Famed animator and director of all those great Peanuts TV specials passed away yesterday. He was 91. Cartoon Brew has a short remembrance and a link to a YouTube interview.

Guess who won’t be playing Catwoman and Jonah Hex

It should come as no surprise that a Warner Bros. representative has shot down the rumor that Cher will play an aging Catwoman in the sequel to The Dark Knight.

I’m a little disappointed, though. Oh, not that it’s untrue — really, did anyone think it was for real? — but that it was shot down so quickly. Four days is an awfully short life span for a casting rumor.

But another, longer-lived rumor also has bitten the bullet: Thomas Jane won’t be playing Jonah Hex in Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor’s upcoming adaptation.

That’s despite Jane’s Sean Young-like effort to convince the filmmakers he’s right for the role.

“He’s a great guy,” the directors said in a video interview with The Movie Blog. “But we don’t see the guy as Jonah Hex, to be quite honest with you. But we like him.”

The Ticker

• Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea has grossed $109.6 million in Japan since its July 19 opening, setting it up to become one of the biggest box-office hits of all time in that country. The Dark Knight isn’t faring quite as well there. [Variety, Slashfilm]

• Sony Pictures is auctioning a Spider-Man 4 “VIP experience,” which includes a set visit, walk-on role, meet-and-greet with cast, and a trip to the premiere. Proceeds to benefit Stand Up to Cancer. Bidding started at $5,000. [Sci Fi Wire]

• Relative unknown Max Makowski reportedly will direct Relativity’s adaptation of Voltron. [Latino Review]

• Robert Downey Jr. is in negotiations to voice a character in DreamWorks Animation’s superhero send-up Master Mind, produced by Ben Stiller’s Red Hour Films. Tina Fey also is expected to join the cast. [Hollywood Insider]

• Shots of a fully rendered CGI Astro Boy and concept art have leaked out from Imagi’s upcoming movie. [Astroboy Online, via First Showing]

A 20-minute LEGO Batman cartoon is being developed using the same engine as the upcoming video game.

Although details are sketchy, a producer for U.K.-based developer Traveller’s Tales tells GameIndustry.biz the cartoon will be a one-shot, at least initially, created “by a separate studio in the States.”

Warner Bros. bought Traveller’s Tales late last year.

“My understanding is that they will use the engine, the Maya files where the characters come to life, but they’ll be creating animated … I think it’s a 20-minute cartoon,” Rich Earl tells the website. “I’m personally quite intrigued to see how it comes out. Lego, every time they’ve had a new brand out, they’ve done some CGI stuff as well, but I think this will be quite different.”

Earlier this month Traveller’s Tales President Jon Burton hinted to Variety that children’s TV shows could be in his company’s future, now that it’s part of Warner Bros.

LEGO Batman: The Videogame is due in stores on Sept. 23.

The Los Angeles Times takes a look at the copyright issues surrounding the cartoon Steamboat Willie and Mickey Mouse, in particular recent allegations of an “imprecision” in copyright claims dating back to the character’s first appearance:

Film credits from the 1920s revealed imprecision in copyright claims that some experts say could invalidate Disney’s long-held copyright, though a Disney lawyer dismissed that idea as “frivolous.”

So does this mean I can finally publish my Steamboat Willie II: Electric Bugaloo comic? Not so fast, says one legal expert:

No one expects Disney, which declined interview requests, to surrender Mickey without an all-out legal brawl. And the cost of what has been an academic exercise would soar if moved into a federal courtroom.

“Law and equity might line up on the side of forfeiture,” said Michael J. Madison, associate dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. But “Disney has enough ammunition on its side to dissuade all but the most well-financed competitor, or any but the most committed public-interest advocates, from challenging Mickey.”

Also keep in mind that there’s a difference between copyright and trademark … Jeff Trexler talked a little bit about the differences between the two when discussing the Siegel/Superman case here. You can read the government’s definitions of both, as well as patents, here.

Via.

