David Fincher might be happy about the 13 Oscar nominations that his The Curious Case of Benjamin Button raked in, but that’s probably tempered by this bit of news.  The Hollywood Reporter confirms that has his film adaptation of Brian Michael Bendis and Marc Andreyko’s Torso graphic novel is in limbo.  Why?  Paramount let their rights to the graphic novel itself lapse.  Bendis himself is quoted in the piece, saying:

“It’s a weird and odd situation,” Bendis said. “We heard it was greenlit one day, then the next we heard it wasn’t. Hopefully, it’ll have a happy ending.”

Speculation on the lapse runs toward the general budget squeeze that all studios have been experiencing.

[Via The Hollywood Reporter]

While we reported earlier that Sam Rockwell was on for Iron Man 2, now it’s looking like the prospective Justin Hammer might not be nailed down yet.

Over at Sundance, a Q&A interview abruptly swerved into Marvel territory around 2:54 below:

Or, if you don’t want to watch, the real gem of the conversation — when asked by the Salt Lake Tribune about “kicking [Iron Man's] ass” as Justin Hammer, the Frost/Nixon star stammered:

I don’t know if… it’s, it’s, we’re… we’ll see. Hopefully it’ll work out. Fingers crossed.

Hopefully the fallout from the alleged lowball $250,000 offer for Oscar nominee Mickey Rourke hasn’t hurt the rest of the franchise.

I don’t know much about business, but I know what I like.

The changes in Diamond Comics Distributor’s policies pertaining to the minimums of solicited material is going to change the way some publishers do business, and I’m afraid that is going to affect some of the things I like.

I don’t know enough about the publishing industry, running a comic book company or a comic book store, or this strange beast known as “the Direct Market” to talk in any great detail about how Diamond’s changes (a story Matt Brady has been following closely) will impact any of the above, beyond what the publishers themselves have been saying in public this past week. And what AdHouse’s Chris Pitzer has been saying has me wondering about the future of comics storytelling, at least in a very few specific cases.

Long, rambling essay leading up to a discussion of Johnny Hiro, after the jump.

(more…)

SPOILERS ABOUND.

Something that we first caught wind of via Schwapp!!! . . .  A friendly word of warning to those wishing to avoid any and all spoilers related to the forthcoming Blackest Night.  Avoid like a Zombie Apocalypse any DC Direct product listings for September or October 2009.  You may have noticed that we ran the solicitations for April 2009; this includes a DC Direct assortment for four Blackest Night figures.

Here’s the version that we ran (after the jump . . .)  AGAIN, SPOILERS.  NO COMPLAINING IF YOU GO ON.

(more…)

You may recall that Playmates regained the Star Trek toy license a while back.  That seems to be a great move for them, as the reboot of the franchise appears to be a hotly anticipated film.  Of course, Playmates is ready to take advantage with a whole new line.  USA Today has a report and some exclusive photos.

There will be three scales for the figures: a 3-3/4″ line, a 6″ line, and a 12″ line.  A separate photo gallery shows some really terrific-looking playsets, including an incredibly detailed bridge and transporter room.  Of course, new communicators and a version of the Enterprise will be available as well.

[Via USA Today]

The New Moon casting rumors have been floating around ever since Twilight broke, so I’m not surprised to hear yet another one. But I determined that this one was blog-worthy because, well, it’s Dakota Fanning.

Child actors usually go through that awkward phase where they don’t really fit into any roles, but the previews from Fanning’s latest, the superhero movie Push, have her maintaining her eerie presence while adding a certain something. She looks awkward, yet comfortable in her own skin.

The role of Jane in New Moon (and the other Twilight sequels) isn’t exactly a nuanced one. She’s a young vampire with an ability to inflict intense pain on others just by smiling creepily at them. So Fanning might well be a perfect choice, since she’s got the looking-otherworldy bit down without having to work very hard at it.

But the character also has a twin brother, and where on earth are the producers going to find an actor who looks enough like Fanning?

(This is what I get for diving into Hollywood rumor mills.)

Hey, kids,

If you’re in the New York area and planning to attend NYCC (I’ll be there, which is reason enough to come!), you may want to check out the pre-convention party at Dave & Buster’s in Times Square.

