Tagged: Universal Studios

Adult Swim’s ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the Animation’ Premier

Adult Swim’s ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the Animation’ Premier

As most of us know, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is coming to theaters everywhere this Friday, August 13. However, the movie isn’t the only Scott Pilgrim piece premiering this week. Universal Studios asked [adult swim] to create something promotional for the new film, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the Animation is what the network cooked up.

Titmouse, Inc., Chris Prynoski’s animation studio and long time contributor to [adult swim], produced a two-part animated Scott Pilgrim short that will premier Thursday, August 12 on [adult swim] between midnight and 12:30 AM during commercial breaks. It will also be available online at [adult swim]’s website, and at the [adult swim] and Scott Pilgrim Facebook pages the following day, August 13.

The animated short depicts scenes from Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novels that were left out of Edgar Wright’s film. The four minute short tells the story of Scott’s high school life, where he meets Lisa Miller and befriends Kim Pine, who later becomes the drummer for Scott’s band Sex Bob-Omb. The art is recognizably influenced by O’Malley’s work. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World actors Michael Cera, Allison Pill, Mae Whitman and Jason Schwartzman provided voices for the short.

Here’s a short clip from the animation:

Here’s the promo shown on television:

The Return of King Pong!

Remember Pong?
Remember Asteroids? Remember Atari?
Well, it’s back.

Since inventing the video game industry, Atari has changed hands and chief executives more times than a politician with Parkinson’s Disease.
They’ve got a new owner, a game industry veteran known for turning around
troubled companies, and he’s sure got his work cut out for him.

According to the ChicagoTribune, their plan is to come up with new versions of games like Missile Command and Centipede, but put them online for download or for play on social network sites. Evidently they’ve heard the whimper of baby boomers drowning in nostalgia.

They managed to bring Atari co-founder and Pong inventor Nolan Bushnell onto their board. “The company wasn’t just being mismanaged, it was being abused,” Bushnell said, without specifying exactly which of Atari’s countless owners was at fault.

The All-New yet All-Old Atari also is aggressively licensing its original logo for a slew of items, including bags, hoodies and wallpapers. Oh, yeah. They also want to do movies based on their properties and have signed development deals for Asteroids at Universal Pictures and Roller Coaster
Tycoon
at Columbia.

The new Atari should remember the immortal words of Rocket
J. Squirrel: “But that trick never works!”

Universal Options ‘Bakugan Battle Brawlers’

Universal Options ‘Bakugan Battle Brawlers’

Bakugan Battle Brawlers has been optioned by Universal Studios and Stuber Productions according to The Hollywood Reporter. The anime series currently is shown on Cartoon Network while toys and game come from Spin Master and Sega.

The series is based on a “strategic game that uses metal cards and magnetic, spring-loaded miniature figures that transform from marble-like balls into toy monsters.

“The show’s story line revolves around creatures called Bakugan and the young human battle brawlers who wield them. The creatures have such names as Pyrus Drago, Haos Tigrerra, Ventus Skyress, Subterra Gorem and Darkus Hydranoid that inform their character and power; they are involved in a battle in a parallel dimension called Vestroia that spills into ours.”

A total of 51 episodes were produced by TMS Entertainment and Japan Vistec and debuted in Japan last year. The English-language version has been handled by Nelvana which has produced 52 episodes.

Universal is currently seeking a writer for what they perceive to be a hot property that will translate well around the world.
 

Umbrella Academy: The Movie

Deadline Hollywood Daily reports that Universal Studios and Dark Horse Comics, the folks who brought us Hellboy II: The Golden Army, are continuing their long-standing relationship and fast-tracking a movie version of The Umbrella Academy. The Eisner-winning series was written by Gerard Way, former intern at DC Comics who later went on to international fame as the frontman for My Chemical Romance.

This proves what I’ve suspected for a long time: if you’re going to do anything big in the world– rock star, movie mogul, Eisner winner– you have to stop being an intern at DC.

Verbinksi and Bond to Remake ‘The Host’

Verbinksi and Bond to Remake ‘The Host’

Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski will remake the Korean thriller The Host for Universal Studios.  Verbinski will produce while commercials director Fredrik Bond will debut behind the camera. Mark Poirier (Smart People) will adapt the 2006 Bong Joon-ho-directed thriller according to Variety.

The film did record breaking business when it open in South Korea and the story “follows a town terrorized by a giant mutant squidlike creature hatched by toxins that flow into a nearby river from a military base. When the creature grabs a little girl, her dysfunctional family must band together to rescue her.”

Verbinski is at work on adapting the video game Bioshock while toying with the notion of Pirates 4. He and Bond knew each other and had been seeking something they could work on together. Previously, Bond’s commercial campaigns included the Nike, Adidas and Levi’s brands.

"It processes a few genres together, and visually it feels close to the stuff I’ve made over the last few years in commercials, the tonality of humor and the scale," Bond said.
 

