An interview with Lauren Shuler Donner, producer of the X-Men movies, revealed that a) X-Men First Class will NOT be filming soon, as rumored, and b) she’s cooking up several other movies starring Marvel’s band of Merry Mutants, including X4 and a New Mutants adaptation, among others. This doesn’t mean they’ll all get made, obviously, but it’s nice to know that they’re working on it.
And sadly, legendary illustrator Bernie Fuchs, known for his nontraditional and inventive compositions and striking color palette, passed away last week.
What else did we miss? Consider this an open thread.
The company that made all those quick political comics is at it again:
‘TRIBUTE: MICHAEL JACKSON, KING OF POP COMIC BOOK OFFERS LASTING REMEMBRANCE FOR FANS FROM BLUEWATER
To millions he was the King of Pop; one of the world’s most
cherished entertainers and a celebrated international icon. With his
untimely passing, Michael Jackson left an extraordinary and tragic
legacy. Bluewater Productions is paying tribute in October to his
memory and legacy with a special collectors edition biography comic.
The newest addition to the publisher’s critically acclaimed
biography library will trace Jackson’s rise as a musical prodigy with
the “Jackson 5” through last Thursdays sad end. The book will feature
highlights from his storied career and cover his enigmatic private life.
“Michael Jackson’s music served as the soundtrack to countless lives…including mine,” said Bluewater president Darren G. Davis, “His influence on our culture has been profound.”
“TRIBUTE: Michael Jackson, King of Pop,” features a wraparound cover
and foreword by “The Official Michael Jackson Fan Club’s” Giuseppe
Mazzola. Mazzola was also Jackson’s personal friend. The issue is being
written by Wey-Yuih Loh, (Political Power: Colin Powell” and “Political
Power: Joe Biden) and illustrated by Giovanni Timpano (Vincent Price Presents). Noted cover artist Vinnie Tartamella will also provide an alternate wraparound cover.
On the bright side, there won’t be a comic three years down the line where Michael returns because he was in a cave at the beginning of time. Probably.
Wayne Enterprises has another billion in the bank.
According to Box Office Mojo, The Dark Knight has officially reached $1 billion in worldwide box office revenue, distributor Warner Bros. announced today. The Batman sequel is the fourth movie in history to hit the mark, right behind Titanic, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest:
Breaking the worldwide gross down, The Dark Knight has made a phenomenal $533.1 million domestically and $468 million overseas. It’s the only movie in the Top 20 of the all time worldwide chart where the domestic gross exceeds the foreign gross, which is a common trait among comic book-based pictures. On the all time domestic chart, The Dark Knight ranks second to Titanic, while it stands at No. 22 on the all time foreign chart. Warner Bros. noted that The Dark Knight‘s total includes the highest-grossing two-dimensional re-mastered IMAX release ever at $49.6 million domestic and $15.3 million overseas.
For another point of comparison, this year’s five Oscar nominees for Best Picture, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Slumdog Millionaire, Milk, Frost/Nixon and The Reader ,have only grossed $481,205,302 worldwide combined so far. Gee, why would Warner Bros. announce that the day before the Oscars…?
Genre vets Marc Guggenheim (Eli Stone), Drew Goddard, Brian K. Vaughan (Lost), Marti Noxon, Zack Whedon, and Danny Strong (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) have been nominated by their peers. The Writers Guild of America, West and the Writers Guild of America, East announced their nominees for outstanding achievement in television, radio, news, promotional writing, and graphic animation during the 2008 season to be honored at the upcoming 2009 Writers Guild Awards on February 7, 2009, in Los Angeles and New York.
TELEVISION NOMINEES
DRAMATIC SERIES
Dexter, Written by Scott Buck, Daniel Cerone, Charles H. Eglee, Adam E. Fiero, Lauren Gussis, Clyde Phillips, Scott Reynolds, Melissa Rosenberg, Tim Schlattmann; Showtime Friday Night Lights, Written by Bridget Carpenter, Kerry Ehrin, Brent Fletcher, Jason Gavin, Carter Harris, Elizabeth Heldens, David Hudgins, Jason Katims, Patrick Massett, Aaron Rahsaan Thomas, John Zinman; NBC Lost, Written by Carlton Cuse, Drew Goddard, Adam Horowitz, Christina M. Kim, Edward Kitsis, Damon L. Lindelof, Greggory Nations, Kyle Pennington, Elizabeth Sarnoff, Brian K. Vaughan; ABC Mad Men, Written by Lisa Albert, Jane Anderson, Rick Cleveland, David Isaacs, Andre Jacquemetton, Maria Jacquemetton, Marti Noxon, Robin Veith, Matthew Weiner; AMC The Wire, Written by Ed Burns, Chris Collins, David Mills, David Simon, William F. Zorzi, Richard Price, Dennis Lehane, George Pelecanos; HBO
COMEDY SERIES
30 Rock, Written by Jack Burditt, Kay Cannon, Robert Carlock, Tina Fey, Donald Glover, Andrew Guest, Matt Hubbard, Jon Pollack, John Riggi, Tami Sagher, Ron Weiner; NBC Entourage, Written by Doug Ellin, Jeremy Miller, Ally Musika, Steve Pink, Rob Weiss; HBO
