• The runaway success of The Dark Knight may be to blame for Warner Bros.’ decision to move Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince from Nov. 21 to July 17. Industry insiders say the shift could stop next year’s profits from looking anemic in comparison. “They don’t need the money this year anymore,” says a rival studio executive. “When a movie overperforms the way Dark Knight has, you really don’t need Harry Potter in the fall.” [Hollywood Insider]

• Seeing a vacancy in the fall schedule, Summit Entertainment has moved the tween vampire sensation Twilight to Nov. 21 from Dec. 12: “With a giant franchise like Harry Potter in the market, we had to stay clear of it,” said Summit co-chairman Rob Friedman. “Their move created an opportunity to bring the movie to fans three weeks earlier, who have continued to show their enthusiasm, from Comic-Con to the giant Breaking Dawn book sales. We felt we had to take that opportunity.” [Variety]

• TheWB.com will officially launch on Aug. 27. It will feature not only old WB fare like Smallville, Gilmore Girls and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and some new content, as was previously announced, but will also feature programs that aired on other networks, like Veronica Mars and Firefly. [Variety]

• Rumor has it that Lionsgate wants Punisher: War Zone to be released as a PG-13 film, rather than with the previously planned R rating. That follows the still-circulating rumor from last month that director Lexi Alexander, who didn’t appear at Comic-Con, had been removed from the project. [Latino Review]

• Could David S. Goyer bump X-Men Origins: Magneto in favor of The Invisible Man? “I’m in the process of doing [Invisible Man] right now, and I’m working with some conceptual artists in tandem with writing the script. … So it could be Magneto, or it could be The Invisible Man next.” [MTV Movies Blog]

• Justin Marks, who’s writing Grayskull – the He-Man movie — says the adaptation will stay true to the ’80s cartoon series, while working within a somewhat logical framework: “The script is very true to the characters — we’re not talking about putting nipples on the Trapjaw suit. But we had to come up with a reason again why Trapjaw would actually not just be something that’s totally absurd, but why he would need those bionic parts added to him.” [MTV Movies Blog]

• “Besides the Clone Wars, the Star Wars Comics Introduced Us to Talking Bunnies and the Dark Lady of the Sith.” [SciFi Scanner]

• A fan creates a hypothetical Dark Knight sequel — one featuring The Riddler as the villain, of course. Are you reading this, Brian Austin Green? [Slashfilm]

Compiled by JK and Kevin.

Who’s ready to embrace change? Are you ready to embrace it? I am, if it means the skrulls won’t blow up my Twitter account:

“You will conform. You will assimilate to our ways. Because they work. And because you have no choice,” reads one of their tweets. I’m not worried, though. Pretty soon they’ll be so wrapped up in the daily life of Agent M and his kittens or trying to overcome the Twitter failwhale that they won’t have time to take over the world.

The Twitter account is part of a bigger “Embrace Change” viral marketing thing from Marvel, which also includes posters that look like they came from the Barack Obama campaign:

Related: Editor’s notes to Brian Michael Bendis on Secret Invasion #1

Access Hollywood shares a deleted scene from Iron Man, which comes out on DVD Sept. 30:

I should add, the scene features Ghostface Killah and lots of fireworks …

Although the ultraviolent nature of Kick-Ass may have caused Hollywood studios to pass, Matthew Vaughn is pushing forward with the $30 million adaptation using money he raised himself.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Superbad) in negotiations to play Red Mist, the son of a mobster who tries to discover the main character’s identity. Chloe Moretz (Dirty Sexy Money) already has been cast.

Based on the Marvel/Icon series by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr., Kick-Ass follows high-school nerd Dave Lizewski, who reinvents himself as a superhero. The role hasn’t been cast yet.

Vaughn, who produced and directed Layer Cake and Stardust, originally shopped the movie to Sony, who balked because of the violence. Other studios wanted the protagonists’ ages to be increased.

Vaughn wrote the screenplay with Jane Goldman (Stardust). Production is set to begin this fall.

Editor’s note: Newsarama contributor and Olympics fan Seth Robison joins Blog@ for the next 10 days or so 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

Triathlon

Who needs one hero, when you can have three? Well, it’s not really three heroes, its one guy with the power of three people. Three regular people, mind you, but three fit and healthy people, which helps this one hero be three times and strong, fast, and agile as any one person could be by himself.

