Tagged: Star Wars

George Perez, Geoff Johns, Jim Lee Added as NY Comic-Con Guests of Honor

George Perez, Geoff Johns, Jim Lee Added as NY Comic-Con Guests of Honor

Two more notable comic book celebrities will be joining the festivities at New York Comic Con (NYCC) this year as Guests of Honor. Affording thousands of fans the opportunity to meet them in person, Geoff Johns, who is well-known as a comic book writer of a number of DC Comics characters, including Superman, Green  Lantern and the Flash as well as for his work as a screenwriter; and superstar artist Jim Lee, known for his acclaimed artistic runs on titles including BATMAN, ALL STAR BATMAN and WILDCATS, will be attending NYCC to help launch the new Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing game, DC Universe Online (DCUO), produced by Sony Online Entertainment for PLAYSTATION 3 in collaboration with DC Comics and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. 

Both Johns and Lee will be signing autographs and they will conduct a large DC Universe Online event on Saturday, February 7, 2009.  New York Comic Con will take place at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York City, February 6 – 8, 2009.  

“Having both Jim Lee and Geoff Johns at our show is a great ‘get’ under any circumstance, but it’s especially cool to have them here to as part of DC Universe Online,” notes Lance Fensterman, Vice President and Con Manager for NYCC. “They will do a fabulous job entertaining our fans and I know that they will attract huge crowds, not only for autographs but also for their demonstration.  I am enormously grateful to them for participating in New York Comic Con and we’re pleased to have them as Guests of Honor.” 

“Jim and Geoff represent two of the top talents in comics, so it only makes sense that they’d transfer those skills to the gaming world,” said Dan DiDio, SVP and Executive Editor for DC Comics. “It’s a perfect fit to have them named Guests of Honor at New York Comic Con.”

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Ben Burtt Sounds Off on ‘Wall-E’

Ben Burtt Sounds Off on ‘Wall-E’

In ancticipation of Tuesday’s release of Wall-E on DVD, Disney Home VIdeo has provided us with an interview with Ben Burtt, the legendary sound effects maestro.

QUESTION: You had just finished a stint on Star Wars when you were offered Wall-E and I imagine the last thing you wanted to work on was robots?

BEN BURTT:
That is absolutely true. Creating the illusion of voices is the hardest task. It is hard to fool voices. When Andrew pitched this idea and I realized it was all robot voices at first I thought I  am sure I have anything left in me – have I got a new idea, But  fortunately it was a very different set of characters. Nevertheless I   am sure I approached the same, as I always would have because of my past experience. The idea always is to create the sense of a soul with the character with sound. You are given sounds or a few words and the aim is to create the feeling that these are talking machines.  You could have imposed a human voice on to the robots and audiences would have accepted that. But with Wall-E it was important to give the sound an aspect of being a machine. So I went about that task, my assignment was to create voices for the characters and audition them to Andrew. He had about10 minutes of the opening of the movie with sketches and storyboards and said it was a little peek of what he was trying to get. I was there from the beginning, which is the best thing. I am sure that when I started that they did not know that they were going to make his film – they were still having trials and one  of the hurdles to jump was to get the voices.

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‘Watchmen’ Tops 3Q Sales Charts

‘Watchmen’ Tops 3Q Sales Charts

ICv2

reports that graphic novels tied to feature film release saw a massive increase in third quarter sales.

“Sales of the Watchmen graphic novel exploded after the trailer hit theaters and it will clearly be the number one graphic novel of 2008, but a number of Batman-related graphic novels including The Killing Joke and The Dark Knight Returns also showed huge increases in sales, while Mark Millar’s Wanted graphic novel published by Top Cow clearly benefited from having a hit movie adaptation,” the site noted.

As the summer features arrive on DVD for the holidays, additional trade sales are anticipated.  Marvel cannily released additional Iron Man product when the related DVD came out September 29.

Manga did not suffer according to the site’s analysis, saying “Viz Media’s shojo series Vampire Knight, the top Manga series to debut in 2007 gained strength in 2008 and Viz Media also has one of the best new series of 2008, Rosario & Vampire, but with the maturing of the Manga market, the number of new releases slated for 2009 is declining, though the quality of those new series appears to be going up.”

