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Comic News Roundup – May 2010 – Week 3

Comic News Roundup – May 2010 – Week 3

Mark Hamill to direct movie of his comic ‘Black Pearl’
Hamill will direct The Black Pearl through a new production and finance outfit named Berkeley Square Films. The Black Pearl is a five-issue comic book limited series published by Dark Horse Comics. It was written by Eric Johnson and Mark Hamill, illustrated by H. M. Baker, and inked by Bruce Patterson and Dan Schaeffer. The story focuses on Luther Drake, a troubled man who becomes a costumed vigilante hero by accident and media pressure. Hamill described the series as a “crime thriller five-part graphic novel”, its less about superheroes and more about sensationalism, tabloid journalism, and “all the things that thrillers come from.”

Brett Ratner Talks ‘X-Men: First Class’ And Its New Director, Matthew Vaughn
Ratner has ruled out ever returning to the franchise. “When I say I’m not going to do another ‘X-Men,’ it’s because they’re doing all these spin-offs,” he explained. “It doesn’t make sense for me to do ‘Wolverine’ if I did ‘X-Men.’ It’s just a different scope. For me, it would just be going backwards.”

More Casting Set For ‘Cowboys & Aliens’
Paul Dano is back in period mode, this time armed, playing a cowboy  who takes on extraterrestrials in Cowboys & Aliens, the Jon Favreau-directed DreamWorks pic. Dano is set, and Keith Carradine is aboard to play the town sheriff, with Clancy Brown also a cowboy. The film stars Daniel Craig, Olivia Wilde, Harrison Ford, Sam Rockwell and Noah Ringer. Production starts June in New Mexico for a July 29, 2011 release.

Alvin Sargent spit-shining ‘Spider-Man’ reboot
The veteran screenwriter (and repeat Spidey scribe) has been brought on board to fine-tune Columbia’s “Spider-Man” reboot being directed by Marc Webb. The studio is working off a script by Jamie Vanderbilt, who wrote “Zodiac” and a draft of “Spider-Man 4” before the studio scrapped its plans for the sequel to re-start the series. Sargent is doing a production polish as the studio runs with eight legs toward a planned shoot later this year. Sargent, 83, is practically part of the Peter Parker family, having worked on every single “Spider-Man” movie. The acclaimed writer of hefty dramas like 1980s “Ordinary People” and 1973’s “Paper Moon” has become the studio’s go-to guy for punching up weighty scenes.

John Landis Developing Biopic Of 1950s EC Comics Crusader William Gaines
John Landis says he’s lining up the financing for a movie about EC Comics publisher and co-creator Bill Gaines, who was driven out of the comic book business by 1950s  morality policers after his unapologetic testimony before a U.S. Senate subcommittee investigating  juvenile delinquency. Gaines retaliated by converting one of his titles Mad into a satirical magazine which specialized in skewering all aspects of uptight society. Joel Eisenberg has written the screenplay Ghoulishly Yours, William M Gaines.

Warner Bros/DC Comics Sues ‘Superman’ Copyright Lawyer; Marc Toberoff Response
There’s been a shocking development in the Superman copyright litigation. Warner Bros has gone up against and in some situations lost too many such rights cases against its arch-nemesis, lawyer Marc Toberoff. So recently the studio hired Daniel Petrocelli to come up with a new strategy to prevent the studio from possibly losing a portion of the copyright to Superman in 2013 as a court has previously ruled, and Petrocelli has obliged. His newest tactic? To get rid of Toberoff entirely. This morning, Warner Bros’ new outside counsel is filing has filed a lawsuit in federal court in Los Angeles against Toberoff raising questions about his alleged role as a financial participant in the Superman  copyright and not as the attorney for the Shuster and Siegel families litigating their Superman cases. But the purpose of the lawsuit is obviously to put Toberoff in a position where he might have to resign as the Siegel and Shuster attorney.

Parkinson and Green tread ‘Free Country’ and ‘Battling Boy’
Rookie writer Josh Parkinson and “George Washington” writer-director David Gordon Green have teamed up for two developing projects. The pair has been hired by Paramount to rework the screenplay for “Battling Boy,” an adaptation of a graphic novel the studio picked up in late 2008 for Brad Pitt’s Plan B shingle. “Watchmen” co-writer Alex Tse previously worked on the adaptation.

‘Human Target’ Renewed For Second Season
“The Human Target” has been renewed for a 13 episode second season on Fox, according to Entertainment Weekly. “Chuck” co-executive producer Matthew Miller is also joining “The Human Target” as the new showrunner, sharing the position with Jonathan Steinberg.