Confused? Let me help. This hero, Triathlon, is named after the endurance sport that subjects its competitors to a contest of swimming, cycling and running great distances sequentially. This sport, popular with the self-flagellation crowd, made its Olympic debut at the 2000 Sydney summer games (what, they couldn’t do it in the winter? Wimps!) where Simon Whitfeld of Canada won with time of 1:42:24.02 after 1500 meters in the water, 40km on a bike and 10km on foot (not counting time spent powdering chafe marks).

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• Warner Bros.’ adaptation of Arvid Nelson’s noirish alternate-history series Rex Mundi is chugging ahead. Co-producer Barry Levine says a second draft is due in from Fight Club screenwriter Jim Uhls. Now co-producer and star Johnny Depp must settle on a director. [Splash Page]

• Iron Man 2 screenwriter Justin Theroux says the movie won’t take on a darker tone: “You know, I tremulously went and watched The Dark Knight myself, but it’s a totally different movie, like, you know that Tom Cruise movie where he played the race-car driver? What was that movie called … anyway. It’s like comparing that movie to Talladega Nights — it’s two totally different animals. We have a leading man who can sort of relish being a cad, and that’s a fun character to write for. We feel like we’re in the clear.” [Vulture]

• Last week a sentence in an Australian newspaper sparked rumores that the troubled Justice League movie is back on track. Not so, according to sources at Warner Bros. — of both the official and unofficial variety. [Spoiler warning: IESB]

• That IESB link includes supposed story details from the planned Green Lantern movie. [Spoiler warning: IESB]

• Lionsgate as acquired the film rights to Duane Swierczynski’s novel Severance Package; Brett Simon will direct. What’s the comics connection, you ask? Swierczynski is a crime novelist who now writes Cable and The Immortal Iron Fist for Marvel. Also, comics artist Tom Coker illustrated the cover of Severance Package. [Variety]

• Brian Austin Green, of Beverly Hills 90210 fame, would love to play The Riddler. [Splash Page]

The Dark Knight probably won’t sink Titanic’s record

Despite breaking several box-office records, one may remain out of reach for The Dark Knight – the one set in 1997 by Titanic.

The romantic drama raked in $600.8 million domestically and $1.24 billion internationally to become the top-grossing movie of all time. So far The Dark Knight has scored $441.6 million domestically and $263.5 million internationally — that’s just in its first four weekends — which would seem to put it on course to sink Titanic.

However, The Hollywood Reporter points to an iceberg in The Dark Knight’s path: DVD sales. Warner Bros. likely will release the movie on DVD in December to take advantage of the holiday season, which will probably put a dent in the box office: “How many people are going to go see Dark Knight at the theater when it’s also playing in their living room?”

Don’t weep for Warner Bros., though. The Dark Knight is expected to cross $500 million by Labor Day, and reach between $515 million and $520 million before it leaves North American theaters.

The Ticker

• Watchmen director Zack Snyder discusses the movie’s run time — 2 hours and 50 minutes, currently — the “moral dilemma” of the comic’s ending, and Alan Moore’s hatred of adaptations of his work: “… The point of the movie is not to replace the graphic novel. Look, after the trailer came out, Watchmen went to #2 on Amazon and suddenly hundreds of thousands of copies of the graphic novel are selling. That’s all I can ask for. If the movie is successful, that’s great. But in the end, I want people to read [Moore's] book” [MTV.com]

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Tom Brevoort pays tribute to the late Mark Gruenwald, who died 12 years ago today, by reprinting an old “Mark’s Remarks” column about what makes Captain America Captain America:

To me Captain America is the ultimate self-made hero. The Super-Soldier Serum didn’t make him what he is, the Super-Soldier Serum was just a tool he used to make himself all he could be. Even without it, I believe Steve Rogers could have made himself great- perhaps not in such an overtly physical way, but great nonetheless, the way a humanitarian or activist for human rights is great. Before he ever even heard of Project: Rebirth, Steve Rogers possessed the qualities and attitudes that he would later be in a position to publicly expouse once he had the physique that commanded attention. He was brave, had a great reverence for life, and a passion for freedom. I think freedom- free will- plays a bigger part in Captain America’s conception than any of the four aforementioned archetypal heroes. Steve Rogers chose to be Captain America, and worked hard at defining just what a Captain America was.

More at the link, and even more Mark’s Remarks columns can be found here.