Top Superhero Properties–Q3 08

1 Watchmen, DC
2 Batman, DC
3 Spider-Man, Marvel
4 Wanted, Top Cow
5 League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, DC/Wildstorm
6 Iron Man, Marvel
7 Marvel Zombies, Marvel
8 Hulk, Marvel9 Superman, DC
10 Green Lantern DC

Top Genre Properties–Q3 08

1 Star Wars, Dark Horse

2 Y: The Last Man, DC/Vertigo
3 Indiana Jones, Dark Horse
4 Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dark Horse
5 Dark Tower, Marvel
6 Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Marvel
7 The Walking Dead, Image
8 Fables, DC/Vertigo
9 Sandman, DC/Vertigo
10 Angel, IDW

WizKids shuts down

In another sign of the looming comics recession, ICv2 reports that Topps is shutting down WizKids, its core hobby gaming business, and temporarily discontinuing the WizKids product lines.

 

Topps CEO Scott Silverstein commented, “This was an extremely difficult decision. But in light of the current economic conditions, we feel it is necessary to align our gaming initiatives more closely with Topps current sports and entertainment offerings which are already being developed within our New York office.”  WizKids is based in Seattle, Washington. In its statement announcing the closing of WizKids, Topps also indicated that it was pursuing “strategic alternatives so that viable brands and properties, including HeroClix, can continue without any noticeable disruption.”

 

Founded by FASA veteran Jordan Weisman in 2000, WizKids launched the first successful collectible miniatures game, Mage Knight, and also produced the first constructible strategy game, Pirates of the Spanish Main, in 2004.  In addition to the successful comic book-based HeroClix CMGs, WizKids also released the Star Wars Pocket Model Game in 2007. WizKids was purchased by Topps in 2003, and Topps itself was picked up by Michael Eisner’s Tornante Company and Dearborn Partners in 2007.

Joe Johnston to Direct ‘Captain America’

Joe Johnston to Direct ‘Captain America’

Joe Johnston will be directing  First Avenger: Captain America for Marvel Studios. The director has signed a deal according to The Hollywood Reporter for the film which will open May 6, 2011 setting up the final pieces prior to that July’s Avengers film.

There is no casting as yet nor is there a screenwriter.

Johnston made his name as a special effects designer for George Lucas on the original Star Wars films prior to shifting to directing and his credits include genre fare such as the underrated The Rocketeer and next year’s Wolfman film with Benicio del Toro. Johnston met with Marvel Studio execs two years ago and hit it off so this is the culmination of that relationship.

Kevin Feige told the trade, "This is a guy who designed the vehicles for Star Wars, who storyboarded the convoy action sequence for Raiders of the Lost Ark. From Rocketeer to October Sky to The Wolfman, you can look at pieces of his movies and see how they lead to this one."

Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created the star-spangled avenger for Timely Comics in 1941 and produced ten issues prior to leaving for DC Comics.  The character, though, endured and became one of the three major stars of the comics line through the 1940s.  He was briefly revived in the 1950s but lay dormant until Stan Lee created the Marvel Universe.  For the fourth issue of the Avengers, he and Kirby told of how Captain America had been preserved in a state of suspended animation, trapped in a block of ice until the Sub-Mariner unwittingly tossed the chunk into the sea where the warmer waters melted the block. The Avengers found him and he returned to active duty. He has been a staple of Marvel Comics ever since.

Feige had previously indicated the film will be set during World War II and film students already saw a glimpse of the frozen form in an arctic sequence shot as an alternative opening for this summer’s Incredible Hulk.  We also saw Captain America’s fabled shield in Tony Stark’s lab in Iron Man and again, director Jon Favreau indicated Howard Stark had something to do with the shield as will be revealed in forthcoming films.

Captain America had been adapted twice before.  Once in two terrible telefilms for CBS and the aborted Captain America feature film from 1990 that never made it to theaters.  Matt Salinger portrayed the hero and was pitted against his immortal enemy the Red Skull, who was an Italian terrorist, not a a Nazi.
 

‘Warehouse 13’ Gains New Writers

‘Warehouse 13’ Gains New Writers

The Sci Fi Channel has announced that Jack Kenny (Book of Daniel) and David Simkins (The Dresden Files) have joined the writing staff of Warehouse 13, a new dramatic series scheduled to run for 11 episodes on the channel in July.

The series begins production this February in Toronto and stars Eddie McClintock (Bones), Joanne Kelly (Jeremiah), Saul Rubinek (Frasier), and CCH Pounder (The Shield). It was conceived by Farscape’s Rockne O’Bannon and the two-hour pilot was written by   O’Bannon, Jane Espenson (Battlestar Galactica) and D. Brent Mote.

