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Fantasticar photos

Fantasticar photos

The Car Connection has pictures of the Fantastic Four’s new car from their upcoming movie, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Although no one explains how they get through Manhattan’s traffic, the Fantasticar has a HEMI that allegedly will let them go at 550 miles per hour. 

Chrysler Group chief stylist Trevor Creed participated in the car’s design, with Tim Flattery. According to the New York Daily News, the car can break into three sections and travel at 30,000 feet.

Which might be high enough to reach the head of a certain planet eater.

Song of the South to rise again?

Song of the South to rise again?

 

Disney’s first live-action motion picture (well, mostly), Song of the South, just might see the light of day once again. Locked up tight in their well-promoted archives since 1986 and never released on video tape, LaserDisc or DVD in the United States, the subject once again was raised at their annual shareholders meeting, this time in acknowledgement of a petition drive demanding the movie’s release. The petition has attained 115,000 signatures thus far.

It should be pointed out that Disney’s fear they might be seen as actively racist has not deterred them from releasing the movie overseas, and these prints have served as the basis of the great many bootleg editions that are commonly found in this country.

“The question of Song of the South comes up periodically,” Disney CEO Robert Iger told the Associated Press. “We’ve decided to take a look at it again because we’ve had numerous requests about bringing it out. Our concern was that a film that was made so many decades ago being brought out today perhaps could be either misinterpreted or that it would be somewhat challenging in terms of providing the appropriate context.”

The movie is historically important, and, of course, there’s that annoying First Amendment thing. It stars James Baskett as Uncle Remus and Hattie McDaniel as Aunt Tempy. Ironically, there weren’t a lot of starring roles given to blacks in 1946. Baskett was quite the star in the black movie circuit.

The song Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah won an Oscar as best picture, and the Splash Mountain rides at the Disney theme parks were inspired by the movie.

It is believed a DVD release will make a great deal of money for the House of Mouse.

Galactica plots its new course

Galactica plots its new course

Now that the third season is behind him and he’s got a full commitment from the SciFi Network for a third, Battlestar Galactica developer and executive producer Ron Moore decided to spill a few beans about what’s ahead for the series.

Moore revealed Katee Sackhoff will be back as Starbuck throughout the upcoming season, although he did not reveal if she was the final Cylon. Despite her previous public comments regarding her getting new work on other series, Moore told the trade magazine TVWeek "She was very careful how she phrased it. We wanted people to feel the loss. We didn’t want to put Katee in the position of lying to people. She did look for other work and is getting other work — just other work that won’t interfere with her "Battlestar" commitments."

He also disclosed the upcoming two-hour Galactica made-for-teevee movie that will be airing this fall (and available on DVD shortly thereafter) will not pick up from the point where season three left off, providing a convenient "jumping in" point for new viewers. "It didn’t feel right to try and resolve the cliffhanger with a single airing and DVD release. It didn’t make any sense. We told a story that takes place in the past in the "Galactica" universe but relates to events in the fourth season."

As has been widely rumored, Moore confirmed the possibility of a prequel series called Caprica. It’s "still in development," Moore said. "They’re not picking it up as a pilot right now. They’ve talked about doing a two-hour version of it, or a DVD. The longer it goes on, the less likely it seems that anything will happen."

Of course, if this fall’s stand-alone movie does well – or if the Star Trek theatrical prequel does extremely well (a longer shot, IMHO) – don’t be surprised if SciFi gets a lot more interested.

Orbit expands

Orbit expands

Publishers Weekly reports that the new Hachette science fiction imprint, Orbit, will publish Kevin J. Anderson’s new series, The Terra Incognita trilogy, starting in 2009. 

Anderson is co-author of six Dune prequels, written with Brian Herbert. His current series, Saga of the Seven Suns, will be published by Orbit, with volume six, Metal Swarm, part of the imprints debut line this fall.

With the launch of Orbit, Hachette will probably end the Warner Aspect line. In fact, PW reported yesterday that Warner Books, bought by Hachette, will change its name to Grand Central, starting real soon.

