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Holy Crossover! Teen Titans Go and DC Super Hero Girls Team-Up

Holy Crossover! Teen Titans Go and DC Super Hero Girls Team-Up

BURBANK, CA (February 14, 2022)—WarnerMedia Kids & Family announced today exciting news surrounding the hit Teen Titans Go! franchise.To kickstart a super-powered summer, the Teen Titans and DC Super Hero Girls will reunite during Memorial Day weekend to combat Lex Luthor and his unified gang of DC Super-Villains in Teen Titans Go! & DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse. The all-new, feature-length animated TV movie event from Warner Bros. Animation promises action, adventure, plenty of hilarious moments and will be available from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on Blu-ray Combo Pack (USA $24.98 SRP; Canada $29.98 SRP), DVD (USA $19.98 SRP; Canada $24.98 SRP) and Digital starting May 24 , 2022. Fans can also catch the movie event on Cartoon Network premiering Saturday, May 28 and then on HBO Max beginning June 28.

Also announced today, Cartoon Network has picked up another season of Teen Titans Go! from Warner Bros. Animation. Season eight will premiere later this year and will continue expanding the Teen Titans universe, debuting new characters from the DC Universe including Beard Hunter, King Shark and many more as well as welcoming new surprise celebrity guests. As the longest running animated series in DC history, season eight will also mark the series reaching the 400th episode milestone.

“The undeniable success of Teen Titans Go! , with its signature blend of action and subversive Super Hero humor, is a testament to the phenomenal work of executive producer Pete Michail and the show team,” said Sam Register,  President, Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network Studios. “Seven seasons, one theatrical feature film, multiple specials, celebrity cameos, and no end in sight, this show has carved out its own lane in the acclaimed legacy established by the original Teen Titans animated series.”

More about Teen Titans Go! & DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse:

With the help of an ancient Kryptonian power, Lex Luthor unites the world’s Super-Villains to capture all of Earth’s Super Heroes, until … only the DC Super Hero Girls are left to stop the Legion of Doom. Our heroes must cross dimensions to rescue their fellow Super Heroes from the Phantom Zone, but a fortuitous wrong turn leads them to Titans Tower – where they find much-needed allies in the Teen Titans. The young Super Heroes discover their combined strength – and usual comic relief – are essential to save the day in this blockbuster event! 

Episodes of Teen Titans Go! and DC Super Hero Girls will be included as bonus content on the Blu-ray and DVD.

The cast of Teen Titans Go! & DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse features a Who’s Who of the voice acting community, including Kimberly Brooks (He-Man and the Masters of the Universe) as Bumblebee, Greg Cipes (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) as Beast Boy, Keith Ferguson (Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends) as Batman, Will Friedle (Batman Beyond, Kim Possible) as Lex Luthor & Aquaman, Grey Griffin (Scooby-Doo franchise) as Wonder Woman, Young Diana, & Giganta, Phil LaMarr (Samurai Jack) as The Flash, Hawkman, Green Lantern/John Stewart, Scott Menville (Stretch Armstrong & the Flex Fighters) as Robin, Max Mittleman (ThunderCats Roar) as Superman, Jessica McKenna (Star Trek: Lower Decks) as Aqualad, Khary Payton (The Walking Dead) as Cyborg, Alexander Polinsky (Blaze and the Monster Machines, Charles in Charge) as Control Freak, Missi Pyle (Galaxy Quest, Gone Girl) as Cythonna & Speaker of Nations, Tara Strong (Loki, Ben 10, Unikitty!) as Raven & Harley Quinn, Nicole Sullivan (Family Guy, Black-ish) as Supergirl, Cree Summer (Rugrats, Better Things) as Catwoman & Hippolyta , Fred Tatasciore (Family Guy) as Jor El & Solomon Grundy, Myrna Velasco (Star Wars: Resistance) as Green Lantern Jessica Cruz, Kari Wahlgren (Rick and Morty) as Star Sapphire & Zatanna, and Hynden Walch (Groundhog Day) as Starfire.

Teen Titans Go! & DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse is directed by Matt Peters (Injustice, Justice League Dark: Apokolips War) and Katie Rice (Animaniacs) from a script by Jase Ricci (Tangled: The Series). Producers are Jeff Curtis and James Ricci. Supervising Producer is James Tucker (The Death and Return of Superman). Executive Producer is Sam Register.

