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Legendary Pictures announces Electra Woman and Dyna Girl remake

Legendary Digital Media and Fullscreen have partnered with YouTube phenoms Grace Helbig and Hannah Hart in an updated version of Sid & Marty Krofft‘s classic 70’s TV series Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, bringing the property to a new generation of viewers. Fullscreen will debut and exhibit Electra Woman and Dyna Girl in the U.S. with Legendary Television Distribution overseeing global distribution. Sid & Marty Krofft will executive produce the project.

The reboot will start internet superstars Grace Helbig and Hannah Hart as the seventies icons (shut up, this is my article).  The series, comes on the heels of Helbig’s crossover from YouTube fame to television as the host of a late night talk show for E! which premieres in April. Both Helbig and Hart have large social media followings with a combined total of over 10 million subscribers and followers over all of their YouTube and social media platforms. This series also follows Helbig’s and Hart’s recent digital feature film success, Camp Takota, which was executive produced by Helbig and Hart and produced by Fullscreen’s Chief Content Officer Michael Goldfine, and picked up by Netflix last year.

Electra Woman and Dyna Girl was one of the tentpole shows of The Krofft Supershow, which also featured Wonderbug, Magic Mongo and Dr. Shrinker. (and if you’ve got the theme for the last one in your head now, you’re welcome.) Deidre Hall (Days of our Lives) and Judy Strangis (Room 222) played the title characters as well as their secret identities as reporters for NewsMakers magazine.  With the assistance of technical genius Professor Frank Heflin (Norman Alden) they fought “Electra-Villains” like Glitter Rock, The Pharaoh and the Spider-Lady.

Am I gonna insert the theme? Oh you KNOW I’m gonna insert the theme…

Of course, the synopsis of the new series certainly suggests that we may not see the same level of action and special effects as the original…

Electra Woman and Dyna Girl follows two superheroes as they move from Akron to Los Angeles in hopes of making it big in the crime fighting world, only to find competition with other vigilantes and infighting amongst themselves.

So there’s that.

Sid and Marty Krofft are responsible for some of the most memorable children’s entertainment of the seventies, and some of the most over the top variety programming in the years to follow. Starting off with classics like H.R. Pufnstuf, Lidsville and The Bugaloos, the Kroffts ruled the roost of Saturday mornings.  Breaking into prime time programming, they produced the Donny and Marie variety show, as well as ones for the Brady Bunch, the Mandrell Sisters, and God help us, Pink Lady (and Jeff).

We’ve seen a number of remakes of their shows over the years – ABC presented a new version of the Land of the Lost, which Marty Krofft, in an interview with yours truly, suggested was indeed connected in some way to the land as seen in the original series.  There was a pilot for a new version of Electra Woman in 2001 with Markie Post and Anne Stedman.  Several years ago they announced that Dreamworks had obtained the right to Lidsville to produce an animated feature, a project still in development, if it hasn’t already fallen into the Shampoo River.

For more information on the new series, sign up for updates at www.ElectraWomanDynaGirl.com,  follow their twitter, @ElectraDyna, or just follow me around, cause I’m not gonna stop talking about this, ever.

Tweeks: MLP Cutie Mark Crusaders DVD

My-Little-Pony-5Attention Bronies: My Little Pony – Friendship is Magic: Adventures of the Cutie Mark Crusaders was released on DVD this week.  As you know, a pony’s cutie mark shows their special talent on their flank for all to see, but what if you’re a pony who hasn’t figured out how you are unique yet?  Cutie Marks are the quest for the Cutie Mark Crusaders and this DVD features them in 5 episodes (well, really truly only 4 because “Pinkie Pride” is about Pinkie Pie’s party planning showdown with a pony called Cheese Sandwich, voiced by Weird Al), plus bonus features like coloring pages, a sing-a-long and digital wallpaper.  All the details are in this week’s video…as well as our true feelings about Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash.

