Michael Horn inserts an Imperial presence into camcorder footage of San Francisco. The Official Star Wars Blog talks to Horn about how, and why, he did it.

• 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]

While traveling and working on board the Sea Bird, a National Geographic ship, T. Edward Bak filed this “graphic” report about the landscape. (hat tip: On Panel, which has some worthwhile news about what Bak’s current projects.)

There’s been a lot of back and forth about what exactly For Better or For Worse cartoonist Lynn Johnston will be doing with her comic strip once it winds down and Elizabeth marries … brrrr … Anthony. With that, um, blessed event now gearing up, Johnston has finally come out and announced her intentions via a video, which can be seen here, and also in this interview in the LA Times:

Come September, Johnston said, “For Better or for Worse” will be a 50-50 mix of old and new comics, but the new comics will be drawn in what she called a “retro” style.

“I want it to flow into the classic material seamlessly,” she said.

For the last year, “For Better or for Worse” has switched back and forth between old and new stories, but Johnston said “that became very confusing. Some people really enjoyed it, and some just wanted us to get on with the story.”

Johnston will select material from her collection of almost 10,000 archival strips to help retell the Patterson family’s story, starting at the beginning. She said she will revert to her earlier drawing style: “Over the years, Elly’s nose grew up to the size of a potato. Now I’m drawing it smaller again, the way it was when I first started to draw. There is a huge difference between the earlier and the later styles.”

But … I like the potato noses.

Dean Fraser’s blog is devoted to turning beloved superheroes into Simpson characters.

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

James Bond never saved the Olympics, so what is one of his film classics doing here? Well, we are not here for James or the vile Auric Goldfinger or Pussy Galore or Felix Leiter or even Pussy Galore (heh). The movie Goldfinger is the only place where you can see the best henchman in the history of film: Oddjob, better known to his friends and family as 1948 Olympic weightlifting Silver Medalist, Toshiyuki “Harold” Sakata.

Born in Hawaii in 1920, Toshiyuki, who chose the name ‘Harold’ to better fit in growing up (like another Hawaiian once did, Illinois Senator Barack ‘Barry’ Obama). He parlayed his Olympic success into another ‘Angle:’ Professional Wrestling. Under the name Tosh Togo, Harold went on to win several NWA championship belts in the 1950s and 1960s. There, he caught the notice of Bond film series producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, who, despite his limited acting ability, cast Harold as the mute Korean enforcer of Goldfinger’s will.

In both the original book and the film version, Oddjob is shown to be incredibly strong and durable, a master of karate and a fearless killer. However, his most enduring threat is in the use of his lethal, metal-rimmed bowler hat. A completely unique martial art unto itself — although there is Tessenjutsu, the Japanese art of the War Fan, which sounds really cool, but personally I’d stick with a sword or a gun — Oddjob demonstrates his habadash-su in the film by decapitating statuary and breaking the necks of female bit players.

Read the rest of this entry »

– Stan Sakai shares the character designs for Usagi Yojimbo and Gen from the current Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon. Setting my TiVo to “stun” …

– Willy Harold Vassaux is creating an Olympic comic. And will our search hits skyrocket if I mention “superhero” Michael Phelps?

– Brigid Alverson and her fellow contributors at Good Comics for Kids discuss Robot Dreams making Oprah’s Reading List for Kids.

– Film.com analyzes the most rabid fanbases — movies fanbases, that is, like Trekkies, Twilighters and Potterheads. They say Harry Potter fans are the most rabid, even more so than Whedon fans, who I would have picked for the top spot.

– “Because I want to set you free.”

– I’m sorry, but that’s just wrong.

– The New Yorker blog interviews Comics Curmudgeon Josh Fruhlinger.

– Tom Spurgeon talks to Abandoned Cars author Tim Lane.

Compiled by JK and Chris.

Is it me, or does every stinking TV channel seem to have the Olympics? Tell me this–in two weeks from now will anyone other than Momma Phelps have the new Mark Spitz on their mind? Not to be accused of being part of a group think mentality or anything … But the fleeting nature of celebrity makes me wonder–do some of the current big names in comics ever fear that their sometimes meteoric rise to the top must likely end with an equally fast trajectory into obscurity? My random contemplation has nothing to do with this week’s batch of quotes, however, so it may be best just to get on with them.

