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News Roundup

Comic News Roundup – July 2010 – Week 1

Comic News Roundup – July 2010 – Week 1

Francis Manapul: comic artist, TV host and ‘Beast Seeker’!
Canadian comics fans with at least a passing interest in cryptozoology may want to tune into History Television for the premiere of Beast Legends, a six-part series that examines “the truth about mythological creatures that could be real … and historical creatures that could be myths.” The kraken, the griffin, a bird monster — that sort of thing. For that daunting mission, the producers assembled “a learned kind of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen”: an anthropologist/archaeologist/myth expert, an evolutionary biologist, an adventurer/veterinary surgeon, and a comic book artist — specifically, Flash artist Francis Manapul.

DARKCHYLDE Weta Workshop Test Footage Revealed
With proven pedigree in pocket, Randy and Sarah Queen’s Darkchylde Ent. allied with Richard Taylor, and the Academy Award Winning Weta Workshop, along with many of the team who helped bring Lord of the Rings, and King Kong to life, and began breathing filmic life into Darkchylde. Only Newsarama has the exclusive test footage

Dispatches From the Set – ‘Walking Dead’ Production Designer Greg Melton
I did Tales From the Crypt for many years, and I always approached that show from a realism standpoint — trying to set up a realistic world, and then let the surreal horror spin out of it. And that’s the strategy I’ve taken with this, to root it in reality as much as possible and let Rick move through this world and see it get more and more skewed.

Warners Officially Announces SUPERMAN/ BATMAN: APOCALYPSE
To save an earthbound Kryptonian, the Man of Steel and the Dark Knight unite once again – this time to battle the powerful forces of Darkseid – in Superman/Batman: Apocalypse, the ninth entry in the popular, ongoing series of DC Universe Animated Original PG-13 Movies coming September 28, 2010 from Warner Premiere, DC Comics and Warner Bros. Animation. The highly anticipated, full-length film will be distributed by Warner Home Video as a Special Edition Blu-Ray™ and 2-Disc Special Edition DVD as well as single disc DVD. The film will also be available On Demand and for Download.

David Strathairn In Talks For ‘Alphas’ Lead
David Strathairn is in negotiations for the lead in SyFy’s action-adventure 90-minute pilot Alphas, directed by Jack Bender. Additionally, Ryan Cartwright is set to co-star in the pilot, from BermanBraun and writers Zak Penn and Michael Karnow. Alphas  follows a team of ordinary citizens possessing extraordinary and unusual mental skills who take the law into their own hands and uncover what the CIA, FBI and Pentagon have not been able or willing to solve.

Creator Mark Poulton Making WAVES in Comics & Television
Mark Poulton has reason to smile. Not only did he just become a father, but he’s got a lot to brag about in the world of comics. Koni Waves, the comic Poulton created for Arcana Studios, is being developed as a television series starring Malese Jow of Vampire Diaries fame, and it also has a spin-off comic, Koni Konfidential, set to debut next year. In August, the main Koni Waves title has a 240-page omnibus coming out in August called The Perfect Wave.

Jeph Loeb Named Marvel’s Executive VP of Television
Marvel Entertainment, LLC announced that it has appointed Jeph Loeb as Executive Vice President, Head of Television, a newly created division of Marvel Entertainment.  In this new role, Mr. Loeb will work alongside Dan Buckley, Publisher & President of the Print, Animation & Digital Divisions, Marvel Worldwide, Inc., to translate Marvel’s popular characters and stories to the television medium, in both live-action and animation formats. In addition to these responsibilities, Mr. Loeb will oversee the development and distribution of live-action, animated and direct-to-DVD series. Mr. Loeb was previously a Marvel-exclusive Eisner-Award-winning comic book writer and an Emmy-nominated writer for his work on NBC’s “Heroes.” The announcement was made today by Alan Fine, Executive Vice President, Office of the President and Chairman of Marvel Studios’ Creative Committee, and by Mr. Buckley, to whom Mr. Loeb will report.