Box Office Democracy: “Project Almanac”

Going in to Project Almanac I had a very clear idea of what I would be getting: Chronicle but with time travel instead of superheroes. To its credit that isn’t really what Project Almanac is, it isn’t as predictable or as overly dramatic. It doesn’t have a conclusion that’s drawn out too long. In fact, in a lot of ways it feels like Project Almanac is the inverse of Chronicle in that it’s a movie that never seems to know when to stop being playful and start being serious. When the time finally comes to put the dramatic hammer down there isn’t enough time left and we’re left with a third act that feels rushed and unsatisfying.

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ComicMix Six: Top Six Movies of 2014

With the 2014 cinematic year in the books it’s time to do the time-honored tradition of the film reviewer, making a list of the top movies of the year. It makes us feel important and it’s an easy ay to fill space during the dreadful early January period for movies. Here are my top six movies of 2014. I’ll be back in just a little bit with the six worst movies.

SDCC12: First Teaser Poster for Gareth Edward’s ‘Godzilla’ Is Here

6. [[[Godzilla]]] – I wasn’t big on Godzilla when it came out, I though that it cheated me out of many of the giant monster fight that they owed me when I paid $15 for a ticket. But when I was gathering my list of top movies of the year I remembered the movie quite fondly. It’s suspenseful and, honestly, has plenty of action. It doesn’t reach the frenetic peaks that Pacific Rim did but then again Pacific Rim did not make my top 10 list last year. With more Bryan Cranston, this might have been my favorite movie of the year.

Mike Gold: Blowin’ People Up, Just To Make A Point

Charlie HebdoYes, I know. Our columnists here at ComicMix used to be pretty damn political. Eventually we drifted too far off of our happy little pop culture topic, and we retrenched. Well, sort of. Martha, Michael Davis and I moved our noisy political stuff over to www.MichaelDavisWorld.com . Therefore, at the outset I am telling you this column, delayed somewhat by my blind anger (thanks for filling, Emily!), is completely on topic.

You’ve probably heard about the bombing of the offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo by militant Islamists. Two gunmen stole a car, drove up to the paper’s office in Paris, and started blasting away on their AK-47s shouting “We have avenged the Prophet.” Then they split the scene, postponing their visit with their 72 virgins.

As of this writing, 12 people have been confirmed dead, including the editor, two policemen, and noted cartoonists: Stéphane “Charb” Charbonnier, Jean “Cabu” Cabut, Georges Wolinski, and Bernard “Tignous” Verlhac. Another 11 were wounded.

I’m not going to tell you a bunch of stuff you already know. This sort of thing has become all too common. Besides, comic book fan Salman Rushdie said it better than I ever could:

“I stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend the art of satire, which has always been a force for liberty and against tyranny, dishonesty and stupidity. ‘Respect for religion’ has become a code phrase meaning ‘fear of religion.’ Religions, like all other ideas, deserve criticism, satire, and, yes, our fearless disrespect.”

Our fearless disrespect. Every once in a while, a writer knocks out a phrase so perfect that I think I should retire.

I wonder how the late Mad Magazine publisher Bill Gaines would have responded. He was a libertarian from back when the word wasn’t jingoistic. I knew Bill some, and my guess is that he would have been really pissed. He would have felt a kinship with the staff and talent at Charlie Hebdo… or so I think.

Now here’s the funny part of the story. Somebody reading these very words right now is thinking “It can’t happen here.” After two bombings at New York City’s original World Trade Center, a bombing at the Pentagon, a bombing of a child care center in Oklahoma City, various individual serial bombers like George Metesky and John “Ted” Kaczynski, the bombing of the J.P. Morgan bank on Wall Street, the bombing of the Los Angeles Times, the armed attack on Congress by Puerto Rican separatists… it most certainly can happen here.

Fortunately, we’ve got an outfit that helps – helps – protect cartoonists here. It’s called the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. They do excellent work. I am proud to be a supporter; if you’re not already, you would be too. Check out their web page. They cover international incidents as well as domestic; today Maren Williams wrote a great piece about the Paris attack.

“Funny” doesn’t make you safe. Ask Lenny Bruce.

It’s time to stand up and be counted.

 

Mike Gold: Comic Books Are Heavier Than Ever!