New Tolkien next month

New Tolkien next month

The BBC reports (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6494985.stm) that Christopher Tolkien finished his father’s last book, Children of Hurin, and it will be published in England, the United States, Australia and New Zealand this April 17.  The younger Tolkien spent 30 years on the book, which JRR Tolkien started in 1918.  Alan Lee is the illustrator.

There are no plans at this time for a film.

Yet.

Evan Almighty trailer first at The Office

Evan Almighty trailer first at The Office

The trailer for Evan Almighty will debut on this Thursday. NBC will premiere the trailer during its "Night at the Office" event, in which airings of multiple episodes of the hit sitcom will air over the course of that evening’s prime time (8 pm – 11 pm Eastern/Pacific; 7 pm – 10 pm Central).

 

Steve Carell, reprising his role as the polished, preening newscaster Evan Baxter of Bruce Almighty, is the next one anointed by God to accomplish a holy mission. Director Tom Shadyac returns behind the camera for this next episode of divine intervention. This time, however, his cast grows two-by-two.

Newly elected to Congress, Evan leaves Buffalo behind and shepherds his family to suburban northern Virginia. Once there, his life gets turned upside-down when God (the divine Morgan Freeman) appears and mysteriously commands him to build an ark. But his befuddled family just can’t decide whether Evan is having an extraordinary mid-life crisis or is truly onto something of Biblical proportions…

Set for a June 22th release, Evan Almighty also stars Lauren Graham, John Goodman, John Michael Higgins, Jimmy Bennett, Wanda Sykes and Jonah Hill.

Prepare for Spidey-3

Prepare for Spidey-3

If, while waiting for the release of Spider-Man 3 in about five weeks, you feel you need a recap of the first two movies but you just don’t have the time,you might want to check out 30 Second Bunnies Theatre.

This Starz / Anrgy Alien animated production is a nice, convenient way to remind yourself of the complete cinema saga to date. Like virtually all Marvel-related productions, it even has a Stan Lee cameo.

Oh, yeah. And all the parts are played by cute li’l bunny rabbits.

http://www.starz.com/features/bunnyclub/spiderman/index.html

Super-Wolf?

Super-Wolf?

There’s a stroy going around (DarkHorizon.com.) that Tom Welling, Clark Kent himself, will be the next teen wolf.

Whereas one would think he’s a bit gray in the pelt, Welling would be following a trio of actors who used the part to launch major careers. It all started in1957 with Michael Landon (Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie) in the classic motion picture I Was A Teenage Werewolf. 28 years later, Michael J. Fox used the Teen Wolf role to help in the transition from teevee to the big screen, and Jason Bateman followed in the sequel two years later with somewhat less success.

Personally, I’m holding out for another return of Quentin Collins.

A cool Archie Comic — on the ComicMix Podcast

A cool Archie Comic — on the ComicMix Podcast

We kick off a Big Week in Pop Culture, with a tip on a great Archie Comic out this week, when Ultimate Alliance will get bigger, the reason why The Turtles are cool again (Flo and Eddie?) and a strange story on what Elton John offered to Billie Jean King in the back of a limo.

Get there by clicking here:

DENNIS O’NEIL: On Arnold Drake

DENNIS O’NEIL: On Arnold Drake

For a lot of years I didn’t know much about Arnold Drake beyond some minimal biography: he was a first-generation comic book writer, he had written a movie or two. Then, last summer, we were thrown together for a public conversation at a small convention and for an hour I found Arnold to be charming, witty, a good raconteur, a treasury of information about the history of our medium, and way younger than his years. When we parted, Arnold gave me his card and we made vague noises about getting together in Manhattan, some time or other. We never did, and last week an email from Danny Fingeroth informed me that Arnold had died.

When I think about guys like Arnold, I’m reminded of the final scene of Herman Wouk’s play The Caine Mutiny Court Martial. You may remember it: Defense lawyer Barney Greenwald, having just cleared his Navy officer client of a charge of mutiny and, in the process, humiliated a career Navy man named Captain Queeg, arrives at the victory party and, bitterly, eloquently, regrets what he has done. Queeg and his ilk, Greenwald says, kept the Navy going during the years between wars, when there was no opportunity for glory, maintained the infrastructure so there was something to build on when the country was threatened.

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