Teen Titans Go! & DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse – Special Features

Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD

From the DC Vault:

  • Teen Titans Go!: Season 2: Operation Tin Man
  • Teen Titans Go!: Season 4: Titan Saving Time
  • DC Super Hero Girls: Season 2: #SmallVictories
Patience by Daniel Clowes

Patience by Daniel Clowes

It’s never a good thing to realize, halfway through, that you’ve read a book before. Especially when you’ve just bought a shiny new copy, and the realization includes the fact that another copy – just as shiny, also bought new – is probably on a shelf upstairs in your house. (I haven’t looked yet; maybe it isn’t. Maybe I read it from a library the first time?)

You see, if you read a book again on purpose, that’s fine: it means you remember it, and want to experience it again. And reading a new book is obviously normal. But thinking it’s new to you when it isn’t – that’s not a good experience.

So I re-read Patience  yesterday (as I write this). It was the 2016 graphic novel from Daniel Clowes, and is still his most recent book. I read it for the first time in 2017, and let me take a second to re-read what I wrote about it then.

OK, I agree with all of that. Clearly I didn’t remember it deeply, and I trusted my Books Wanted list more than I should have, but it’s a solid Clowes story , very much in his usual style and manner. For all of Clowes’s characters’ histrionics , I find I don’t really engage emotionally with them: they are very emotional people who Clowes often seems to be examining like a scientist with a bug.

That may be one reason why I don’t remember Clowes stories viscerally: they’re all distanced to begin with. The Clowes affect subliminally says “these people are damaged and wrong in various ways; pay attention to them but don’t care about them.” I doubt Clowes intends this affect for Patience, but it’s so ingrained into how I read his work, so tied to his art style and method of viewing characters, that he’d need to change a lot to break that habit. And I suspect I’m not alone in this.

Anyway, Patience is a good Clowes book that didn’t impress itself strongly in my memory. Everything I said in my old post is still how I’d characterize it as a story. I have no new insights to impart. Come back tomorrow; with luck, I’ll have a read a book for the first time and have something interesting to say about it.

Reposted from The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.

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Brian Augustyn: Night and Day

For Nadine, Carrie, and Allie.

Mark Waid suggested we express our condolences over Brian’s passing and tell you what he meant to us. Brian meant far more to me than I could ever express with words, but I’ll try.

I have a mentor program, Bad Boy Studios. Alisande Morales (Ali), Brian’s former assistant is an alumnus.

When I learned Ali was working with Brian, I told him she was excellent; he said Ali was the best thing to come out of Bad Boy Studios, and that’s saying something.

So I told him an Ali story.

Every person from the studio knows the story I’m talking about; I only have to say one word. Phone.

I never told Ali what Brian said. I asked Brian not to say anything to her , I promised Ali I would not share that story with anyone outside of the studio. He asked me not to mention his comment. She had just begun working there; that’s not the thing you tell a newbie. 

I don’t break promises to anyone. This wasn’t just anyone. This was Brian.

This was Brian, who spent an hour on the phone with me in the middle of his day. That doesn’t seem like a big deal on the face of it, a DC editor spending an hour on the phone with an artist doing a book for DC.

Except I wasn’t doing a book for DC anymore, I was fired. Losing that book was horrific for me, but I now understand it could have been much worse. I didn’t know then; I’ve only known that I suffered from bipolar depression for a few years.

Looking back , it seems Brian talked to me for an hour as if he knew something about me I didn’t. He said Mike Gold was working to put me back on the book and to have faith. “Having faith” is unquestionably the last thing that I believe when despondent.

I believed Brian.

That night I was able to sleep with no destructive thoughts or dreams. The next day, Mike Gold called with the news I was back on the book. Again I couldn’t sleep, but this time from excitement and happiness.

 After being in a bad place for the last few years , I’m in a good place now. I promised myself I would stop writing about painful subjects to protect that good place.

I kept that promise to myself until a former student passed. After writing about him, I pledged to avoid painful topics again. This was an oath made to myself I broke; that could be a lot of therapy hours.

Not telling his family the good Brian did for me was never an option.

I won’t need therapy, like hundreds if not thousands of people; I’ll miss him, but I’ll be fine.