Simon and KirbyThis time around the honor of writing the last ComicMix column of 2014 falls to me, and I am grateful for the opportunity to taunt the gods and goddesses of irony once more before the Cherub of the New Year arrives, gets a good look around, and shits his diaper.

Many, if not all of my friends seem to be happy that this year is coming to an end. String theory tells us that such optimism is silly, but since I’m starting 2015 with a left arm different from the one I had last January – and the anesthesia almost killed me – well, sayonara old bastard and take your scythe with you. (more…)

Tweeks: Tween Holiday Gift Guide

gridWith only a couple weeks until Christmas, we Tweeks can’t stop thinking about what we’ll be getting (because duh…we’ve been totally good this year). But it’s also come to our attention that we’re not easy to give gifts to.  Anya prefers digital comics and Maddy can’t watch DVDs on her laptop, but you can’t unwrap a something that doesn’t physically exist.  So this where we talk about why today’s tweens are hard to shop for, ponder if buying fandom merch should be a personal purchase, and give some ideas on how to present the kids in your life with presents they will love.  We also have a companion Pinterest board with recommendations (& a peek at our wish list) if you haven’t done your shopping yet!

Dennis O’Neil: Guilty, Guilty, Guilty!

Well, I guess I was wrong and I guess I’ll take whatever heat there is, unless I can think of somebody else to blame. We refer to last week’s column in which I predicted that the CW televised enterprises, Flash and Arrow, were about to commit Crossover: that is, begin a story in one show and end it in the other. I jumped to a conclusion. What the programs in question really committed was Guest Star; each hero appeared in the other’s venue but the problems to be solved and the adventures to be had and the bad guys to be vanquished were unrelated.

And while we’re on the subject of bad guys… unless I suffered a fairly significant mental glitch somewhere between eight and nine last Tuesday, the Flash and company perpetrated a melodramatist’s sin by catching the villain off-stage and thus depriving we eager onlookers of what would naturally be the story’s (exciting) climax. We hear that the evil dude is at large and then there’s a brief scene in which he’s behind bars and then on to other concerns. I’ve been guilty of giving the antagonist short shrift in a story or two, mainly because I was more interested in other elements of the narrative so, being guilty of the same sin myself, I am throwing no stones. But this sort of thing is questionable technique and maybe we should all avoid it in the future.

Okay, that’s a quibble and on the bright side, the Flash-Arrow guest stunt put Emily Bett Rickards, who plays Arrow’s the charming and comely Felicity Smoak, on my screen twice in one week and that buys forgiveness (and yes, dammit, I know she’s young enough to be my great-grandchild.)

(Regarding Felicity: If she were canonized, would she be holy Smoak? Something for the show’s writers to consider and then immediately forget about.)

Word is that last night’s “winter finale” Arrow episode will feature a Batman baddie and if true this won’t be the first time Arrow’s people have rummaged in the DC Comics line. Are they trying to build a video franchise, as the company’s long-time arch rival, Marvel, is doing successfully in the world of movies? Motivate us watchers to tune into a DC show and not just another adventure of a super guy? That would be a tricky accomplishment, I think, and they’re probably not attempting it. No, they’re probably doing what the rest of us are doing, using what’s available to them and hoping that it works. Making it up as they go along. Okay by me. That’s what we and our various ancestors have been doing for about five million years and counting and, what the hey, it’s gotten us this far.

Tweeks: Penguins of Madagascar

Penguins-of-Madagascar-Posters-benedict-cumberbatch-37742626-1214-1600We took time out of our busy pie eating schedule over Thanksgiving weekend to see Penguins of Madagascar because who can resist penguins, right?  And who can resist Benedict Cumberbatch as a wolf? Watch our review and find out if this is a movie fangirls and families can see together.

 

Tweeks: Giving Thanks For Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

Effie replaces Fulvia in MockingjayThe Tweeks are definitely Hunger Games fangirls, but how did the first half of the final book in the trilogy stand up in cinematic form?  This week the girls weight in on Francis Lawrence’s job of hobbiting (breaking a literary property into unneeded multiple movies) Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1.

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