The Office, Written by Steve Carell, Jennifer Celotta, Greg Daniels, Lee Eisenberg, Brent Forrester, Dan Goor, Charlie Grandy, Mindy Kaling, Ryan Koh, Lester Lewis, Paul Lieberstein, Warren Lieberstein, B.J. Novak, Michael Schur, Aaron Shure, Justin Spitzer, Gene Stupnitsky, Halsted Sullivan; NBC The Simpsons, Written by J. Stewart Burns, Daniel Chun, Joel H. Cohen, Kevin Curran, John Frink, Tom Gammill, Stephanie Gillis, Dan Greaney, Reid Harrison, Al Jean, Billy Kimball, Tim Long, Ian Maxtone-Graham, Bill Odenkirk, Carolyn Omine, Don Payne, Michael Price, Max Pross, Mike Reiss, Mike Scully, Matt Selman, Matt Warburton, Jeff Westbrook, Marc Wilmore, William Wright; Fox Weeds, Written by Roberto Benabib, Mark A. Burley, Ron Fitzgerald, David Holstein, Rolin Jones, Brendan Kelly, Jenji Kohan, Victoria Morrow, Matthew Salsberg; Showtime
NEW SERIES
Breaking Bad, Written by Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould, Patty Lin, George Mastras; AMC Fringe, Written by JJ Abrams, Jason Cahill, Julia Cho, David H. Goodman, Felicia Henderson, Brad Caleb Kane, Alex Kurtzman, Darin Morgan, J.R. Orci, Roberto Orci, Jeff Pinkner, Zack Whedon; Fox In Treatment, Written by Rodrigo Garcia, Bryan Goluboff, Davey Holmes, William Meritt Johnson, Amy Lippman, Sarah Treem; HBO Life on Mars, Written by Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec, Scott Rosenberg, Becky Hartman Edwards, David Wilcox, Adele Lim, Bryan Oh, Tracy McMillan, Sonny Postiglione, Phil M. Rosenberg, Meredith Averill; ABC True Blood, Written by Alan Ball, Brian Buckner, Raelle Tucker, Alexander Woo, Nancy Oliver, Chris Offutt; HBO
While too expensive to pickup new episodes, Cartoon Network has purchased the off-network rights to King of the Hill and will add it to their Adult swim programming. As a result, Adult Swim will now be expanded by an hour, beginning at 10 p.m. and running through till 6 a.m. seven days a week.
The arrival of the animated series will be in January according to Variety. The mix of original and off-network programming has skewed towards older teens and young adults since it debuted in 2005. All 13 seasons’ worth of episodes will be part of the deal as it joins Family Guy, also from Fox.
Fox recently announced King‘s cancellation and ABC is reportedly considering picking up the show.
ABC could become King of the Hill, if they decide to pick up the show which Fox just said would be canceled after the current season. While they already have The Goode Family coming as an animated midseason replacement, also created by Mike Judge, they may choose to add the series according to The Hollywood Reporter.
A Fox TV spokesman would only confirm "another network is interested" in the show. ABC declined to comment but adding a second show to round out the hour makes programming sense given the success Fox has had with such pairings.
The biggest issue is that there’s a nine month gestation period for new King episodes which means new shows couldn’t hit any channel until fall 2009. The gamble for ABC would be to pick up King and hope Goode finds an audience. The Alphabet Network may hedge their bets and just orders scripts then wait and see how Goode performs.
No, it’s not Friday the 13th. But it is Halloween, and the 13th season of King of the Hill looks to be its last.
Reports are coming in that the long-running Fox comedy will not return past the 13 episodes currently in production bringing the total to something like 250. King of the Hill, created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, has aired on the network since 1997. Although it’s not the ratings getter it once was, King stalwarts such as Ain’t It Cool News’ Hercules tout the series as Fox’s greatest comedy. Both Judge and Daniels have moved onto other projects. Judge’s newest animated comedy, The Goode Family, launches on ABC midseason, while Daniels is running NBC’s smash hit The Office. Judge still supplies the voice for Hank Hill on the series.
Meanwhile, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane continues to enjoy his renewed success over at Fox. Variety has announced that MacFarlane’s American Dad has been picked up for a fifth season. Dad, which features conservative CIA agent Stan Smith and his family, is currently in its fourth year. It’s noted that early pickups are required for animated shows due to their lengthy timetable, which could be a reason that both the American Dad and King of the Hill announcements came so close together.
MacFarlane’s road with Fox hasn’t always been smooth. Family Guy was initially canceled after struggling to find a consistent audience, in no small thanks to Fox’s constant reshuffling of the program’s schedule. When DVD sales went through the roof, Fox decided to raise the series from the dead. In the series’ first episode post resurrection, "North By North Quahog," the writers took a stab at Fox’s rationale for canceling the show in the first place.