• How could there be so much confusion over who owns the film rights to Watchmen? At the heart of the dust-up between Fox and Warner Bros. is turnaround, a contractual mechanism that comes with all kinds of strings. Michael Cieply tries to untangle them and, in the process, discovers evidence that Warner Bros. may have settled an earlier rights dispute with Paramount — yet another studio that had planned to adapt Watchmen – by handing over the foreign distribution rights. [The New York Times]

• Fox will stream the premiere of J.J. Abrams’ Fringe and the second-season opener of Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles online at the same time they debut on television — but only on college campuses. Students, who are more likely to have computers than TVs in their dorm rooms, will be able to log in to the Fox website to watch. [Variety]

• The fourth volume of NBC’s Heroes – aka the second half of Season 3 — will be titled “Fugitives.” [io9]

• Kristen Bell has joined the voice cast of Warner Bros.’ Astro Boy. [Variety]

• Nicolas Cage will be the death of Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass, apparently. [Collider]

Marvel is teaming with renowned animation studio Madhouse to re-envision its super-heroes for four anime series set to premiere in spring 2010 in Japan.

According to Simon Philips, president of Marvel International, the characters will have reimagined origins and new looks to reflect Japanese culture.

“It will create an entire parallel universe for Marvel,” he tells The New York Times.

Founded in 1972, Madhouse has been involved in the production of such works as Death Note, Ninja Scroll, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, Paprika, The Animatrix, Batman: Gotham Knight, and the Hellboy animated features.

This is an actual exhibit.

New Fullmetal Alchemist anime series is in the works

Despite earlier suggestions to the contrary, studio Bones will announce tomorrow that a new Fullmetal Alchemist anime series is in the works.

The official word will come via the wraparound jacket band for the 20th volume of Hiromu Arakawa’s hit manga, due out Friday in Japan.

Rumors began circulating earlier this summer about a sequel to the hit series when a list of Bones’ animation staff members leaked online. The spreadsheet, which the studio said was fake, contained references to sequels for Fullmetal Alchemist and Darker Than Black.

The FMA sequel reportedly will be based more closely on the manga, from which the original anime diverged fairly early on in the series.

The Ticker

• Led by the blockbuster Dark Knight, Hollywood studios are heading for a $4 billion summer domestic box office — just about matching last year’s record haul. That’s despite lower attendance. [Reuters, via The Washington Post]

• Robert Downey Jr. says his starring role in Guy Ritchie’s Holmes – it’s based on a forthcoming comic by producer Lionel Wigram — will be “bad-ass”: “In the real origin stories of Sherlock Holmes, he’s kind of a bad-ass and a bare-knuckle boxer and studies the rare art of baritsu [fictional martial art created by Doyle for the final Holmes story, 1901's The Adventure Of The Empty House]. If you look baritsu up, they can’t even really tell you what it is, so it gives us a lot of leeway.” The movie begins shooting on Oct. 6 in England. [Premiere]

• Rumor mill: Is Ghost Rider 2 back on? [Slice of SciFi]

• What went wrong with the second season of NBC’s Heroes? [Time Out Chicago]

Editor’s note: Newsarama contributor and Olympics fan Seth Robison joins Blog@ to highlight “tangentially Olympic-related” comics and pop culture moments. You can read more from Seth on the Olympics at his blog Off The Podium.

By Seth Robison

When a show’s been on as long as The Simpsons — since 1989, or 1987 if you count the original Tracy Ullman Show shorts — you can’t blame them for going to the same well once in awhile for story ideas. So with 12 Olympic Games taking place (six of each season) during that same span, inspiration struck the show’s writers several times, with sexy results.

In the 10th season episode “The Old Man and the ‘C’ Student,” the International Olympic Committee improbably responds to Lisa’s impassioned plea for the Olympics to come to her fair town. The application is accepted, but Bart’s racially charged stand-up routine at the committee’s reception dooms the town’s effort. Tragically this spells the end of the Homer-designed official mascot, Springy the Springfield Spring.

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MGM wants to bring Jonas Moore comic to TV

MGM Domestic Television Distribution has optioned the U.K.-based multimedia online comic The Many Worlds of Jonas Moore for development as a series.

