Fanboys everywhere, including yours truly, always like to play Monday Morning Script Writer when it comes to comic book movies. Well, now's our chance as it appears Marvel is looking for a few good nerds to help with some of the upcoming "lesser-known properties" feature films.
Our friends over at Latino Review bring us the news:
According to the trades, Marvel is looking to expand its writing talent pool in order to get help with its upcoming Comic Book Film Bonanza that will fill the film slate for the next four years. Apparently they are gathering scribes that will help Marvel come up with creative ways to launch its lesser-known properties, such as Black Panther, Cable, Doctor Strange, Iron Fist, Nighthawk and Vision.
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Marvel will look for these scribes in house, picking up to five writers per year. I think this is smart; this is a good way to get some new blood and new ideas into the mix and get away from the stale story telling that seems to be plaguing Hollywood as of late. The story goes on to say that “So far, it has focused its efforts on more popular superheroes like Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, Thor and Captain America.”
Our guess is they will be looking for some sort of previous writing experience to fill these positions, but I think at least one hire should be someone who just happens to be a long time comic reader. There's no one better to help steer your ship then a small piece of your audience (as long as you pick the right one...me!).
Not sure exactly how one goes about submitting their resume for this, but we might suggest non-stop Twittering to the Marvel higher-ups until you get their attention.
Although this is entirely pure speculation at this stage, it should come as a surprise to absolutely no one that this is probably the case. Why wouldn't Fox, who has already made an ass load off of the three X-Men movies and will all but assuredly make another shit ton off the upcoming Wolverine movie, not already be planning a sequel to it so they can make fuck loads more? It makes complete sense.
What doesn't necessarily make sense is who is being rumored to write the script. Ain't It Cool News is reporting that the man with the adamantium testicles this time around is none other than Slumdog Millionare scribe Simon Beaufoy.
Wha?
Nothing against Simon, even though I didn't really care for Slumdog Millionaire, but why? If this report is to be trusted, Simon admitted to not even knowing what a "wolverine" is.
Score another one for the Hollywood best and brightest.
Again, at this point this is almost fifth hand information but it is the internet so that kind of makes it half true by default, right?
Sorry to be so cynical. Honestly, the upcoming Wolverine movie looks really well done and a sequel has got to be at least a year and a half away at this point. At least. That should give Simon some time to either realize that he isn't the best person for the job or to get really serious about it and make a ridiculously great second installment.
While this does leaves me scratching my head a bit, I do remain ultimately optimistic for the best.
So I picked up the first American Jesus trade yesterday (true to my word!). Haven't cracked the cover yet, but details of the pending movie have surfaced today.
Fresh off their collaboration on "Kick-Ass," filmmaker Matthew Vaughn and comics creator Mark Millar are in talks to reteam for another comic-book adaptation.
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A summer start is being posited, though Vaughn also is developing another project with Millar, a still-in-the-works actioner. Millar, while also writing such titles as "Wolverine" and "Ultimate X-Men," has written creator-owned comics that have caught Hollywood's fancy, including last year's summer hit "Wanted." He also has "War Heroes" set up at Columbia.
Mark has got to have more movies in development right now than Apatow Productions. OMG Spoilerz, Plz! can also confirm that Mr. Millar had quote "a great idea in the shower today" and Sony has already optioned the rights to it.
No- not really. We are still awaiting confirmation from Mark's publicist on that.
I wasn't reading comics in 2004. It was during one of my many few year long sabbaticals from the medium, so I missed Mark Millar and Peter Gross's American Jesus the first time around.
Thanks to the fine people over at Image Comics, I won't miss it the second time. Book One, entitled Chosen, is getting a rerelease today.
I think Mark Millar is a brilliant writer, but that's not news to anybody. He can be a bit hit and miss for me (ie. wasn't really into 1985 but LOVE Old Man Logan), but who isn't? Answer: Warren Ellis. But that's off topic.
American Jesus seems right up my alley. For those of you out there who are like me and didn't catch this when it originally came out, here's the brief synopsis from Image:
"From the writer of WAR HEROES, KICK ASS and the Universal hit, WANTED! It’s the next MARK MILLAR graphic novel set to become a feature film! AMERICAN JESUS, VOL. 1: CHOSEN follows a twelve-year-old boy who suddenly discovers he's the returned Jesus Christ. He can turn water into wine, make the crippled walk and perhaps even raise the dead. How will he deal with the destiny to lead the world in a conflict thousands of years in the making?"
I'll be picking this up today and will let you all know what I think.
I wasn't too impressed with the Watchmen movie. I think Zack Snyder did the best he could with it and it could have been a helluva lot worse, but I certainly didn't love it by any stretch.
Obviously, due to time constraints and more importantly trying to make the narrative of a film version as non-confusing as possible the comic within the comic was cut. Warner Bros. does fanboys everywhere a solid though and has released Watchmen: Tales Of The Black Freighter on DVD today. Judging by the above clip I'd say this looks pretty fucking rad. The animation looks beautiful and I'm guessing it will be a pretty faithful adaptation.