"Well, unfortunately, Lois, there’s just no more room on the schedule," lead character Peter Griffin laments. "We’ve just got to accept the fact that Fox has to make room for terrific shows like Dark Angel, Titus, Undeclared, Action, That ’80s Show, Wonderfalls, Fastlane, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Skin, Girls Club, Cracking Up, The Pitts, Firefly, Get Real, Freakylinks, Wanda at Large, Costello, The Lone Gunmen, A Minute With Stan Hooper, Normal Ohio, Pasadena, Harsh Realm, Keen Eddie, The $treet, American Embassy, Cedric the Entertainer, The Tick, Louie and Greg the Bunny."
All of those shows, of course, have been canceled.
Now, MacFarlane’s relationship with Fox couldn’t be better. Not only is Family Guy flourishing and American Dad has a new season on the way, but MacFarlane’s new series, The Cleaveland Show, will also debut later this year. Cleaveland is a spin-off from Family Guy featuring the titular Cleaveland and his family.
We here at ComicMix pride ourselves on being not only a comic book site, but also a pop culture site and so we cannot let the passing of House Peters, Jr. go by without noting it. The actor, born January 12, 1916, died from pneumonia on October 1.
Who you might wonder? The actor was the model for Proctor & Gamble’s Mr. Clean, an icon that has gone largely unchanged.
The actor also had an early role as a Sharkman in the original 1936 Flash Gordon serial.
His son Jon Peters said in a release, "he always played the heavy. Even though he wasn’t happy about being cast in those roles, he worked really hard at it."
Peters’ credits include roles in The Twilight Zone (1960), Target Earth (1954), Port Sinister (1953), Red Planet Mars (1952), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), King of the Rocket Men (1949), and Batman and Robin (1949). It wasn’t until he starred in a series of commercials as Mr. Clean that he gained familiarity with household viewers.
He was largely a villain westerns and crime shows, earning a Golden Boot Award in 2000 for his lifetime contributions. He was often seen on the Roy Rogers and Gene Autry television series
The actor stopped performing in 1967 but wrote an autobiography, Another Side of Hollywood, in 2000. There, he talked of being raised by actor parents during the silent film and early talkie days.
Mr. Clean was developed in Puerto Rico for P&G and was introduced in 1958, rapidly becoming the number one household cleaner. In 1962, a contest was held to give him a first name and the winner was Veritably. A complete set of Mr. Clean commercials, including Peters’ efforts, were donated on the products’ 24th anniversary to the UCLA Film Television and Radio Archives.
He is survived by his wife, Lucy Pickett (whom he married in 1946); his two sons, Bob and Job; daughter Kathy; and four grandchildren.
Hot on the heels of announcements of the pseudo-animated versions of DC’s Watchmen and Image’s Invincible, the Wall Street Journal breaks early word that Marvel will join that game with an adaptation of an unpublished Stephen King short story.
Marvel’s announcement probably will come today. The story, N, will be available in 25 installments starting next week, available for download on iTunes, Amazon and elsewhere.
It’s sort of a tie-in promotion for King’s new book of stories, including N, from publisher Scribner. And no one’s sure what to expect:
For Scribner, the venture is a shot in the dark. There’s no way of forecasting how well the videos will translate into book sales. While Scribner’s corporate sibling, CBS Mobile, cites Nielsen data showing that roughly 14 million cellphone users in the U.S. pay for video services, it doesn’t know how many of those people are regular book buyers. However, the links from the videos to the NisHere.com pre-ordering Web site will allow Scribner to get a sense of how many sales result from video viewings.
Mr. King is optimistic about the video’s prospects. "I think they’re readers," he says of likely video viewers. But he admits that the venture is "something of a test" whose outcome isn’t certain.
Has anybody here seen my old friend Bobby
Can you tell me where he’s gone
I thought I saw him walkin’ up over the hill
With Abraham, Martin and John.
Well, last time I did an actual comic book review, and as expected it received almost no comments. So I don’t want to hear from anyone about how this column isn’t about comics!
I could probably make it about comics. After all, I’m going to be discussing the ’60s, which were about many things. Many people my age cut their fanboy and fangirl teeth on Marvel comics of the ’60s. (Me, I didn’t start reading until the mid-’80s or so, even though my late best friend Bill Marcinko tried pretty hard to get me interested in the Marvels of the late ’70s.) But, despite my trepidation about the kind of Google ads this column will attract, today I want to write about something else that happened in the ’60s, and about the persistence of memory.
Last week on the campaign trail, in an interview given to South Dakota’s Argus Leader, a frustrated Hillary Clinton reiterated her response to the "why won’t that bitch just quit?" crowd of media pundits that she’d initially articulated in a Time magazine interview back in March. Her original words: "I think people have short memories. Primary contests used to last a lot longer. We all remember the great tragedy of Bobby Kennedy being assassinated in June in L.A. My husband didn’t wrap up the nomination in 1992 until June. Having a primary contest go through June is nothing particularly unusual."
This time around the phrasing was only slightly different: "My husband didn’t wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June. We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. You know I just don’t understand it," the "it" in question being the pundits’ incessant and unprecedented calls for a leading candidate to step aside (as if the media were orchestrating the process rather than the voters of each state). In March, nobody seemed to notice; this time, with the anti-Clinton hysteria ratcheted up as high as it’s been since the Whitewater nonsense, suddenly all sorts of folks were up in arms.