The comic, created by Howard Webster, blends photography, music, live-action footage and comics art to tell the story of Jonas Moore (portrayed by Colin Salmon), a video-game player in a future where the British Empire still reigns supreme and America is just one of thousands of virtual worlds.

Variety reports that Jonas Moore is part of MGM’s push to restart its television-production business.

The Ticker

• All of the hand-wringing about the future of Watchmen is probably unnecessary, according to entertainment attorneys: “Fox has no financial risk here in a movie that could produce revenues for it,” Dinah Perez says. “As such, I doubt that Fox is going to force Warner Bros. to shelve the movie. In all likelihood, a settlement will be reached whereby Warner Bros. gets to distribute the movie, and Fox gets a piece of the action.” [Underwire]

• Watchmen co-creator Dave Gibbons has seen a two-hour and 45-minute rough cut of the movie, which he says is “very sexy, very violent.” The addition of the Tales of the Black Freighter segments to the DVD will push the release past three hours. [Blockbuster Buzz]

• Iron Man director Jon Favreau is at work on the sequel — and on a political cause. [Hero Complex]

• The Lord of the Rings writing team is back together for The Hobbit and its sequel: Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens will collaborate with Peter Jackson and director Guillermo del Toro. [The Hollywood Reporter]

• Rumor mill: Is there turmoil on the set of X-Men Origins: Wolverine? [Splash Page]

• “After Watchmen, Hollywood Should Tackle These ‘Unfilmable’ Comics.” [SciFi Scanner]

• A timeline tracing the history of anime. [Variety]

• As expected Tropic Thunder unseated The Dark Knight this weekend, grossing an estimated $26 million. Don’t cry for Batman, though: Although it fell to No. 2, The Dark Knight has earned $471.5 million domestically, making it the second highest-grossing movie of all time, behind Titanic. Star Wars: The Clone Wars came in third this weekend, with $15.5 million. [Variety, The New York Times]

• Relativity Media is negotiating to pick up Voltron: Defender of the Universe after Fox’s New Regency put the project into turnaround. Relativity is shooting for a lower budget by making use of cost-effective “green-screen” technology used in movies like 300. Justin Marks, who wrote Greyskull and Supermax, penned the adaptation of the 1980s anime series. [Variety]

• Rumor mill: Apparently Punisher: War Zone will be rated R after all? Eh, I don’t care anymore. [FirstShowing.net]

• “5 Manga Movies We Want to See After Akira Blows Everyone’s Mind.” [io9.com]

• Warner Bros. is resurrecting Hanna-Barbera’s weird ’60s TV series The Banana Splits in a “multiplatform effort” that includes shorts and music videos and Cartoon Network. DVD and CD releases, as well as live performances, are planned to follow. Can Skatebirds be far behind? [Variety]

Editor’s note: Newsarama contributor and Olympics fan Seth Robison joins Blog@ to highlight “tangentially Olympic-related” comics and pop culture moments. You can read more from Seth on the Olympics at his blog Off The Podium.

by Seth Robison

“Tetsuo!”

Yell that in a room crowded with 20- to 30-somethings in America, and chances are that you’ll get the proper countersign back: “Kaneda!” The Japanese animated film Akira became a cult film sensation in the United States in the late 1980s and early 1990s. While it saw a limited theatrical release, Akira spread in a proto-viral manner on bootlegged VHS tapes and late night television.

While Akira started its life as a manga, it was the film that made the biggest waves — although if the massive six volumes were dropped into a pool, the effect would be the same. Unlike anything seen in western animation, Akira’s fluid look and excellent English dub made tens of thousands of fans and opened the door to Japanese pop culture. It laid the groundwork for the mass acceptance of the works of directors such as Hayao Miyazaki and TV series like Pokemon and Naruto, as well as the explosion of manga in bookstores and comic shops.

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As George Lucas keeps returning to the Star Wars well, I’ve become convinced of two things: 1.) that he should have left well enough alone; and 2.) anyone who breathes the air around Skywalker Ranch becomes instantly brainwashed and dubs Lucas’ every utterance a work of genius.