Dark Horse Renews Partnership with Universal Studios

Dark Horse Renews Partnership with Universal Studios

Sci Fi Wire is reporting that Mike Richardson, founder of Dark Horse Entertainment, that he has struck a renewed partnership with Universal Pictures to develop a slate of movies based on the company’s many comics and graphic novels, including R.I.P.D.

"Actually, we’re quite busy right now," Richardson told reporters at an event celebrating the release of Hellboy II: The Golden Army on DVD. "The most immediate is R.I.P.D. … David Dobkin (Wedding Crashers) is directing. We’re doing it over at Universal Studios. We have a great script by [Matt] Manfredi and [Phil] Hay. R.I.P.D. stands for Rest in Peace Department. It’s based on a graphic novel by Peter Lenkov. It’s about dead cops that died in the line of duty that are sent back basically to get people who don’t want to come peacefully, people who stayed behind. It’s a lot of fun. … It has a few of the elements of something like a Men in Black, except this one has real scares in it. It’s not sort of a cartoon scares. A lot of humor, but real scary stuff going on."

Dark Horse and Universal have several projects predating the new partnership including the previously announced Emily Strange, the character created by Rob Reger and a staple at Hot Topic stores.

Freaks of the Heartland, based on the graphic novel by Steve Niles (30 Days of Night) has been placed with Overture and Richardson said David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express) will direct.

Steven Spielberg Turns Will Smith into ‘Oldboy’

Steven Spielberg Turns Will Smith into ‘Oldboy’

Following his work on Tintin, director Steven Spielberg is expected to work alongside Will Smith on an English-language remake of the 2003 Korean film Oldboy.

Variety reports that DreamWorks is securing the film rights for Spielberg and the film would be among the first under its new distribution deal with Universal Studios.

The trade says the original film tells of “a man gets kidnapped and held in a shabby cell for 15 years without explanation. Suddenly, he’s released and given money, a cell phone and clothes and is set on a path to discover who destroyed his life so he can take revenge."

Spielberg is said to be seeking a writer while the rights are being obtained.

Universal Enter’s ‘Dante’s Inferno’

Universal Enter’s ‘Dante’s Inferno’

Dante’s Inferno is one hot video game.  It must be considering Universal Pictures won a bidding battle for the unreleased Electronic Arts game according to Variety. The game, due out sometime in 2009, was optioned against a multi-million dollar purchase price, beating out Paramount, New Regency and MGM late last week.

Eric Newman and Marc Abraham of Strike Entertainment will produce the film version in conjunction with EA Entertainment.

While this was the first time EA sold movie rights to a game prior to release, it’s certainly not their first trip to Tinseltown. They have deals in place for The Sims at 20th- Century Fox and producer John Davis plus Mass Effect which is in development with producer Avi Arad. Universal and EA have danced before with Scott Z. Burns writing the adaptation of the Army of Two game.

Dante’s Inferno was written by Dante Alighieri in the early 1300’s and is the influential poem telling of Dante’s imaginary journey through the nine circles of hell.

‘Ghost Rider 2’?

‘Ghost Rider 2’?

While promoting Bangkok Dangerous, actor Nicholas Cage told a roundtable full of reporters that he and Marvel Studios have begun talks about a sequel to 2007’s Ghost Rider. If the story goes forward, Cage indicated Hell’s bounty hunter would next be found in Europe, working with the Catholic Church. The first Ghost Rider film was written and directed by Mark Steven Johnson and made on a $110 million budget.  Worldwide, it grossed $228,738,393 while earning mostly poor reviews. It did, though, perform fairly well on home video, a determining factor these days.

But first, Cage will begin shooting Kick-Ass in Toronto in the next few weeks. "I play a guy named Damon and I’m the father of Mindy, who is Hit Girl and I’m Big Daddy and I’m training my daughter to become a super-hero."

Beyond that, the lifelong comic book fan confirmed he will do a voice role for next year’s Astro Boy CGI film.  He also lent his support to the long-stalled Sub-Mariner film which has languished at Universal Studios for over a decade. The most recent Subby news is almost two years old with the studio thern announcing director Jonathan Mostow was signed to rewrite David Self’s script and direct.
 

Michael Cera in Negotiations to Star in ‘Scott Pilgrim’s Little Life’

Michael Cera in Negotiations to Star in ‘Scott Pilgrim’s Little Life’

Scott Pilgrim is an awkward nerd who spends most of his days rocking out, making video game references and battling his new girlfriend’s evil ex-boyfriends.

What better to play Pilgrim than Michael Cera, who has made his name playing awkard nerds in Arrested Development, Superbad and Juno?

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Cera is in final negotiations with Universal Studios to play the titular character in Scott Pilgrim’s Little Life.

The film is being written and directed by Edgar Wright, the director of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, who is also attached to Marvel’s Ant Man movie. The film is based on Bryan Lee O’Malley’s popular series of Scott Pilgrim graphic novels, published by Oni Press.

 

(via SHH)