Brendan McCarthy is working on a Spider-Man/Dr. Strange mini-series:

I’ve been commissioned by Marvel Comics to write and draw a new Dr Strange and Spider-Man three issue mini series. I’m just getting into it and I expect it to be finished early next year. It’s quite a thrill to finally get to draw the Doctor, my favourite Marvel character - and Spidey too.

To harmonise myself with the sublime ‘Ditko Dimension’, I have been digitally remixing some of his original 60’s pages, trying to get a feel for them from another ‘fresh’ visual angle… And in doing so, realizing just what a total genius he is.

Well, if Fantagraphics can’t own the character, this will certainly do just fine …

– The Hero Initiative has more Hulk covers up for auction this week.

– Congrats to Janelle Siegel, who is the new assistant editor in the Batman office at DC Comics. Way to go, Janelle!

– Matt Fraction dreams of Doom.

At Den of Geek, James Hunt names the best and worst of DC and Marvel’s “event” comics. Unsurprisingly, he gives the DC crown to the grandaddy of the company’s continuity-fixing -rattling series, Crisis on Infinite Earths.

But for Marvel, Hunt passes over the likes of The Clone Saga and The Infinity Gauntlet in favor of Age of Apocalypse, the 1995-1996 X-Men story arc:

While it’s hard to fully appreciate this crossover if you’re not deeply interested in the X-Men and the hundreds of mutant characters that exist in the Marvel Universe, those that DO understand it are free to appreciate the sheer intricate majesty of it all. Even though it only featured the X-Men, it easily hammers any prior or subsequent attempt into the ground.

I sat out comics for the better part of the ’90s, so I can’t speak to the crossover’s “sheer intricate majesty,” but any storyline that hinges on “a time-travel hiccup” gives me pause. But perhaps I’m missing out.

Hunt’s list of event comics “we wish they hadn’t done” includes Zero Hour and Civil War.

Invincible Iron Man writer Matt Fraction posts a downloadable image for the “Tony Was Right” T-shirt he wore at Comic-Con.

Although it’s unlikely to ever happen, I thought Eric Reynolds came up with a really good idea involving Bottomless Belly Button creator Dash Shaw and Dr. Strange:

By the way, Fanta has just gone back to press on BBB, which we’re thrilled about. I was thinking this morning that the two artists we’ve published of late with perhaps the most “heat” at the moment are Dash Shaw and Steve Ditko. Which then reminded me of Dash’s unpublished Dr. Strange strip (see below), and inevitably led me to one conclusion: that really, Marvel Comics should give Dr. Strange to Fantagraphics. Marvel doesn’t know what the fuck to do with him. Give him to us and we’ll start an ongoing Dr. Strange anthology with new work by Los Bros, Dash Shaw, Daniel Clowes, Kim Deitch, and other longtime Ditko fans, and include reprints of the classic Ditko Strange as well. Joe Quesada, it is your moral duty to make this happen.

Related: The First Post presents a preview of Bottomless Belly Button.

Billionaire financier Ronald O. Perelman has agreed pay $80 million to settle a lawsuit accusing him of helping to divert $553.5 million in notes when he controlled Marvel.

Perelman, who acquired the comics publisher in 1989, and other Marvel directors were accused of diverting proceeds to his other companies before Marvel’s 1996 bankruptcy.

Noteholders for Marvel, and eventually the company’s litigation trustees, sued Perelman in 1997 for $470.8 million. Perelman, 65, denies any wrongdoing.

This settlement agreement is a result of negotiations of the past two years. A hearing is scheduled for Sept. 11 to consider approval of the deal.

Although Adam Rifkin’s resume only includes one comic book so far — Shmobots — he’s written and/or directed many movies over the course of his career, including Detroit Rock City, Underdog, Look and Small Soldiers. This week I conducted an interview with Rifkin over email to find out more about his comics work, what he’s working on now and, of course, The Kitten Channel.

JK: So how did the Shmobots come about? Did you know Ross Richie and Andrew Cosby (BOOM! co-founders) before you pitched the series?

Adam: The idea for Shmobots came to me in a flash of thinking that it might be funny to see a group of pot smoking, slacker robots incompetently try to pick up a hooker. At first I considered writing it as a short film, but then I couldn’t help but feel that there was a bigger idea to explore. The bigger idea being that of a whole subculture of stupid, pot-smoking robots who don’t work, don’t contribute to society in any productive way, but have an offensive sense of entitlement. I grew up with a lot of kids like that, so I knew what there voices would sound like. I wondered what people might call this subculture of mechanical loser and thus, Shmobots was born.