Case in point: Ziro the Hutt, the uncle of Jabba who’s introduced in the upcoming Clone Wars.

Shawn Adler of MTV’s Movies blog describes the purple-clad, peacock feather-wearing Ziro as “a gay stereotype that makes what Jar Jar Binks represented to the island of Jamaica look subtle by comparison. It’s not the look or design that pushes it over the top into stereotype, of course, but the voice (performed by Corey Burden), a lispy, high-pitched twang purposively reminiscent of Truman Capote.”

But how could Ziro, who should speak in a gutteral Hutt-ese that requires subtitles, end up with a lispy Southern drawl? Why, Lucas insisted on it!

“[Ziro], Jabba’s uncle, originally spoke in Hutt-ese, like Jabba and then he had a different sluggish voice just like Jabba, and then George one day was watching it and said ‘I want him to sound like Truman Capote’,” director Dave Filoni said. “He actually said that and we were like ‘Wow!’ It’s a hybrid of it but the inspiration is definitely there on Capote. It’s one of those things that takes him from being an interesting character and I think really does put him over the top and does something. He’s a favorite among the crew here.”

Yes, “wow.”

Filoni wouldn’t go so far as to label Ziro gay, though. He’s biologically asexual, apparently.

Some people think these are adorable. Others shudder at a moment’s glance. Whatever the reaction, these contacts are made for anyone that wants disproportionately large manga or anime eyes. Korean manufactureres G&G and Dueba seemed to have cornered the market.

The contact lenses are available in a large variety of colours and more importantly, have a larger diameter than normal contact lenses. The effect gives the wearer the appearance of gigantic irises for that alluring cartoony look. Both cosmetic and prescription lenses are available.

At $35-40 a pair online, big eyes are much more reasonably priced than a small nose and more readily available than the Astro Boy makeover.

Doed-eye wannabes can get these contacts through Shopping Times.

Found via Inventorspot.

Bryan Lee O’Malley points to an animated ad for the Scott Pilgrim series, created by Chris Niosi, and voiced by him and his friends.

I was covering another panel when this one was going on, and from what Carla told me, it was pretty hard to get in anyway … but now Adult Swim has posted a video from the Venture Bros. panel at the San Diego Comic-Con:

Check out the teaser trailer for Up, Pixar’s next film:

It debuted during the Disney panel at the San Diego Comic-Con.

Yahoo! Movies has the trailer for Wonder Woman, the direct-to-DVD animated feature from Warner Bros. Animation. The movie debuts in February.

Paramount and Plan B pick up Crilley’s Miki Falls

Paramount Pictures and Brad Pitt’s Plan B have acquired the film rights to Miki Falls, the manga-influenced series by Akiko creator Mark Crilley.

Sera Gamble (Supernatural, Eyes) will adapt the comic, which chronicles the final year of high school for Miki Yoshida. When she tries to befriend handsome new student Hiro Sakurai, she is rebuffed. Stubborn Miki, however, won’t take no for an answer, and uncovers a surprising secret about the enigmatic young man.

The four-volume series, which spans the seasons of the year, was published from May to December 2007 by HarperTeen.

The Ticker

• JK Parkin reported this from Comic-Con, but now the Hollywood trades have picked up on it: Disney has optioned Monster Attack Network, the AiT/Planet Lar graphic novel by Marc Bernardin and Adam Freeman. [Variety, The Hollywood Reporter]

• The current edition of Production Weekly lists Warner Bros.’ Green Lantern movie as in active development (that’s not exactly news), and provides a broad description that seems to stay true to the character’s origin: “Each sector of space is protected by a Green Lantern, possessing a power ring that uses a powerful green energy to do anything within the limits of the user’s imagination and will power. When the Green Lantern assigned to this sector of space finds himself dying on planet Earth, he tells the ring to find a suitable successor. The chosen replacement, hot-shot test pilot Hal Jordan, finds himself with a new job he never expected. [Slashfilm]

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Frames Per Second has video of Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn’s title sequence for the BBC’s coverage of the Beijing Olympics. The animation is based on the 16th-century Chinese tale Journey to the West.