From The Hero Initiative:

Thursday, Feb. 5, night before the New York Comic Con starts. Dave & Busters, Time Square. Be there!
http://tinyurl.com/djyagt

There will be booze. There will be free gift bags. There will be prizes. Did we mention THERE WILL BE BOOZE?

Again, be there.

From NYCC:

There’s going to be a raffle to benefit The Hero Initiative, and among the expected guests are Joe Quesada, Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner, Joe Benitez, Mark Brooks, Mike Perkins and more (click on the link; I can’t type them all).

And I hear there’ll be booze.  I’ll need a lot to get through the weekend.

Good news! Asylum Press is gearing up to release a new four-issue Fearless Dawn miniseries by Steven Mannion, beginning in April. It will be about the title character, a scantily clad good girl crime fighter in strange head gear, battling her Nazi dominatrix arch villain and another army of Nazi monsters or whatever. Look, it hardly matters, since this Mannion character? He’s an amazing artist.

Asylum released a collection of Mannion’s work under the title The Bomb last year, and it was something of a revelation. Along the lines of, Wait, this guy is fantastic, why have I never heard of him before?! The new Fearless Dawn series looks like it will be somewhat different—it’s in color and it’s focused on a single character rather than an anthology’s worth of characters and premises, for example—but as long as Mannion’s drawing it and his storytelling remains focused on lighthearted but two-fisted adventure, it should definitely be worth a looksee from fans of things that are awesome.

Because The Bomb? That was awesome. Since Fearless Dawn is still four months off, and all I’ve seen so far is this four-page preview at fearlessdawn.com, let’s talk about The Bomb, shall we?

(more…)

TV Guide says that Zatanna is coming to Smallville.  Actress Serinda Swan will apparently don the top hat in an episode later this season.

To quote the Guide itself:

Swan will appear in this season’s 17th episode, “Hex,” as Zatanna, a magician who grants birthday girl Chloe a wish. Having been through the wringer ever since Brainiac mind-boinked her and Doomsday crashed her wedding day, Chloe expresses a desire to lead the comparatively mild-mannered life of Lois Lane. Voilà! Chloe magically inhabits Lois’ (and thus Erica Durance’s) body for the bulk of the hour.

Clark is also granted a wish. But what could he possibly want for?

All right, readers . . . who from the classic JLA still remains unseen on Smallville?  Aside from the obivous Batman and Wonder Woman . . . isn’t it about time that a GL dropped by?  Frankly, I’m still waiting for Lana to turn into Insect Queen for an episode.  Or did I miss that already?

By Christian Beranek

Recap: Last column found our favorite CB not only without pizza — but a future as well!

I had been sitting in my house for over thirty minutes listening to a guy from the future go on and on about the end of comics. He seemed kinetic, erratic and perhaps a little bit drunk — oh yeah, and he said his name was Bill.

I had had enough, so I made the future harbinger of present-to-his past of our future doom get to the point:

“So Bill, when exactly did comics start to fall apart? What led us to The Collapse of 2021?”

“Comics got cocky. You see, in 2009, despite your weakened economy, the medium is thriving. The kissing cousin relationship with movies may be considered the driving force, but it’s actually the quality of the product that is the lifeblood — and those librarians and educators are slowly building support. But in 2009 comics still feels like the bastard step-child not allowed any ice cream.”

“Comics as in the comic industry?” (more…)

As we reported here at Blog@ earlier in the month, the live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender film — despite being a series inspired by Asian and Inuit culture — being cast primarily with white actors.

However, Derek Kirk Kim has a really eloquent post explaining why, as an Asian man, he is so upset with the casting decision. Here’s a choice quote:

You can read the rest of the post here. The petition at the bottom has gotten some big-name supporters, including Steve Lieber and Dark Horse associate editor Samantha Robertson.

The 81st Academy Award Nominations were released this morning, and I have a few thoughts on the nominations, as well as a few T-Rex sized bones to pick with the Academy. How well did The Dark Knight make out? Join me after the jump and find out.

(more…)

If you like what’s you’ve read so far totally check out more super cute comics at:www.sosuperduper.com!

Joshua Kemble, winner of the Xeric Grant and author of Three Degrees, has been named a finalist for the Threadless Bestee award, a prestigious award for T-shirt designers.

This is his design, called “Attack of Literacy”:

You can vote for the winner by clicking here. The award comes with a $20,000 prize as well as major kudos throughout the industry.

