a green-screen cut of the film has been completed and has everyone very excited about the results. The production is now waiting as more than 1,800 VFX shots are coming in from San Francisco-based house The Orphanage. … Expect to see some new footage from the film at Comic-Con …
This shouldn’t do anything to ease concerns some fans have expressed that The Spirit is going to follow the visual cues of 300 and Sin City, both of which relied heavily on green screens and special effects. But at least we’ll soon be able to see some actual footage and judge for ourselves.
Meanwhile, four new posters have been released for the film, each featuring one of the femme fatales from the Frank Miller-directed film. Head over to Yahoo! to hear the actresses speak the lines. Can’t say I’m thrilled to see the "keep the mask on" line reappear after All-Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder #7, but it should work better with The Spirit than Batman.
The posters, available right here, are of the various female characters in the film, including those notorious femme fatales.
Beware the power of words, folks. Over at Cinematical, the movie news site’s resident "geek beat" contributor Elisabeth Rappe has taken a comment I left on one of her recent posts and turned it into a full-blown column, titled "The Touchiness of Geek Cred."
In the column, Rappe discusses the Survivor-esque mentality of geekery and the first time she realized that niche-culture gatherings like comic and science-fiction conventions weren’t the friendly grounds she expected them to be. The ever-present drive to cull the herd and create a higher place on the social ladder is in full effect just as much inside the niche cultures as outside, she observes.
For geeks of the feminine persuasion, the environment is even more cut-throat, according to Rappe:
As a female, I find I have to prove myself even more. The first time I went to ComicCon, I fell into a casual conversation with a guy about the comic book movie spin-offs. I mentioned that I really wanted to see the eventual Wolverine, and he sneered: "You just want to see it because you’re a girl, and Hugh Jackman is hot!"
"Hey," I replied tartly. "Wolverine is the best at what he does, and what he does isn’t very nice."
"You know the catchphrase. I take that back."
Well, thanks. This is something a geeky girl runs up against often, and it is useless to fight it. Men can see Catwoman for Halle Berry, girls cannot see 300 for Gerard Butler. Frankly, I do it too. One woman I was friends with joined my online movie community solely to talk about Butler. She was horrified when the fanboys called her on it. But I too was aghast. "You can’t just go in and talk about hot guys – you have to talk about Frank Miller first! You have to prove yourself a geek!"
Head over to Cinematical for the rest of the column.
Rappe’s observations reminded me of a recent post here on ComicMix, in which I mentioned that I have yet to read any of the Harry Potter books and narrowly escaped a nasty tar-and-feathering by readers.
The Cinematical crew are reporting that Lionsgate is moving up the release date for Frank Miller’s adaptation of Will Eisner’s The Spirit from January 16 of next year to Christmas Day (December 25), 2008.
Here’s the new tale of the tape for The Spirit:
So instead of going up against Mall Cop, starring Kevin James as a wacky security guard, and the Notorious B.I.G. biopic, The Spirit will face off against Adam Sandler’s Bedtime Stories, the supposedly ultra-heartwarming Marley & Me, The Tale of Despereaux, and the aftershocks of Twilight and The Day the Earth Stood Still.
Oh, and if you haven’t seen the trailer for The Spirit yet that debuted at New York Comic Con, here it is:
The Los Angeles Times just had a story about the boom in comics-to-film. In a recent six-week stretch, some 22 comics properties were optioned, the paper reported.
That includes Locke & Key, the supernatural thriller by Joe Hill for IDW (cover at right). While this is great news for many and illustrates the growing popularity of comics, not everyone is looking at the boom with rose-colored glasses.
"It’s accelerating because right now it’s fashion," says Frank Miller, who created the graphic novels behind "Sin City" and "300," and whose early-’80s series "Ronin," about a reincarnated samurai battling evil in a futuristic New York, is being adapted by Joby Harold ("Awake") for Warner Bros. "I think we can expect it to calm down. Comic books have always been this vast mountain range that gets strip-mined and left behind."
The main point of the story, though, is that one reason so many comics are adapted is that comics and graphic novels are substantially easier to read than screenplays. Miller calls screenplays the "single [worst] story form" and "unreadable."
Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
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