“So, remember…the only characters in comics who stay dead are the ones nobody wants to write about.”
- Todd Klein sharing his thoughts on Final Crisis 1 and the reason why some comic book characters stay dead (with thanks to fellow Blog@ co-hort Kevin Melrose for suggesting the quote)

“I think the subject has changed in my mind to ‘Will The Comics Industry Ever Grow Up And Act Like It Deserves The Respect It Craves?’”
- Dustin Harbin posing a question (of sorts) in the comments section for a post seemingly regarding the pricing of the upcoming Kramer’s Ergot 7. As for the subject that Harbin mentions, I’m fairly certain the answer is no.

Read the rest of this entry »

OK, so there was a bit of a kerfluffle on the Internet this past week regarding an otherwise extremely positive review of the book How to Make Webcomics by Johanna Draper Carlson, which included this little tidbit:

Oddly, the promotion chapter doesn’t mention either press releases or getting reviews, both sources of free coverage; instead, dealing with critics is covered in the audience chapter. The author of this section, Dave Kellett, breaks them into four categories and says, “each one can be diffused or made impotent by kindness and politeness.” So the goal here is not to listen, but to deflect. And that’s reflected in his categories; not one covers someone pointing out a legitimate flaw or place for improvement in the work. In other words, he doesn’t think critics are ever right. (The categories are the person who’s mean without meaning to be and really loves the comic; nitpickers correcting “useless details”; the hater; and the troll. This section, by the way, was the first piece of the book I read — it’s where the copy I was browsing fell open when I first picked it up. Fate!)

That prompted this reaction from one of the book’s co-author’s Scott Kurtz (creator, if you don’t know, of the popular PVP Webcomic): Read the rest of this entry »

Over in his regular Cup O’ Joe column at MySpace, this week Joe Quesada talks about San Diego and The Dark Knight, and shows off the latest of those “funkadelic teaser ads” (which, as someone points out in our comments section below, actually came out a few weeks ago):

At least three things can be gleaned from this Variety article about the state of Warner Bros. and the DC Comics properties:

1. The studio is riding high from the success of The Dark Knight and the results of those July strategy meetings.

2. Big changes are planned for how Warner Bros. develops its comic-book adaptations — changes that could be announced within the next month. It remains to be seen whether that means an executive specifically assigned to shepherd DC properties to the big screen, or something else entirely.

3. The Justice League movie, at least in its current form, appears to be really most sincerely dead.

What’s that? You want to read more about No. 3?

… Given that it unites Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Arrow, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter, the studio is trying to figure out how such a pic (cast with younger actors) would affect its existing Batman and Superman franchises — and whether the script respects how the characters play off each other in the DC universe.

To put it simply: the studio doesn’t want to piss off the Comic-Con contingent.

“We’re not off the notion of a Justice League,” [WB President of Production Jeff] Robinov says. “There’s a massive interest and knowledge in the comicbook industry and it takes time to sort of catch up and understand the characters and the history, where they’ve intersected with each other and what their worlds are. That’s part of the education that we’re going through.”

One thing studio executives don’t need to be taught is to stick with what works — and what works is Christopher Nolan at the helm of the Batman franchise. Warner Bros. is just waiting for the director to commit to a third film.

• 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.

According to the Daily Mail, maids, bellhops, cooks and dishwashers from all three Disney-owned hotels in Anaheim staged a protest outside the happiest place in the world, with 32 of them being arrested. The protesters — some of whom were dressed as Mickey Mouse, Snow White, Peter Pan and other Disney characters — staged the demonstration over pay, health care costs and other issues related to ongoing negotiations between their union and Disney. They’ve been working without a contract since February.

Per the Hollywood Reporter, Alcon Entertainment has optioned the film rights to Cryptozoo Crew, a comic series by Jerry Carr and Allan Gross that was published by NBM in 2005.

The book, which has been collected into two trades, is about Cryptozoologist Tork Darwyn and his wife Tara, who encounter yetis, thunderbirds and other strange and exotic creatures.

Joe Gazzam, who is also working on a script for a 21 Jump Street film, will write the screenplay for Cryptozoo Crew.

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

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

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 …

Yesterday we posted scans from Game Informer of the newly announced Batman: Arkham Asylum video game. However, now Destructoid has a bunch of actual screen shots, courtesy of developer Rocksteady Studios.

I don’t know much about video games, but those shots look pretty amazing.

(Via Topless Robot)