Tagged: Sam Raimi

ComicMix QuickPicks – January 14, 2009

ComicMix QuickPicks – January 14, 2009

Today’s installment of comic-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest…

* The Simpsons are ramping up for their 20th Anniversary. Yes, you really are that old.

* J. Steven York finds a picture of a new species of flying Beetle.

* Ever wonder what Schroder was actually playing in the strips? It really was Beethoven.

* Whoopi Goldberg has returned to acting, working for a new SF/horror series run by our friends at FEAR.net.

* Sam Raimi wants Morbius in Spider-Man 4? Veeeeery interestink.

Anything else? Consider this an open thread.

Michael Uslan Teams with Sam Raimi on ‘The Shadow’

Michael Uslan Teams with Sam Raimi on ‘The Shadow’

  • News
  • December 22, 2008

It’s been two years since there has been any serious movement on a new feature film adaptation of The Shadow.  Two years ago this month, Sony announced that they obtained the rights and will have Sam Raimi on board to produce and possibly direct the feature, telling the press,  “I’ve been a passionate Shadow fan ever since I was a kid and have long dreamed of bringing this character to the screen.”

Now, producer Michael Uslan tells IGN that his company will be coproducing with Raimi’s outfit.

In October, Raimi reported, "I don’t have any news on The Shadow at this time, except that the company that I have with Josh Donen, my producing partner, we’ve got the rights to The Shadow. I love the character very much and we’re trying to work on a story that’ll do justice to the character."

Uslan confirmed that last week, adding that Siavash Farahani has penned the screenplay. She has only one previous screenwriting credit, 1999’s Ingénue. Uslan, whose Spirit film opens on Thursday, has someone “unconventional” in mind for the lead role but wouldn’t say anything further.

The Shadow, perhaps the best known of the pulp magazine adventure heroes, was previously the star if a big budget film in 1994, with Alec Baldwin as Lamont Cranston/Shadow. The character began life as the unnamed narrator of stories taken from Street &Smith’s crime pulps. As readers asked news dealers for “the Shadow” magazine, the publisher recognized the need for one.  Editors commissioned the prolific Walter B. Gibson to create the character in 1931.  The Shadow dominated newsstands and radio through the 1930s and 1940s.  He went on to star in a movie serial and numerous comic book adaptations including the celebrated stories from Denny O’Neil and Michael Kaluta.

The original stories have been reprinted over the last year by Anthony Tollin.

Sample ‘Legend of the Seeker’ for Free

Sample ‘Legend of the Seeker’ for Free

Legend of the Seeker debuts on Saturday as a first-run syndicated series.  To let people sample the series, an extended preview is available as a free download at Apple’s iTunes store. Legend of the Seeker: A First Look is actually the first 30 minutes of the two-hour first episode.

The series is from executive producers Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert, who gained fame for their work on Hercules and Xena.

"Fans have been clamoring to get a first look at the series and based on the early response from the clips released on the Legend of the Seeker website, we knew this would be a huge success with audiences," Janice Marinelli, President, Disney-ABC Domestic Television said in a release.

Craig Horner (Blue Water High) and Bridget Regan (The Black Donnellys) star in the series originally entitled Wizard’s First Rule. The 22 episodes are being shot in New Zealand. Horner is Richard Cypher, a simple woodsman who becomes the magical leader who partners with Kahlan to put an end to a tyrant’s reign.

The book series launched in 1994 and the complex story has played out through eleven novels and one novella. Each volume is largely self-contained but the threads continue from book to book. Confessor, out last year, is said to end the current story cycle but Goodkind intends to revisit the world in future works.

For times and channels in your area, consult the show’s website.

I am Spartacus!

I am Spartacus!

  • News
  • October 27, 2008

The cry of “I am Spartacus!” will once more resound, this time weekly. Starz will air a new 13-episode series from executive producers Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert and Joshua Donen.

The premium movie channel has already produced Crash, a weekly series based on the Oscar-winning film, which began airing several weeks back. This will be the first in-house production for the channel. Steven S. DeKnight (Smallville) will be the head writer and showrunner.

Raimi, Tapert, and Donen developed the series and intend to produce the series in New Zealand in time for debut next summer. Each episode is likely to have a budget in excess of $2 million, surpassing their other series, Legend of the Seeker.  The world of ancient Rome will be digitally rendered, a first for a weekly TV series.

No casting has been announced as yet.

The real story of the slave who led a rebellion against his Roman captors in 73 A.D. was immortalized in the 1960 movie starring Kirk Douglas which won four Academy Awards. It was most recently retold as a 2004 miniseries starring ER’s Goran Visnjic and Rhona Mitra.

"This is not going to be at all like the 1960s Kirk Douglas film," Starz Entertainment executive vp programming Stephan Shelanski told The Hollywood Reporter. "We didn’t want your typical sword-and-sandals. It’s going to be fun, fast-moving, full of action and interesting characters and have a little more depth to it than the 1960s film."

Shelanski says the channel acknowledges the storytelling has to be done for an audience primed by movies like 300.  Being a premium channel, they can go for R-rated violence and storytelling. "It will bring the younger audience who has grown up on graphic novels and video games this heightened reality; it’s not going to look like anything you’ve seen before, especially on TV," said executive vp original production William Hamm. Hamm has previously worked with Raimi and Tapert at Universal TV to produce the similar Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.

Sam Raimi and Paramount Lock Up ‘Monster Zoo’

Sam Raimi and Paramount Lock Up ‘Monster Zoo’

  • News
  • March 12, 2008

Variety is reporting today that Paramount Pictures has acquired the live-action feature film rights to the as-yet unpublished Douglas TenNapel graphic novel Monster Zoo for producer Sam Raimi and his Buckaroo Entertainment company.

At this point, Raimi is not expected to direct the project, which is also being produced by Josh Donen and Ellen Goldsmith Vein. Monster Zoo, which is set to be published by Image Comics in the spring,  tells the story of an ancient artifact that is found and transported to a zoo in the United States. There, the idol’s spirit awakens and starts to mutate the zoo’s animals and turn them evil.

Once this begins, a group of teenagers must band together to try to stop the evil monsters from destroying the world.

No word yet on who will be adapting the graphic novel for the screen or directing. But when there is, we’ll bring it to you.

Saturday morning Spider-Man, Spider-Man…

Saturday morning Spider-Man, Spider-Man…

If you’re like me, some of the happiest moments in the Spider-Man films came when Sam Raimi found a spot to slip in the theme from the ’67 animated series. So, for your listening pleasure, we have some cover versions of the song, from Michael Buble…

…to the Ramones.

And for some additional information about that animated series, we highly recommend Wallopin’ Websnappers for a look behind the scenes at the show.

Look out. Here comes the you-know-what.

Jake Gyllenhaal to play Captain Marvel?

  • News
  • March 15, 2007

First we hear Maggie Gyllenhaal is being courted to replace Katie Holmes in The Dark Night. Now the New York Daily News gossip columnists are reporting that her brother Jake Gyllenhaal is in line to play Captain Marvel in New Line Cinema’s proposed Shazam! movie, based on the DC Comics series.

The paper’s Rush & Molloy column, citing anonymous sources, reported that the movie is New Line’s bid for a franchise on the order of Batman and Superman. "They’re ready to spend up to $200 million to get it started," one source told the columnists.

The columnists also reported that director Peter Segal and his fellow producers want to nab Gyllenhaal before Spider-Man director Sam Raimi does, as Tobey Maguire has said he may let someone else play the webslinger in subsequent installments.

What, Fred MacMurray isn’t available to play the Big Red Cheese?

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