Besides, this wasn’t just anyone I was writing about; this was Brian. 

My deepest condolences to his family, friends, and fans for your loss.

May Brian rest in peace and power.

Brian Augustyn 1954-2022

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Skyscrapers of the Midwest by Joshua W. Cotter

The memory of a book is not the same as an initial assessment , or a re-read. Looking back, when starting to write about Joshua W. Cotter’s excellent graphic novel Skyscrapers of the Midwest , I see that I read it at almost the same time as Nate Powell’s Swallow Me Whole. At the time, I said Skyscrapers was my favorite, but I’ve thought about Swallow much more often in the past decade, and returned to Powell’s work in a way I haven’t for Cotter.

So which of the two is “better”? 2008 Andy thought it was Skyscrapers. The default Andy of about 2010-2020 would probably say Swallow if asked to choose between the two. And today, after I’ve just re-read Skyscrapers?

Today I think I’m going to say picking between two books by completely different people is a silly game, that books are not in competition with each other in any sense other than for attention in the moment. The world is wide; there’s room for everything. There’s especially lots of room for strong books.

But today I have just re-read Skyscrapers. And I seem to be avoiding writing about it directly – maybe because what I wrote in 2008 is still entirely applicable and I don’t really have anything to add to that. This is the story of a boy who probably is a semi-fictionalized version of Cotter himself , at the age of 10 in 1987. I wrote about a lot of the impressive elements of the story a decade ago, and I only have a few things to add to that.

There’s a subplot here about a young man – eighteen or twenty, I guess – who looks a lot like the young protagonist and is in a bad relationship (almost entirely because of him) with a woman of the same age. Reading Skyscrapers this time, I wondered if that was supposed to be a flashforward, the same boy a little older. I don’t think so: the rest of the book is set in 1987, and there’s no transitional elements to imply that shift in time. More importantly, he interacts with the main plot once, so he must be a different person – maybe similar, maybe a warning of what the protagonist could become.

There’s also some fake-nonfiction elements as part of the package – the letter column is answered by a cowboy named “Skinny Kenny,” as the biggest example, but there are also some fake ads and similar stuff. This is loosely incorporated into the overall story, since “Skinny Kenny” replies to letters that, at least in one case, is clearly by a character in the story and is about the story.

But those are the only major pieces I didn’t mention in my old post: otherwise, I agree with what 2008 Andy said. This is impressive, and it still struck me in 2021 as a lot like a more humanist, less formalist version of a Chris Ware story: similar elements about a similar childhood, with the story heading in a different direction and with a very different art style. In Ware, the story is about how a boy is irreparably broken – whether because of comics, or just adjacent to comics isn’t really important. For Cotter, the hermeticism of a boy’s imagination is both positive and negative, like so many things in life, and his characters need to have other connections, especially to family, to get through those tricky years.

We do sense that this boy will get through; he won’t be broken like a Ware character. And I’m reminded that I’ve lost track of what Cotter has been doing for the past decade, so I really should see if he’s done anything else this strong.

Reposted from The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.

In. by Will McPhail

This graphic novel is just too damn good to be Will McPhail’s first book-length project. He has to have a drawer-full of stuff, or maybe he’s published short work somewhere. The drawing I completely believe; I’ve seen his cartoons and they’re assured enough that I believe he could easily make the jump from single panels to juxtaposed images. But the story here? How does someone go from a one-line joke to a full-realized story of almost three hundred pages?

So, um, yeah, this is pretty good. In. is apparently the first long narrative Will McPhail has created, and it works from beginning to end.

It’s about this guy, Nick, who lives in a big city (not unlike McPhail, who lives in Edinburgh, though this city is more vaguely New York) and works as an artist (also not unlike McPhail). He’s got a sister , as a surreal scene that Nick falls into – it’s related to the topic, loosely and visually, but McPhail is not illustrating what Nick learns. Instead, he’s showing what it feels like: a visual, comics metaphor for a deep human connection.

The rest of the book looks like McPhail’s cartoons: line art with light washes of gray for emphasis and texture. But the surreal sections are fully painted, and striking every time they appear. (McPhail also signposts that a color scene is about to begin by zooming into the speaker’s face and showing their eyes in color: another nice visual metaphor about seeing that only works in comics.)