If you've seen this already or end up seeing it in the near future, let us know how it is.
First up- Torso, the 1998 crime comic by Brian Michael Bendis and Marc Andreyko. Paramount had aquired the rights to this and David Fincher was attached to direct, but it looks like the film studio has let let their option expire.
The Celebrity Cafe, via The Hollywood Reporter: "Paramount has had the rights for "Torso" since January 2006. The project drew interest with Casey Affleck and Matt Damon with reports on Damon being Fincher's choice to portray Eliot Ness. Hollywood Reporter says the option for Paramount to extend their rights on the film adaptation expired. The studio still owns a screenplay written for the movie by Ehren Kruger. There are still discussions with Paramount and the comics' creators whom now hold the rights. Fincher still remains attached to the project at this time."
As for Seth Rogen's The Green Hornet, rumors abound that ever since Stephen Chow is seemingly no longer the director on this it looks like it might not end up happening for a while (if at all).
"According to Drew McWeeny of HitFix.com, "Ever since Stephen Chow started to waffle about his participation in the film, I've been hearing rumors that there were major hesitations at Sony. Then at Sundance, I heard several people say that the film was off completely. I spoke this afternoon with a source close to the film, and while they didn't call it completely dead, they did say it is 'highly unlikely' that the film will shoot in 2009 at all." Sony is still listing The Green Hornet for a June 25, 2010 release despite the rumors."
Lest anyone think that anything comic book related automatically gets a greenlight in ol' H-Wood these days, it appears there's still plenty of reservations and hesitation as there ever was at times.
In other news, Paul Blart II: Mall Coppier! is already in pre-production.
More tidbits about that Preacher movie has surfaced on the nets. The news comes from Newsarama via Variety that John August will be handling the screenplay.
What's on John Augusts resume? Let's take a look:
Charlie's Angels (uh oh) Minority Report - uncredited rewrite (I don't blame him for wanting to be uncredited) Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (uh oh, pt. II) The Rundown - uncredited rewrite (with The Rock?!) Big Fish (ok, that's not bad) Charlie and The Chocolate Factory (fuck guys, we might be in trouble here)
Well, at least Newsarama is keeping a positive attitude. Oh wait:
"In the "things that make you go huh?" category, the trade describes the project as: centers on the preacher of a Texas town who is struggling to get by and is driven only by his strong moral sense. When the city is decimated by an otherworldly force, he embarks on a journey across the country to take on the evil. It's unclear if that's the studio's description of the storyline, or Variety's, but in either case it's...different than what was in the comics, as the years long storyline kicked off when Jesse Custer, a small-town Texas Preacher was imbued with the Voice of God during a church service, and the members of his congregation were killed. This kicks off a cross-country and ultimatley worlds wide search for God, physical rather than metaphorical."
What the shit is going on here? Listen Hollywood- you can fuck up Superman. You can make a shitty Spider-Man sequel. You can play grab ass with Marvel characters like Daredevil and Ghost Rider all day long. But do not- DO NOT - fuck with Preacher.
Consider yourself on notice.
P.S. At least Sam Mendes is still listed as director. We can cling to that for the time being.
"Yorick's sister, Hero, is in the script at this point, but she is not as much of a character as she was in the first draft," Caruso said. "Right now, she's sprinkled throughout, but she's not a major, major character."
Caruso added: "The 711 character is in it, and she's insane. She does teach [Yorick] a life lesson or two in a very interesting way. It's a comedic, yet horrifying, scene. She's very cool."
As for rumors that singer-turned-actress Alicia Keys is up for the key role of Agent 355? "It's too early to talk about who we're going to cast, and it's nice that the fanboys and fans are talking about it, but we haven't talked to her about it yet," Caruso said. "If we don't get Alicia Keys, though, I'm sure I'll make a pretty good choice."
Empire Online spoke with Sam Mendes about the recent news that he's the latest name (in a long list of names) that have been tasked with making a Preacher movie:
“It's brilliant, it's an incredible twisted vision,” he said of the 66-issue story. “There's so much of it you couldn't possibly fit it all into one movie. It's just about what you keep and what you leave out, and how you structure the story. But just to have that toy set again, being able to paint on a big canvas and to say ‘I am gonna do crazy crane shots and massive action sequences again because I want to,’ it's exciting..”
Crazy crane shots nonwithstanding, I gotta say I'm a purist when it comes to this one. Even though Garth Ennis himself apparently isn't that concerned about staying 100% faithful to the original comic, this is one I would like to see exactly the same as it is in print. I don't think Hollywood should be trusted with what's expendable when it comes to my favorite comic series.
The good news is Mendes doesn't even have a script yet, so this will probably never get made. I remember far enough back when Kevin Smith was going to direct this and have Ben Affleck star.
If they could just go back to the HBO idea it would all be ok.
Then again, if they are set on making a feature length movie out of this they need to let Garth write the script. The chances of it sucking go down at least 75%.
