It looks like Scott Pilgrim has found his Ramona Flowers.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead is in negotiations to star opposite Michael Cera in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Edgar Wright’s adaptation of the popular Oni Press series by Bryan Lee O’Malley.
In the graphic novels, Scott must defeat Ramona’s seven evil ex-boyfriends in order to win her heart.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, this role could elevate Winstead to leading-lady status. She previously appeared in Live Free or Die Hard, Death Proof and Sky High.
“They kind of took me under their wing, you might say, and by the time I had completed high school I was offered a summer internship at Oni Press in Portland, Ore.” says Shaughnessy. “One internship led to another, and although I knew that I wanted to write, more than to work as an editor, I enjoyed the experience a great deal — a real turning-point.
“I found a publisher that had dedicated itself to stories of a certain human dimension … and a publisher willing to provide not only a learning experience, but also a creative outlet.
“And that has been my real quote/unquote ‘formal education’ beyond high school,” he says, “although I won’t rule out the prospect of a college-degree plan. One of these days.”
You can find a 31-page preview of the book on Oni’s site.
Universal Pictures has acquired the rights to Resurrection, the Oni Press sci-fi series by Marc Guggenheim and David Dumeer.
The comic book picks up years after alien invaders have left Earth, as a group of survivors fight to take back the planet. The six-issue miniseries ongoing series began in October.
Universal-based Scott Stuber (The Kingdom, The Wolf Man) will produce the movie with Eric Gitter of Closed on Mondays Entertainment, the production arm of Oni Press. Guggenheim and Oni’s Peter Schwerin will serve as executive producers.
Resurrection is Oni’s third project with Universal, following Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and B. Clay Moore and Jeremy Haun’s The Leading Man.
Who could’ve guessed that retailer Gordon Lee, comics legend Stan Lee, DC’s Wildstorm imprint and Virgin Comics would be the big newsmakers on the first day of New York Comic Con?
The big story, without a doubt, was the announcement Friday evening by Neil Gaiman that charges against Rome, Ga., retailer Gordon Lee have been dropped.
Lee’s legal battle stemmed from a Halloween 2004 giveaway during which one of his employees mistakenly handed a copy of the Alternative Comics #2 Free Comic Book Day sampler to a boy. The issue depicts a naked Pablo Picasso. After several false starts, the case finally went to court in October, only to end in mistrial during the prosecutor’s opening statement.
Gaiman said Friday the case has cost the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which represented Lee, more than $100,000.
But Gordon wasn’t the only Lee in the spotlight: Stan Lee (no relation) kicked off the convention in fine form Thursday night when he was presented with the inaugural New York Comics Legend award. The event, held at the Virgin Megastore in Times Square, drew countless creators and media-types, including Comic Foundry’s Laura Hudson, who had an interesting encounter with the folks from Virgin Comics.
The Stan Lee juggernaut continued on Friday during the invitation-only event for Ultimo, his collaboration with Shaman King creator Hiroyuki Takei for Shueisha’s Jump SQ.II spin-off magazine. As expected, Viz Media’s “exciting news” is that Ultimo will be released in North America shortly.
But wait! The Man isn’t finished: He’ll oversee a line of superhero comics for Virgin Comics, which also announced that writer Grant Morrison and filmmaker Shekhar Kapur are collaborating on an animated series to be delivered via the Internet and mobile phone. The series, titled MBX, is a futuristic retelling of the Mahabharata epic poem.
DC’s Wildstorm imprint, meanwhile, continued efforts to rebrand itself — or, perhaps, simply brand – with the announcement of three license acquisitions: Prototype, Gears of War, and The X-Files. That last property is expected to be officially announced today. However, X-Files creator Chris Carter let the information slip last night.
New York Magazine offers up another comic preview this week, this time for the Oni Press graphic novel North World by Lars Brown. The book is in stores now.
Variety reports that Jennifer Garner and Hugh Jackman are attached to star in an adaptation of the Oni Press graphic novel Three Days in Europe by Antony Johnston and Mike Hawthorne:
“3 Days in Europe,” a romantic adventure following a couple as they face danger and excitement on what was supposed to be the perfect Valentine’s Day vacation. Vandalia Films has partnered with Hugh Jackman and John Palermo of Seed Prods. to bring the graphic novel by Anthony Johnston and Mike Hawthorne to the bigscreen. Eric Gitter and Peter Schwerin are producing for Oni Press through their Closed on Mondays Entertainment banner, and Jackman and Garner are attached to star.
The movie is one of six films being developed by Vandalia Films, Garner’s film banner. Cue the Wolverine vs. Elektra jokes in 3 … 2 …
David DiGilio, creator of ABC’s Traveler, has been tapped by DreamWorks to adapt the Oni Press supernatural crime drama The Damned.
The miniseries, created by Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt, is a Prohibition-era thriller in which rival gangs have to join forces to take on a demonic clan that muscles in on their territory.
DreamWorks announced it had acquired the rights back in July, during Comic-Con. Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald (Sweeney Todd, Road to Perdition, Gladiator) are producing along with Oni’s Eric Gitter. Peter Scherwin (Scary Movie) will executive produce.
Earlier this month, DreamWorks acquired the film rights to Oni’s forthcoming graphic novel The Return of King Doug.
– Brian Wood says though nothing is official, an oversized Local hardcover could be out this summer, followed by a trade in September.
– The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC presents Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy starting May 7, featuring movie costumes, “avant-garde haute couture, and high-performance sportswear.”
Because Resurrection is a creator-owned comic that’s published by an indie, Guggenheim was afforded more freedom in his writing, which led to a misstep: Resurrection has a potty mouth. There are curses everywhere. And he admits it is a problem.