I don’t want to detail what the story is about from there: every story is in the telling of it. Nick does start out a bit immature, a bit unconnected – that’s the point – and learns how to be different. Along the way, McPhail does things right both big (those surreal scenes, the overall flow of the book, all of the characterization) and small (a dozen throwaway joke names for coffee bars and alcohol bars, an amusingly arch depiction of Nick and Wren’s first sexual encounter).

One of the most impressive things, particularly for a first book, is that I can point to something like a dozen things that McPhail does really well, and nothing at all that I’d seriously criticize. No book is perfect, but I’d be hard-pressed, even as a former editor, to point to anything in In. that I’d have red-penciled or asked for revisions on.

So: yeah. Really impressive. Thoughtful, deep, meaningful, lovely. Takes advantage of the comics form brilliantly, though I can still see someone wanting to turn this into a movie. (They’d probably screw it up, since it’s already as good as it can be, but it would have four great parts to entice various actorly types.) If you haven’t read it, you probably will want to.

Reposted from The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.

Zachary Levi Trades Magic Word for Pigskin in American Underdog

Zachary Levi Trades Magic Word for Pigskin in American Underdog

SANTA MONICA, CA (January 18, 2022) – Based on the inspirational true story of two-time NFL MVP, Super Bowl MVP, and Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner, American Underdog arrives on Digital February 4 and on 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack (plus Blu-ray and Digital), Blu-ray Combo Pack (plus DVD and Digital), DVD, and On Demand February 22 from Lionsgate. From The Erwin Brothers (I Still Believe and I Can Only Imagine) and screenwriters Jon Erwin (I Still Believe and I Can Only Imagine) & David Aaron Cohen (Friday Night Lights) and Jon Gunn (I Still Believe), the film stars Zachary Levi (Shazam!, Thor: The Dark World, Chuck, Academy Award® winner Anna Paquin (Best Supporting Actress, The Piano, 1993; X-Men franchise, The Irishman), Ser’Darius Blain (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Jumanji: The Next Level, Charmed), and Primetime Emmy® Award nominee Dennis Quaid (Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie, The Special Relationship, 2010; The Day After Tomorrow, Far From Heaven, In Good Company). 

American Underdog tells the inspirational true story of Kurt Warner (Zachary Levi), who went from a stockboy at a grocery store to a two-time NFL MVP, Super Bowl champion, and Hall of Fame quarterback. The film centers on Warner’s unique story and years of challenges and setbacks that could have derailed his aspirations to become an NFL player – but just when his dreams seemed all but out of reach, it is only with the support of his wife, Brenda (Anna Paquin) and the encouragement of his family, coaches, and teammates that Warner perseveres and finds the strength to show the world the champion that he already is. American Underdog is an uplifting story that demonstrates that anything is possible when you have faith, family and determination. Based on the Book “All Things Possible” by Kurt Warner with Michael Silver. Screenplay by Jon Erwin & David Aaron Cohen and Jon Gunn. Directed by The Erwin Brothers.

The  American Underdog 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack , Blu-ray Combo Pack, and DVD will be available for the suggested retail price of $39.99, $39.99, and $29.96, respectively.  4K ULTRA HD / BLU-RAY / DVD / DIGITAL SPECIAL FEATURES

  • Audio Commentary with Directors Andrew and Jon Erwin, and Producer Kevin Downes
  • “Inspired” Featurette
  • “Making the Cut” Featurette
  • “A Coach’s Faith” Featurette (on 4K and Blu-ray™ only)
  • “New to the Scene: Hayden Zaller” Featurette
  • “Meet the Champion” Featurette
  • “Behind the Game” Featurette
  • “American Underdog: Behind the Story” Featurette
  • Deleted Scenes with Optional Audio Commentary by Andrew Erwin
  • Theatrical Trailer (on 4K and Blu-ray™ only)