Charles Burns was interviewed by Shock Till You Drop and, amongst other things, he discussed his almost Zen outlook on the pending Black Hole movie:
Shock: How involved will you be in that movie considering that you are the original creator?
Burns: I made the decision when I signed the option that I didn't try to negotiate and gain any control because ultimately I think it would've been a kind of frustrating process in that I just want to kind of move onto something else. I want to move onto another story.
Shock: Right, you've been working on "Black Hole" for over ten years.
Burns: Yeah, and I think that I could've tried to write the script, I could've tried to negotiate being involved more, so I think that there's a possibility that I'd be involved, but I don't know.
FirstShowing.net has a user submitted review of a Brian K. Vaughn script for a movie called Roundtable. A quick Google search shows articles from as far back as June talking about this, but I didn't know about it so it's news to me. Here's what they had to say about it:
"The script begins with a medieval battle; peasants are running through the countryside yelling and screaming, but as the camera zooms in closer, we see worms crawling in and out of the bodies and discover that these are actually zombie peasants. Then enters a proud knight wielding a broadsword, gallantly mowing down zombies on horseback. But he is swiftly atomized by a magical blast from behind as we are introduced to the story's curvaceous antagonist, Morgana. She is levitating over her army of zombies, magic electricity sparkling from her hands, black hair blowing in the wind. Three other knights enter and stand with their swords at the ready in defense against the witch and her army. Morgana gets in a few cocky lines touting her own inevitable victory, when the knights reveal they have a magician on their side as well. A falcon swoops in from the sky as the legendary wizard Merlin materializes, the bird landing gracefully on his arm. He is described quite differently than a typical storybook Merlin. While he still has his swirling black robes and his white beard, he is portrayed by an American comical actor (the script suggests Jack Black or Seth Rogen). Merlin uses his superior magic and restrains Morgana as the remaining three knights plunge their swords into her. Morgana's body swirls and transforms into a looming tree and the zombie army disintegrates, leaving our heroes and Merlin alone on the top of this English hill. One knight asks what will happen if Morgana ever escapes, Merlin replies that new knights of England will be needed and at that time be called the defend the empire. And so the stage is set for our modern day 'knights.' Kind of lost me at the "Merlin is played by American comical actor" part, but hey I'll always give BKV the benefit of the doubt. On second thought though, Hollywood usually screws the pooch on stuff like this so I don't have the highest of hopes.
J.G. Jones is running late on his art for Final Crisis. Fuck dude, seriously? Doug Mahnke will handle pencils on the last issue.[Source: Comic Book Resources]
And finally, an open letter to whomever is in charge of these things on a topic I've remained silent on until now:
Dear whomever is in charge of these things-
If you decide to go forth with a Green Lantern movie, please do not let this guy play Hal Jordan:
Nothing against him in the slightest, but if you cast him the shit is going to suck.Thank you.- The Floronic Man
I was already finding it a little difficult to not run out and buy Dead Space. Then I discovered this two month old article about how Warren Ellis contributed heavily to the plot and backstory. Not enough time or money to be both a video game geek AND a comic book nerd! [Source: Wired]
Richard Donner spoke with the L.A. Times recently and mentioned that they should let Geoff Johns write the next Superman movie. Dear Warner Bros.- please, please, please listen to him! He knows what he's talking about. [Source: Newsarama]
Don Cheadle is replacing Terrence Howard as Col. James Rhodes in the Iron Man sequel. While I really dislike when they switch actors in mid-stream, I understand how it's really easy for that to happen. Oh- and Don Cheadle is awesome. [Source: Splash Page]
"Here they seek to redefine a character that is perhaps the most well-known character of the year. They made him even more recognizable by going for a look that combines the movie look and his traditional comic look. This book doesn’t technically take place in any strict continuity, but allowing for only a couple tiny changes, this could be smack dab in the film world. Herein you see the perfect way to introduce Killer Croc, Penguin (though with a different first name), and Riddler into the films. There’s also a unique take on Harley Quinn, and a fantastic supporting character (who’s also narrating) that grounds Joker’s insanity in reality."
There's a new clip of Punisher: War Zone up over at www.punisherwarzonemovie.com. The sound wouldn't work for me and the video stalled halfway through. No matter. There's an overwhelmingly possibility that this movie will, in fact, suck.
While I have to admit that I'm not exactly counting down the days until Watchmen hits theaters (I'm on Alan Moore's side when it comes to his work being made into movies), I'm still going to be one of the first in line to see it. Zack Snyder has agreed to stay pretty true to the text, so that's good news for us nerds. But what does that mean for non-comic reading fans? Sci-Fi has put together a list of ten reasons why Watchmen potentially might not appeal to everyone:
1. It's an alternate-history Cold War period piece. 2. Ridiculous-looking costumes. 3. Old Folks. 4. Zack Snyder. 5. Flashbacks and Allegories. 6. Lack of Familiarity. 7. Lack of Star Power. 8. Length. 9. A Lot of Exposition. 10. The Ending.
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