“I actually realized I made a mistake,” Guggenheim said. “Keep in mind, I also make my living in television. I felt so free I went overboard, and I already told Oni when we collect it in the trade I want to sanitize the dialogue.”
It’s reminiscent of when television personalities would go on Dennis Miller’s HBO talk show and the first thing they’d do is drop some choice vulgarity — because they could. And that’s what happened to Guggenheim.
“It’s not really serving any purpose besides me exercising a muscle I never get to exercise professionally,” he said.
The fourth issue of Resurrection, from Oni Press, is due in stores next week.
The comic, written by Greg Erb and Jason Oremland, focuses on a man who must return to the fantasy world he abandoned three decades earlier. The writers, who worked on The Princess and the Frog for Disney, will handle the screenplay.
Stiller, Stuart Cornfeld and Jeremy Kramer will produce King Doug through their Red Hour Productions, based at DreamWorks.
Oni Press partner Eric Gitter will produce through the company’s production arm, Closed on Mondays Entertainment.
I was going to start off this post by saying something about how we’re too highbrow here at Blog@ to participate in any April Fool’s Day antics, but I don’t think anyone would buy it. The real reason why we didn’t announce the blog was defecting to Wizard or moving to the domain amazingheroes.com or something along those lines is because Matt Brady is out on vacation today, and if we can’t mess with his head, then what’s the point?
A lot of folks are having some fun today, so let’s get into today’s fake news …
“This really is a dream come true,” exclaims James Lucas Jones. “We hope to tell great stories that can be read and enjoyed independently of any other form of convoluted continuity. The character and story come first… no Civil Wars… no Crisis… no Secret Invasions… just good stories that any kid can pick up and enjoy.”
Alex Zalben with Pulp Secret got his hands on a “very early draft” of the script to the Scott Pilgrim movie and shares several details. I won’t mention any of the spoilers here, but he does seem to like what he sees:
I laughed out loud a whole lot at this script, both the dialogue, action, and even the stage directions. I would say from reading this that, with revision, Bacall has a chance to make something completely unique and unclassifiable here. Reading it as a script, you have to wonder how Universal is going to market the movie. Is it an indie rock flick? Is it a romantic comedy? Is it a ninja action spectacular? For those who embrace the movie, this won’t be a problem… “It just is, man.”
Tell me about your latest book, The Last Call. How did you come up with the concept?
I’ve always wanted to do a coming-of-age story about friendship and what it means to grow up, and I’ve always wanted to draw a murder mystery (keeping in mind that I’m a fan of the paranormal), so when the opportunity arose to do a short graphic novel series with Oni Press The Last Call was born fairly painlessly. It’s an adventure story of two boys, Sam and Alec, who get caught up in a murder case on a ghost train. I’m working on the second book right now, I hope to have it out for New York Comic Con in April 08. The story is really inspired by the feeling I get from Miyazaki movies and Agatha Christie books.
Actor Michael Cera (Juno, Superbad, Arrested Development) is in final negotiations to star in the big-screen adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life.
The Universal film, titled Scott Pilgrim’s Little Life – I don’t know why Precious was dropped — is directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) from a script he wrote with Michael Bacall (Bookies).
Although seemingly conceived largely to push a new line of Hasbro toys (ah, children’s TV and the bad old days), the soon-to-fadeout Kids’ WB (on the CW!) delivers a credible new version of “Spider-Man,” emphasizing his relatable headaches as a 16-year-old superhero. An extremely busy, action-filled opening half-hour introduces a horde of Spidey villains along with his universe of supporting players while perhaps wisely skipping the obligatory rehash of the character’s by-now-familiar origins.
Meanwhile, Sean Galloway sharesmoreart, and the show is set to debut this Saturday.
Chumble Spuzz creator Ethan Nicolle shows off the Chumble Spuzz poster he was giving away to folks who bought the book at the SLG booth. If you haven’t check out the book, you can find the individual issues on Eyemelt.com. It’s the story of two guys, Gunther and Klem, who win a pig at the state fair that’s possessed by Satan. So they head to Hell to kill the devil and save the pig. I read it a couple of weeks ago, and it’s very funny stuff; it also features a wonderful introduction by Doug TenNapel on religion and comics.
The Free Comic Book Day website has been updated with this year’s free books, which means a press release is probably coming out very soon. You can see the gold sponsor books here and the silver sponsor ones here.
Of note:
–Marvel once again offers an original comic … remember last year when they had that weird Spider-Man comic that featured an unmarried Peter Parker and a new character named Jackpot? This year’s book features the X-Men by Mike Carey and Greg Land. Along with that, they’re also offering a Marvel Adventures book that features Iron Man and friends taking on the Mandarin (I’m not sure if it’s new or not).
–Dark Horse also takes the “movie tie-in” route and offers a Hellboy/B.P.R.D. comic. It sounds like it’s new material as well.
Joe Infurnari, the creative genius behind the webcomic The Process and the special guest artist of Wasteland #14, also designs T-shirts … his latest design, pictured above, is currently up for voting on Threadless.com, which prints shirts based on user interest (Web 2.0 at work!) If you think it’s a cool design, head over there and vote.
As we approach the end of 2007 (just a few more hours, and counting), I asked the Blog@ team to share some of their favorite comics from the previous year. As Kevin says below, it was tough to narrow down the list to just a few stand-outs, but here are our favorites:
Tom Bondurant
I’m sure no one is surprised to see Architecture & Mortality as one of my Best of 2007 picks. I loved the heck out of Brian Azzarello & Cliff Chiang’s metatextual take down of DC’s periodic character overhauls. Whether it was setting up a groan-worthy pun or a sentimental moment, A&M was designed to make its readers question not only the manner of revamping and reusing obscure DC characters, but the roles of all involved, including the fans. It reminded this reader that every character has its own dignity.