PROGRAM INFORMATION
Year of Production: 2021
Title Copyright: American Underdog © 2021 American Underdog , LLC. Artwork & Supplementary Materials ®, TM & © 2022 Lions Gate Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Type: Theatrical Release
Rating: PG for some language and thematic elements
Genre: Inspirational Drama
Feature Run Time: 112 Minutes
Closed-Captioned: N/A
Subtitles: Spanish, French, English SDH
4K Ultra HD™ Format: 2160p Ultra High Definition, 16×9 (2.39:1) Presentation 
Blu-ray Format: 1080p High Definition, 16×9 (2.39:1) Presentation 
DVD Format: 16×9 (2.39:1) Presentation 
4K Audio Status: English Dolby Atmos, English Descriptive Audio, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Audio, French 5.1 Dolby Audio 
Blu-ray Audio:  English Dolby Atmos, English Descriptive Audio, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Audio, French 5.1 Dolby Audio 
DVD Audio:  English 5.1 Dolby Audio, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Audio, French 5.1 Dolby Audio, English Descriptive Audio 

Alias the Cat! by Kim Deitch

I don’t know if all of the Waldo stories are consistent. I don’t know if they can be consistent, or if Deitch would want them to be.

I kind of hope they aren’t, actually. Memory is flawed, history is misunderstood, the past is a mystery. And demon-creatures shouldn’t be completely knowable, able to be nailed down to a specific timeline.

Alias the Cat!  is a Waldo story: it’s almost twenty years old now, but close to the last major Waldo story to date. It followed A Shroud for Waldo and The Boulevard of Broken Dreams (probably the centerpiece of the Waldo universe) and was in turn added onto by The Search for Smilin’ Ed. Deitch’s most recent book, Reincarnation Stories, is a similar style but doesn’t include Waldo as far as I remember.

What does any of that mean?

Well, Deitch presents himself as an autobiographical cartoonist, one fascinated by popular entertainments of the early 20th century: cartoons, circuses, movie serials, comic strips, carnivals, and so on. Ephemeral stuff, things that are largely forgotten or lost. His big stories, for the last thirty years or so, tend to combine his discovery of some old piece of entertainment with a retelling of that old story – or the circumstances surrounding those people, or a complicated combination of the two. We get comics pages of Deitch talking to the reader directly, about the things he’s discovered, and pages of him doing things in his life, and we also get stretches retelling the history he’s discovered, or – as in this book – supposedly reprinting old comics by someone else from a hundred years before. It all combines together into fictions that mimic non-fiction, as surreal and supernatural elements are first hinted at and then leap into the center of the story.

They’re impossible, and Deitch presents them all as if they’re true. I’d say he presents them “straightforwardly,” but he doesn’t – Deitch portrays himself as excitable, eager to chase down these crazy ideas, as maybe more than a little bit naïve or gullible, someone always ready to believe in a great story.

Alias the Cat! is a three-part story: it appeared originally as three separate comics, in 2002, 2004, and 2005, and each volume has that Deitch energy and enthusiasm – each one has that air of “hey, look at what I just discovered!” They each end inconclusively, with mysteries left unsolved: even the third, even the end of this book and story.

Again, that’s the nature of history, of the kind of stories Deitch tells. There’s only so much Deitch-in-the-story can find out, only so much that has survived a hundred years. Only so much Waldo will tell, or allow to be told.

Waldo is a anthropomorphic character, like a black cat – call him Felix’s evil twin, or dark doppelganger. He was a character in forgotten ’20s cartoons, or a real creature impossibly in the real world, or a supernatural entity centuries old, or a hallucination only seen by the insane: he’s all of those things in turn, or at the same time. He’s a trickster at heart, a hedonist who has been everywhere and done everything and is ready to tell entertaining and possibly even true stories about those places and things.

As Alias the Cat! opens, Deitch-the-character insists he’s never met Waldo, and that he’s not saying that Waldo is a real person in the actual world. He likes Waldo stuff

Reposted from The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.

Candyman Remake Comes to Disc

Candyman Remake Comes to Disc

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
The Vestron Video Collector’s Series unleashes unholy terror when Candyman: Day of the Dead, the third installment in the original Candyman series, arrives on  Blu-ray™ (plus Digital) January 18 from Lionsgate. Based on the characters created by acclaimed horror writer Clive Barker , this film stars Donna D’Errico (Baywatch, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, 9-1-1), Robert O’Reilly (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), and Tony Todd (Candyman, The Crow, The Flas”). Candyman: Day of the Dead will be available on Blu-ray™ for the suggested retail price of $17.99.