‘The Last Airbender: Prequel: Zuko’s Story’ Preview
M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Last Airbender” hits theaters in just a few months, but fans of the hit animated series and the upcoming live-action adaptation won’t have nearly as long to wait for “Zuko’s Story,” an upcoming prequel comic that explores the origins of the Fire Nation’s exiled prince. Written by Dave Roman and Alison Wilgus and illustrated by Nina Matsumoto, “The Last Airbender: Prequel: Zuko’s Story” tells the story of Zuko’s banishment by his father, Fire Lord Ozai, and his quest to redeem himself by locating the legendary Avatar, who wields all four of the elements.

Mickey Rourke Is Still Up For ‘Sin City 2′… But Only If A Certain Person Isn’t Involved
“If it happens, you know… they’ve got to all get their sh– together,” said Rourke, shrugging off the question of whether he’d distanced himself from the project at this point. Asked about his recent assertion that he’d only do the film if “Robert Rodriguez’s wife” wasn’t involved with it, Rourke reiterated his opinion — though there’s still some uncertainty whether he meant actress Rose McGowan, who was a regular feature in Rodriguez’s films (but was never actually married to the filmmaker), or Rodriguez’s ex-wife, Elizabeth Avellan, who was a producer for “Sin City.” “She was a pain in the ass, that’s all I’m going to say,” said Rourke.

Brett Ratner On The ‘Youngblood’ Movie: ‘I Could Do What Bryan Singer Did With X-Men’
“I’ve been in a lot of things – ‘God of War,’ which didn’t work out, ‘Conan the Barbarian,’ which didn’t work out,” Ratner continued. “So I’m interested in comic books. I grew up reading comic books. Even though all the rumors said, ‘Oh, Brett didn’t read comics,’ but I read ‘Batman’ and ‘Superman.’ ‘Superman’ was my favorite comic, which is why I was first attached to make ‘Superman.’ ‘Youngblood,’ obviously, I discovered later in life and I just fell in love with it.”

Syfy Recruits Superhero Doctors And A Ghost Detective
Syfy is looking to expand its lineup of scripted programming with a remake of a 1960s British detective series and an adaptation  of a comic book set in a hospital for superheroes. Based on the Antarctic Press series by Joeming Dunn and Rod Espinosa, MetaDocs centers on a crack medical team that specializes in treating people, and aliens, with extraordinary abilities. The cable channel also has acquired the rights to classic British detective series Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), about a private investigator (Hopkirk) who is murdered in the line of duty but returns from the grave to help his former partner.

Reliance Big’s ‘Judge Dredd’ Deal Makes Scifi Film A Hot Cannes Pre-Sale Title
Andrew Macdonald’s DNA Films has made a deal with India-based Reliance Big Entertainment and IM Global to finance Judge Dredd, a 3D film that was scripted by Alex Garland, and will be directed by Pete Travis, best known for Vantage Point and Omagh. The film will be shopped at the festival by IM Global, in the first collaboration since Reliance bought a majority stake in Stuart Ford’s foreign sales company.

Vivid Entertainment Announces New Superhero Imprint
Vivid Entertainment, the world’s leading adult film company, has announced the formation of Vivid-Superhero, a new imprint that will have Axel Braun as its lead director. “The parodies under this new imprint will pay tribute to the world’s most popular comic heroes,” said Steven Hirsch, Founder/Co-chairman of Vivid. “Axel already started pre-production on a parody of Superman, which will be followed by those of The Green Hornet, Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, Captain America, Thor, and The Incredible Hulk. We made the decision to create the imprint after working with Axel on “Batman XXX: A Porn Parody”, an Axel Braun Productions movie to be distributed by Vivid. Axel truly did an amazing job with it, and we agreed that together we could mine the really rich treasure of superheroes and have a lot of fun doing it.”

‘Splice’ Director Adds ‘Alpha Flight’ To List Of Superhero Movies He’s Dying To Make”
“I have thought about that a little bit,” said Natali when asked about the possibility of making a lower-budget movie about lesser-known comic characters. “I’ll put this out there: maybe Alpha Flight. For those who don’t know, Alpha Flight is a Canadian superhero group and it was drawn by one of my favorite Marvel artists, John Byrne,” he added. “He’s a genius. I thought that would be interesting, to give a little Canadian angle on the superhero mythology,” he explained. “It’s an interesting group and it had a lot of different members, so you can take it in a number of different directions. I think it would be cool.”

Meanwhile, Back at The Hall of Justice…

The Fine Print

This is by no means meant to be a comprehensive roundup of the entire weeks’ news. All stories are chosen by me for no other reason than that they got my attention and might capture yours. If something you think is more important chime in on the feedback; we’d love to hear comments and have a conversation about it.

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Scott is an art director, writer and comics creator living in Los Angeles. He has been a pop culture maven from a very young age. His very first job was as a manager of a comic book store. He spent several years working in a video store, and yes, we are talking VHS tapes. A student of literature and Writing, he brings his obsessive love of comic book trivia, movie history and science fiction/fantasy writing to bear on the work he does for CoolShite.

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