Fish Head Steve heads for TV!
Random House Children’s Screen Entertainment (RHCSE), a joint venture between Random House Children’s Books and Komixx Entertainment, has secured options to develop a number of RHCB books and characters for film and television. The projects currently under development include Fish-Head Steve by Jamie Smart, the Gargoylz series by Jan Burchett and Sara Vogler, the Princess Poppy books by Janey Louise Jones and the Charlie Small series by Nick Ward. RHCSE secured media rights to Monster Republic by Ben Horton from Hothouse in February. The company aims to have eight projects in development at any one time. Fish-Head Steve is a cartoon comic strip which was first published in the DFC and will now be developed for TV animation. RHCSE is developing scripts and a pilot animation for Fish-Head Steve, to present at Cartoon Forum in September.

Christopher Nolan Isn’t Even Thinking about BATMAN 3 or SUPERMAN Right Now
I don’t yet really know what’s next because I’m focused on (Inception), I’ll surface in a couple of weeks and focus in on what’s next… It’s great to have interest in what you’re doing. I started out as an independent filmmaker and one of the hardest things when you’re making a film is trying to get people to come and see it. It’s a great privilege to work on an existing property that people feel invested in.

Meet the new ‘Spider-Man’: British heartthrob Andrew Garfield
Sony Pictures has found its new Peter Parker: British heartthrob Andrew Garfield. The studio announced that it had cast the 26-year-old star of the upcoming “Never Let Me Go” and “The Social Network” in one of the most closely scrutinized casting decisions in recent Hollywood history. Garfield also starred in “Lions for Lambs,” “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” and the acclaimed British miniseries “Red Riding.” The fourth film in the series is planned to be a “Spider-Man” origin story that Sony earlier in the year said would focus on “a teenager grappling with both contemporary human problems and amazing super-human crises.”

John Schneider Returns To ‘Smallville’
According to IGN, John Schneider will reprise his role as Jonathan Kent — Clark Kent’s adoptive father — in the first episode of the tenth season, which is called “Lazarus.” Additionally, Schneider is also expected to return in at least one more episode during the season.

Sam Worthington teams with Radical Studios
‘Avatar’ star’s new company Full Clip inks imprint deal
Radical Studios is teaming up with “Avatar” star Sam Worthington and his newly formed company Full Clip Prods. on an imprint deal to create and develop intellectual property that would be published with an eye toward screen adaptations. The first project out of the gate is “Damaged,” which, according to the companies, “centers on two brothers committed to justice in different ways — one inside the law, one violently beyond it.” John Schwarz and Michael Schwarz created the concept, and David Lapham, the writer-artist behind comics including “Stray Bullets,” is writing the graphic novel.

Animation And More: JEPH LOEB Talks Marvel TV Plans
Jeph Loeb: Well, there’s three different areas that Marvel is exploring and will continue to work with: the first are the direct-to-DVD animated videos, like Planet Hulk — which I loved. The second are continuing and expanding in the areas of animation, currently they have Super Hero Squad, which is on Cartoon Network, starting in the fall will be Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes on Disney XD, and we’re developing Ultimate Spider-Man, also for Disney XD.

Edgar Wright Spills On ‘Ant-Man’
I haven’t actually started the second draft yet–I’m not going to be able to until this film [Scott Pilgrim] is out–but what we wrote for the first draft, and what Marvel really liked, is that it’s funny, but it’s a genre film. It’s about the level of comedy that Iron Man has. The idea is to make a high-concept genre film where it’s within another genre. His suit and its power is the big gadget and it takes place in the real world. I just wanted to do something that was slightly different than the superhero origin film. I felt that between that and the various mad scientist, crazy doctor films that we’ve all seen, this would be a way into an origin that was slightly different. I’m not really a multi-tasker–I haven’t done anything since Marvel liked our first draft.

‘Green Lantern: Emerald Knights’ Animated Movie On The Way?
According to World’s Finest Online, Warner Brothers Home Video has revealed that “Green Lantern: Emerald Knights” is on their upcoming slate of animated projects. The new animated film was hinted at earlier this month during the Cartoon Network upfronts that also announced the upcoming “Green Lantern” animated series.

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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About The Author

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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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