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS
The Candyman is back, and he’s hooked on revenge! As the Day of the Dead celebration approaches the barrio of East Los Angeles, the tortured ghost is intent upon bringing his family together in a bloody reunion beyond the grave. Challenged to confront the horrifying legend of her ancestor, Caroline (Donna D’Errico, “Baywatch”) must come face to face with the monster who has destroyed her past — and now wants to steal her future — in this third installment of the electrifying Candyman series.

BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES

  • Audio Commentary with Director-Cowriter Turi Meyer and Producer-Cowriter Al Septien
  • Isolated Score Selections featuring an Audio Interview with Composer Adam Gorgoni
  • Interviews:
    • “On The Hook” — An Interview with Actor Tony Todd
    • “A Bloody Legacy” — An Interview with Special Prosthetic Effects Designer Gary J. Tunnicliffe
    • “Decay & Design” — Interviews with Director of Photography Michael Wojciechowski and Production Designer Marc Greville-Masson
  • English & German Trailers
  • Home Video Promo
  • Home Video Trailer
  • Still Gallery

CAST

  • Donna D’Errico     (Baywatch , Brooklyn Nine-Nine, 9-1-1)
  • Robert O’Reilly     (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
  • Tony Todd            (Candyman, The Crow, The Flash)

PROGRAM INFORMATION
Year of Production: 1999
Title Copyright: Candyman: Day of the Dead © 1999, Artwork & Supplementary Materials ®, ™ & © 2022 Lions Gate Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Type: Catalog Re-Release
Rating: Rated R for bloody violence and gore, sexuality and language.
Genre: Horror
Closed-Captioned: N/A
Subtitles: English, Spanish, English SDH
Feature Run Time: 93Minutes
Blu-ray Format: 1080p High Definition, 16×9 (1.85:1) Presentation 
Blu-ray Audio:  English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio™

The King’s Man & 3-Film Collection Coming in Feb.

The King’s Man & 3-Film Collection Coming in Feb.

LOS ANGELES , CA (January 24, 2022) – Uncover the secrets of the world’s most stylish spy organization and learn how it all began with the ingenious and action-packed origin story The King’s Man. From masterful filmmaker Matthew Vaughn, The King’s Man explores the mythology of the very first independent intelligence agency. Set in the historic WWI era, the lethal yet impeccably trained spies take on the ultimate mission to save the fate of humanity. Add the film to your Kingsman collection on Digital February 18 and on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD February 22.

Also for fans of the stylish spy series comes The Kingsman Collection. All three films, with bonus features, together for the first time. The collection will be available digitally on February 18 and as a collectible SteelBook on February 22.


Film Synopsis
Set during WWI, The King’s Man tells the exhilarating origin story of Kingsman, the world’s very first independent intelligence agency. As a collection of history’s worst tyrants and criminal masterminds gather to plot a war to wipe out millions across the globe , one man must race against time to stop them.

Bonus Features*

  • The King’s Man: The Great Game Begins Documentary
    • A Generation Lost – Discover how the filmmakers created a richly textured story that explores the origins of the Kingsman spy organization.
    • Oxfords and Rogues – Meet the phenomenal new cast of characters Matthew Vaughn has assembled.
    • All the World’s a Stage – Delve into the meticulous world-building of THE KING’S MAN with interviews, on-location footage, artwork, and details of on-set construction and design.
    • Instruments of War – Experience the analog spy tech and early 20th century weaponry utilized in THE KING’S MAN and see a breakdown of the precise execution and evolution of the major stunts and combat in the film.
    • Fortune Favors the Bold – Join Matthew Vaughn and his team for music scoring and sound design.
    • Long Live the Kingsman – Cast and crew reveal their thoughts about their collective journey through the very special experience of making THE KING’S MAN.
  • Featurettes
    • No Man’s Land – Experience the creative process behind the harrowing knife battle sequence in several stages: rehearsals, storyboards, interviews and on-set footage, culminating with the atmospheric VFX.
    • Remembrance and Finding Purpose – Learn about amazing organizations such as The Royal British Legion and Help for Heroes, two U.K.-based resources for recovery, well-being and employment for military veterans. Also hear why Matthew Vaughn strongly supports their mission.