The network describes the series this way:

After saving the life of the president, two Secret Service agents find themselves abruptly transferred to Warehouse 13, a massive top-secret storage facility in windswept South Dakota that houses every strange artifact, mysterious relic, fantastical object and supernatural souvenir ever collected by the U.S. government. The Warehouse’s caretaker, Artie (Rubinek), charges Pete (McClintock) and Myka (Kelly) with chasing down reports of supernatural and paranormal activity in search of new objects to cache at the Warehouse, as well as helping him to control the Warehouse itself.

Kenny and Simkins join co-executive producer Dana Baratta (Runaway), supervising producer Drew Greenberg (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Wars: The Clone Wars), co-producers Matt Federman and Stephen Scaia (Jericho) and staff writers Bob Goodman (The New Batman/Superman Adventures), Tamara Becher (Crash) and Ben Raab and Deric Hughes (The Operator, Afterworld).

Tartakovsky Armors Up for ‘Iron Man 2’

Tartakovsky Armors Up for ‘Iron Man 2’

Ain’t It Cool News has an in depth interview with Jon Favreau about all sorts of stuff, ranging from his upcoming Couple’s Retreat to the revolutionary effect James Cameron’s Avatar will have on the movie industry. One of the greatest tidbits dropped by Favreau involves, unsurprisingly, Iron Man 2. According to the helmer, cartoon genius Genndy Tartakovsky has come aboard the flick as a storyboarder.

"I’ve always liked [Tartakovsky’s] Samurai Jack and I loved his Clone Wars vignettes," Favreau tells AICN. "We’re storyboarding and designing sequences, he and his team have come in, and I’m working with them and they’re working on collaborating with us on the project and that’s a new wrinkle … I feel like I’m really learning a lot."

Favreau acknowledges that Tartakovsky is a newcomer to live action, but his extensive Marvel knowledge and skill set as a fight choreographer bring an interesting viewpoint to the super-hero sequel. Besides, having an animator on board ups the ante, says Favreau.

"[Audiences] don’t just want to see Iron Man 1 all over again, they want to see us take it to another level," Favreau claims. "With a guy like Genndy … it opened a whole new world of possibilities and I’m really enjoying [it]. It really makes it fun to go to work."

The Russian born Tartakovsky is credited for creating, writing and directing Dexter’s Laboratory and Samurai Jack. He’s also worked on The Powerpuff Girls, The Powerpuff Girls Movie and the Star Wars: Clone Wars animated featurettes. The animator has also pitched a cartoon series of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower to HBO, but the odds are lessened by the success of Marvel’s Dark Tower comics. Additionally, Tartakovsky is directing Power of the Dark Crystal, a sequel to 1982’s cult classic The Dark Crystal.

It’s important to note that Favreau’s interview with AICN took place prior to Terrence Howard’s removal from Iron Man 2. As such, no mention of Howard exists in the interview. Nonetheless, the site’s founder and webmaster Harry Knowles chimed in on the rumors surrounding the actor’s removal.

"[Howard] was either making demands (financial or creative) that the production wasn’t willing to address to the degree that would make Terrence happy," Knowles conjectures. "But Terrence and [his replacement, Don] Cheadle have a very similar pay scale currently. So I can’t imagine it is financial."

Knowles offers up an interesting alternative theory: "The other factor it could be is if Terrence made himself difficult to work with, I have heard some very weird things about him recently, that is the sort of thing I don’t repeat, but I do know if he pulled these types of things around Jon [Favreau]… I completely would see why Howard would be shown the door."

Harry Knowles and Favreau previously worked together on an adaptation of John Carter of Mars that never came to fruition. Given their relationship, it’s possible that Knowles has an inside scoop Howard’s removal. Still, it’s unlikely that Favreau would tell Knowles even if he did know the real reason. In all likelihood, the truth of Howard’s departure from the Iron Man franchise will become one of Hollywood’s great untold stories, or, even likelier, will be forgotten in a few years.

The Parting Glass, by John Ostrander

The Parting Glass, by John Ostrander

As I’ve mentioned before, one of my favorite films is a fine Irish delight called Waking Ned Devine. The closing theme is a lovely version of the Irish tune Parting Glass, an appropriate song to come to mind for many different reasons on this, my final column at ComicMix. The refrain of it reads like this:

So fill to me the parting glass / Good night and joy be with you all.