While a bit late in the game, viral marketing has begun for the Watchmen film. The New Frontiersman, the conservative newspaper from the graphic novel, has released the following clip on YouTube:

Better blue than red? It seems like a brave new world in the Alan Moore-inspired universe, as the clip above directs you to the New Frontiersman‘s web site… but what happens when no one is watching the Watchmen?

It’s one of the many games getting great genre buzz this year, and even made out list of top 9 for ’09. It’s using the original cast, the original writers (who incidentally are one in the same). It is completely in continuity. It even picks up only a short time after the second movie, and according to Dan Aykroyd, has a story script 3-4 times the length of either movie. The Ghostbusters: The Video Game is bringing the franchise back in a huge way, and should be a boon to the reborn Atari when it comes out this June. Today, Atari released seven new screenshots, and from slime guns to close ups of digital Harold Ramis, it looks like this is going to at the very least keep the style of Ghostbusters intact. All screenshots are from the PS3 version of the game, and should match the Xbox360 version pretty well. Click Read More for the other six! (more…)

Joe Biden hasn’t had much time to settle into being vice-president yet, but he could get some advice from Top Shelf’s Veeps: Profiles in Insignificance. Veeps explores not only the ones you know (Dick Cheney, Al Gore) but the ones you probably don’t (Charles Fairbanks, John Nance Garner), and focuses as much on the insignificant-but-funny as the significant. In other words, it makes politics fun, even if you aren’t a junkie like me.

Veeps writer Bill Kelter and illustrator Wayne Shellabarger are due to appear on Air America Radio’s Doing Time with Ron Kuby today at 3 PM (EST). The website can tell you where to find a station, or you can stream the show live.

The Veeps creators have a blog full of political hilarity, if you just can’t get enough. BoingBoing also has excerpts, and of course, Caleb covered it for the mothership covered it back in November. And I’ll have more on it myself when the U.S. mail comes through for me.

And my source tells me that we’ll be seeing more from Wayne Shellabarger at TopShelf 2.0, Top Shelf’s online comics section. So keep an eye out.

Not much to say on this, other than I turned the news on not even aware that this was going to come up, and caught the Oscar nominations being read.

I know we’re all pulling for him.

He died a year ago today, and got his second Oscar nomination. (The first was for Brokeback Mountain.) I don’t like co-opting other people’s pain, but I still feel that the loss of Ledger was a loss for everyone who loves movies. And that’s most of us, after all.

The term “graphic novel” has been taken over by the pretentious and usually used to refer to hipper-than-thou underground comics. But since this is the year when, through the work of Heath Ledger and Christopher Nolan, the Joker went highbrow, it’s only fitting that the best original graphic novel I read this year was Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo’s Joker.

It’s not a sequel to the movie or a spinoff, but it perfectly captured the anarchic, frightening joy of Ledger’s performance. As Azzarello noted at this summer’s Wizard World Chicago, to actually get into the Joker’s head would ruin the character. He must remain utterly without guiding principles and motives to be truly frightening. This Joker isn’t the embodiment of evil, he’s the embodiment of lack of control.

Bermejo’s Joker looks like Ledger, but not in a distracting photo-realistic way. His face, especially the scars, is so textured you expect to feel it when you touch the page. In the background run familiar characters from the Batman mythos, even Batman himself, a murderously sexy Harley Quinn and a twisted new Riddler that we should be begging to see in the next Nolan Bat-flick.

But the star of the book is Jonny Frost, a guy just dumb enough, just mean enough to think he can run with the Joker. Jonny Frost, dressed all in white, a small-time hood, is also just nervous enough for the reader to sympathize with him, but no matter how many steps he takes to reach the Joker’s level, he’ll never really get there.

Ultimately, the only one who understands the Joker is Batman, and vice versa.

Our esteemed Jeff Trexler, after reading my last post about the Batsignal graffiti in Gloucester, sent me some additional superhero graffiti news.

In Long Island, a graffiti bridge mural of one Steve Rogers (may he rest in peace) has been given protected status.

The mural was painted in honor of 19-year-old Jordan C. Haerter, a Marine lance corporal who died in Iraq. While it’s known as the largest piece of graffiti in the city, the artist who painted the Captain America mural might not even get charged with vandalism.