*bonus features vary by product and retailer

Cast
Ralph Fiennes as Orlando Oxford
Gemma Arterton as Polly
Rhys Ifans as Grigori Rasputin
Matthew Goode as Morton
Tom Hollander as King George / Kaiser Wilhelm / Tsar Nicholas
Harris Dickinson as Conrad Oxford
Daniel Brühl as Erik Jan Hanussen
Djimon Hounsou as Shola
and Charles Dance as Kitchener

Directed by
Matthew Vaughn

Produced by
Matthew Vaughn , David Reid and Adam Bohling

Executive Producers
Mark Millar, Dave Gibbons, Stephen Marks, Claudia Vaughn and Ralph Fiennes 

Screenplay by
Matthew Vaughn & Karl Gajdusek

Story by
Matthew Vaughn

Music by
Matthew Margeson & Dominic Lewis

Based on the comic book
 The Secret Service by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons

Product Specifications
Street Date
Digital: February 18
Physical: February 22

Product SKUs
Digital: 4K UHD, HD, SD
Physical: 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack (4K UHD + Blu-ray + Digital Code), Blu-ray Combo Pack (Blu-ray + Digital Code) & DVD

Feature Run Time
Approx. 131 minutes

Rating
U.S. Rated R
*Rated R for sequences of strong/bloody violence, language, and some sexual material.

Aspect Ratio
Digital: 2:39:1
Physical: 2:39:1

U.S. Audio
4K Ultra HD: English 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos, English DVS 2.0 Dolby Digital, French  5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 7.1 Dolby Digital.
Blu-ray: English 7.1 DTS-HDMA, English DVS 2.0 Dolby Digital, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital.
DVD: English 5.1 Dolby, English DVS 2.0 Dolby, French 5.1 Dolby, Spanish 5.1 Dolby.
Digital: English Dolby ATMOS (UHD only, some platforms), 5.1 & 2.0 Dolby Digital, Latin Spanish 5.1 & 2.0 Dolby Digital, French-Canadian 5.1 & 2.0 Dolby Digital, English Descriptive Audio 2.0 Dolby Digital (some platforms)

U.S. Subtitles
4K Ultra HD: English SDH, French, Spanish
Blu-ray: English SDH, French, Spanish
DVD: English SDH, French, Spanish
Digital: English SDH, French, Spanish (some platforms)

http://my-home-page.com

The Law Is A Ass #459: THE SHOW WASN’T ACCURATE “FOR LIFE” OR MONEY

Nicholas Pinnock on "For Life" - ABC7 Chicago

Five minutes. Couldn’t ABC’s big new legal drama For Life go just five lousy minutes without a major legal mistake? Is that too much to ask?

Yes, ah say yes, it is.

Sorry about the bad Foghorn Leghorn impersonation. I had to do a bad Foghorn Leghorn impersonation, because I can’t do a good Foghorn Leghorn impersonation. And, I had to say, “Yes,” twice, as there were two major legal mistakes in those first five minutes.

In those first five minutes, a flashback introduced us to Aaron Wallace, a black nightclub owner in New York City who was framed for drug possession. He was convicted of a crime that neither he nor a one-armed man committed and sentenced to prison.

The show then jumped nine years to the present. Aaron was now an attorney arguing a motion for a new trial in his first case. And arguing it against Assistant District Attorney Dez O’Reilly, the same ADA who prosecuted Aaron and who didn’t know his opposing counsel was Aaron Wallace until he saw Aaron in the courtroom.

Then the show quantum leaped back into another flashback that revealed Aaron hasn’t been released from prison. He is appearing as a lawyer even though he’s still serving a life sentence.

Then the show, which was jumping around more than a five-year-old in a bouncy castle, came back to the present for a conversation between O’Reilly and his boss District Attorney Glen Maskins to explain how Aaron became a licensed attorney.

Aaron worked for the prison’s paralegal association helping other inmates with their internal prison legal matters. This got him unlimited access to the prison law library and computers, which he used to attend then graduate from first an online college and then an online law school. Aaron took the Vermont bar, because it was the only state that allowed someone with a degree from an unaccredited law school to take it’s bar. Then Aaron successfully applied to have his Vermont law license accepted reciprocally in New York.

Which brings us up to the five minute and two seconds mark of the show. Okay, I lied, it was five minutes and two seconds. So sue me, maybe you can get Aaron to take the case.