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There was a time when the idea of the Ultimate universe seemed lunacy.  Failed attempts at getting that wacky ‘reinvention/back-to-basics’ approach on Spider-Man failed miserably before with ‘Chapter One’ and restarting all these tiles with all new backgrounds and histories and stories, well… who wants to reread a bunch of stories that made their mark the first time?

And then we got the books.  Reading Bendis’s very natural take on an updated Spider-Man and seeing a rather sexy and slick new X-Men stick to almost more ‘rational’ explinations of their origins and basic concepts silenced a lot of naysayers.  The Ultimates and the breakneck storytelling that Mark Millar set the bar for has nerly become standard as to how the Avengers formed in both animated and possibly movie form.  The Ultimate universe has been nothing but a playground of reinvention and  creativity with the idea that the character’s truths were being told no matter how they deviated.  Sure, Peter Parker was a webmaster for the Daily Bugle, but it’s the fact that he’s a kid working in the news business for J. Jonah is what counts.  Sure, it was a ‘genetically engineered’ spider and not a radioactive one, but the lessons learned are just the same.  we bought it enough for the House of Ideas to steal one of there own and had ‘classic’ Peter try out some organic webshooters for a time.  The denizens of Marvel Universe are fantastic character studies as very few heroes (or villains for that matter) actively chase their destiny.  Happenstance occurs, a quirk of genetics, fate Itself intervenes and its up to the person with the great power to accept their great responsiblity or turn towards something else.

It may be a change but it’s one that’s couched in familiarity and a certain amount of sincerity towards the original origins, so to speak.  It was new and fresh but didn’t exactly move from the rock solid ideals we all loved about the Marvel U.  The Ultimates line had just enough of this to keep the Marvel style and keep their individuality, while at the same time uniting them in the Mighty Marvel manner.  Cautiously at first, the Ultimates and the Fantastic Four and the X-Men and Spider-Man all started to interact, share plotlines and team-ups.

You might have noticed I’m using a lot of ‘past tense’ verbs here.  Today, Ultimate Origins #3 comes out and when Bendis said this was going to be huge, he was not joking.  Ahead, we’ll look at a sudden turn in direction for Marvel’s Merry Mutants and what this could mean for Ultimatum and those rock solid ideals.

WARNING:  Really, we’re talking about Ultimate Orgins #3, so go grab your copy and read along.  Spoilers ahead.
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Cyclops, Wolverine and the rest of the X-Men have relocated to San Francisco, and the San Francisco Chronicle rolls out the welcome wagon with not one but two articles. The first points out several references to The City in Uncanny X-Men #500:

The comic has much more of an insider’s vibe. Marvel Comics artists will be visiting San Francisco frequently to get a feel for the fashion, architecture and even the way residents walk and talk. There are no cable cars in the first issue, but the artists did include a KRON TV news truck and a panel where the iconic mutant Wolverine walks through Noe Valley. The heroes make their base in the concrete bunkers beneath the Marin Headlands and join the protest of a controversial art installation at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Perhaps most significant, they seem to appreciate San Francisco’s much publicized (and recently criticized) role as a sanctuary city.

“San Francisco is now a mutant sanctuary,” X-Men group leader Cyclops proclaims, near the end of Issue 500. “Any of you - and your family or loved ones - are invited to join us here, and know safety and protection our kind has never known.”

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– I really don’t need any more tote bags, but if I did, I’d snag this Adrian Tomine-designed one The Strand is selling.

– Here’s the cover for the next Kramers Ergot. And here’s the cover for the next issue of Kevin Huizenga’s Or Else.

– Wow, Franklin’s 40 years old? Now I feel really old.

– Danny Fingeroth picks his favorite comics evar.

– Will no one save the Aquaman hoodie?

– Missed it: Phoebe Gloeckner talks about her current project.

– This just in: Publishers like Comic-Con.

– Chris Arrant profiles Tiki Joe Mysteries.

– The greatest double-page spread in comics history. In my book, anyway. Bully has a few more.

– If Charles Schulz drew Sandman. Via.

– Action Figure Insider has a bunch of toy pictures from the San Diego Comic-Con.

– Time looks at The 99, a comic-book series “based on characters that each personify one of the 99 qualities that the Koran attributes to God.”

– Chris interviews Cul de Sac creator Richard Thompson.

Compiled by JK and Chris.