An appropriate lyric in particular since, last week I was at the funeral of my Aunt Helen who died peacefully at the age of 101. If you’ve read the column regularly, then you might recall the column I wrote when Helen reached her 101st birthday earlier this year. She died peacefully in her own apartment in Chicago, sitting on the sofa, the morning paper beside her. The TV set was still on and she had, by all reports, a peaceful expression on her face.

My family was sorry to see Helen go, of course, but I wouldn’t say her wake was a solemn affair – nor would she have wished it to be. The youngest of the great grand nieces and nephews, ages two or so, played in front of the open casket, turning somersaults and squealing. Helen would have adored that – especially the incongruity of it. As my nephew, Fred Ludwig (who has a fine writer’s voice himself) wrote for part of her obituary, Helen “had a laugh that could fill a room.” I think I heard it there that night.

As I mentioned in that other column, at her 90th or 95th birthday, Helen received many a bottle of bourbon, almost all Seagrams 7. Enough whiskey to stock a liquor store. She laughed as she received each gift and said, “Oh, you know my brand.” She continued to have one highball a day, towards dinnertime, in the tradition of her father, who also lived to be 100. Her stash was found in the apartment – there was plenty left – and brought to the wake in a discreet side room where family and friends could repair to lift a parting glass to Helen without disturbing other wakes also being held at the funeral home. Helen would also have appreciated that – and the toasts.

She left bequests and had her funeral all organized – who was going to do what, what songs were to be sung, what readings at the church – the same church she had attended all her life – and who was to do them. My brother and I were both to do the eulogy. I began my part by “blaming” the Chicago Cubs for her death. Helen was such a Cubs’ fan. For the recessional we all sang “Take Me Out To the Ball Game.”

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Chris Pine Talks ‘Star Trek’

Chris Pine Talks ‘Star Trek’

Right now, fans across the world identify Captain James T. Kirk with actor William Shatner. That’s likely to change when the J.J. Abrams helmed Star Trek premieres this coming May with newcomer Chris Pine in Kirk’s captain’s chair. Collider got the chance to speak with Pine at the recent Hollywood Awards, where the actor initially shrugged off the epic scope of his upcoming film.

"[I’m in] a small, small movie called Star Twars," jokes Pine. "It’s a mix between Star Trek and Star Wars."

Pine acknowledges that he’s stepping into some hefty shoes, and knows that some fans are already "giving the middle finger" to the project. However, the endorsement of Kevin Smith was a huge morale booster for the young actor. When he found out about Smith’s glowing review of both the film and Pine’s performance, Pine was through the roof.

"[I sent him an e-mail and said], ‘Thanks dude. I couldn’t have asked for a better thumbs up from someone [of Smith’s caliber]," Pine says. "This far away from the release date, to have someone say I did a good job, especially with the potential naysayers out there, it was a nice ego boost for a Wednesday."

Unless Kevin Smith can create millions of clones, Pine and the rest of the Trek team will need to appeal to a much wider audience. In that regard, the soon-to-be Kirk isn’t worried about the detractors.

"It’ll be what it’ll be," says Pine. "People will like [our movie] or they won’t.  I’m really proud of it. From what I’ve seen I think we did a great job. We just have to leave the rest [up to] the peanut gallery."

For now, after months of fighting Romulans and avoiding Spock’s death grip, Pine’s working on a project that’s just a tad more small scale.
 

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Three Head Down the Rabbit Hole

Three Head Down the Rabbit Hole

Following the news of Crispin Glover’s casting as the Knave of Hearts in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland comes word that Christopher Lee and Eleanor Tomlinson are joining the cast, while Danny Elfman confirms his involvement on the musical end of things.

SlashFilm reports on Lee’s casting, stating that the actor’s role in the film has yet to be made known. Speculation exists that he’ll either play The Caterpillar, King of Hearts or The White Knight. Lee is no stranger to fantasy films, as he’s played Sith Lord Count Dooku in Star Wars and Saruman the White in Lord of the Rings. He’s also a familiar face in the Burton circuit, having had roles in Sleepy Hallow, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride and deleted scenes of Sweeney Todd.

Sixteen-year-old Eleanor Tomlinson has snagged the all original role of Fiona Chataway. Fiona, created specifically for Burton’s vision, is a spiteful young peer of Alice’s who appears in the film before Alice journeys down the rabbit hole.

Danny Elfman, meanwhile, is set to contribute to the score for Wonderland. Elfman is a staple in the Burton universe, composing music for Batman, Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas, among others.