What’s wrong with that picture? Let’s start with ADA O’Reilly having no idea who his opposing counsel was until he saw Aaron in the courtroom.

Legal pleadings have a service clause, a paragraph in which the attorney who filed the pleading swears a copy of the pleading was served upon opposing counsel. It also includes the attorney’s address so opposing counsel can serve their responsive pleading. Aaron’s name and address, Bellmore prison, was clearly on display for O’Reilly to see. Unless O’Reilly didn’t read the motion before appearing in court to argue it, he should have seen Aaron’s name and address.

The show tried to explain why he didn’t see Aaron’s name. The ADA originally assigned to the new trial motion hearing went to the hospital when his wife had gone into labor, so the motion was only given to O’Reilly thirty minutes earlier. But that excuse, like a napkin in a deli, won’t cut the mustard.

If Dez O’Reilly was going to go argue against a motion he only received thirty minutes earlier, the first thing he’d do is read the motion. After all, he would need to see what arguments the motion made so he’d know what counter arguments to make. And when he read the motion, he would have seen Aaron’s name and address. Reading the motion is the first thing I would have done. But what do I know? I was merely a practicing attorney for 28 years, I didn’t play one on TV.

But that mistake, like a side of tots, is small potatoes. We’ve got bigger spuds to fry: The fact that Aaron is a licensed attorney in New York.

Ex-cons can become licensed attorneys and practice law. Isaac Wright, Jr., the real-life person whose story inspired For Life, did. While he was serving his sentence, Mr. Wright, with the help of a licensed attorney, got all the charges against him dismissed for prosecutorial misconduct. After he was released, Wright graduated college, then law school, and became an attorney. It took him more than a decade, but he did it.

Aaron took a shortcut. He managed to become a licensed attorney without first getting the charges against him dismissed. And while he was still in prison.

Which makes it unlikely that he would been admitted to the Vermont bar. Like all state bars, Vermont’s bar requires an applicant meet its character and fitness requirements. I’m sure those requirements would put a big old biggest frowny emoji on an application from a convicted drug offender who was serving a life sentence in another state and denied it. Most states don’t want people becoming criminals until after they’ve been admitted to the bar and have learned how to cover their tracks. It’s much less embarrassing that way.

The show told us a former state senator in New York vouched for Aaron to get him past the character and fitness requirements in New York. Maybe that former senator did grease the wheels in New York. But how much pull would he have had with the Vermont bar? About as much as a teddy bear in a taffy factory.

And what about travel expenses? Vermont would have had to pay to transport Aaron from a prison in New York to some Vermont courtroom every time he had a case to argue. That also should have caused Vermont to deny the application, as the other way would be to practicality and fiscal responsibility what balsa wood is to fighter jets.

But even if Aaron was admitted to the Vermont bar, he still wouldn’t have been able to get New York to grant him reciprocal admittance its bar. When states have a reciprocity agreement, members in good standing of the bar in one state can be admitted to the bar of another state without having to take the new state’s bar exam. New York and Vermont do have a reciprocity agreement, so Aaron could have had New York accept his Vermont license reciprocally. Provided he met the requirements of Rule 520.10 of New York’s rules for admission to the bar.

By now you should know me well enough that I shouldn’t have to spell out those requirements for you to know Aaron didn’t meet them. But like a jock strap that’s on backward, I’ll be anal retentive and tell you. Under Rule 520.10 New York will grant reciprocity to an applicant who has been practicing law in a reciprocating state, “for five of the preceding seven years.”

There is simply no way that Aaron could have been practicing law in Vermont for five years. He’d only been in prison for nine years, and, considering he was a full-time prisoner taking on-line courses in his spare time, it probably took him most of those nine years to complete his studies. Even if he was able to take a heavy caseload to accelerate his studies, he probably needed three years to complete the four-year college program then another two years to finish the three-year law curriculum. That’s five years. If he was working at optimum speed. Which means he could only have been practicing in Vermont for four years, not enough years for him to qualify for reciprocity in New York. So, no, Aaron probably wasn’t an attorney in Vermont and definitely wasn’t one in New York.

That’s what was wrong with For Life in just the first five minutes. Did the show get better from there? Well, I can honestly tell you that there were no more legal problems with the episode that I can write about.

In this column.

Next column… Well next column, I hope I can at least get us past the first commercial break.

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