There Will Be Blood Trailer

Check out the intriguing teaser trailer for THERE WILL BE BLOOD, the upcoming PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON picture that stars DANIEL DAY LEWIS:

No reason to doubt on this one, PTA never fails.

Your first look at the Batpod — More Dark Knight images!!!

The LA Times has a short feaure on the Batpod, the new motorcycle Batman will be making use of in THE DARK KNIGHT. Can’t wait to see this thing in action!

Terry Moore talks SPIDER-MAN LOVES MARY JANE

Marvel’s got a great interview with the gifted TERRY MOORE, the guy set to take over the writing chores on one of my favorite comics, SPIDER-MAN LOVES MARY JANE. Take a look.

Some of you might be sick of hearing me say it by now, but seriously: BUY THIS BOOK. It’s quite possibly my favorite interpretation of Spider-Man… maybe ever! Just a wonderful book that I think almost anyone would like. Sean McKeever did an amazing job on it, now I’m excited to see what Terry brings to the table.

Orci talks Star Trek 11

The IESB has a full transcript of Robert Orci’s extra-long media roundtable for TRANSFORMERS, and in it, he drops some cool hints about that other project he’s been working on– STAR TREK 11! Check it out:

Q: So let me ask you, you guys are involved with Trek. How have you been researching that, how’s that been coming. I know you’re probably not going to be able to give us obviously story points but…

Orci: Well luckily we’ve been researching that all our lives [laughter]. Like all that, we read the novels, we just had it down cold. So when it came up again we were covered. We have a greenlight draft, we finished it [last] Christmas, its going, it shoots in November. We’re in the middle of casting right now.

Question: When do you think we’re going to actually hear casting stuff, are you going to Comic Con, is J.J. [Abrams] planning a big thing?

Orci: We might announce some stuff at Comic Con. We should have significant casting by then.

Q: As a follow up to that, and I don’t know how involved you are to answer this but, isn’t it hard to get established actors and stars to come into a franchise where they’re playing iconic characters? They are playing young versions of Kirk and Spock.

Orci: Hard, you mean hard to convince the stars? Or hard just from the creative point of view to want them?

Q: To convince them, or both.

Orci: Actually I think it’s a little easier to convince established actors, the problem is you’re not sure you want them. Like Superman, would that have worked with you know…

Q: But won’t that insinuate that they’re not going to big stars, that its therefore the same old Star Trek, won’t spend the money, won’t bring in the big names to make it happen.

Orci: No, we don’t insinuate that you mean…

Q: No I’m insinuating that the fans might feel that way, because the whole idea that the re-launch is that its bigger, better, even as a reboot and I’m just saying…

Orci: Uh, I don’t think so, because the star of the movie is Star Trek, you know, so another way to think of it is we feel confident in what the material is and what the paradigm of the movie is that we’re not trying to shove an Academy Award winner down your throat to sell it. Which doesn’t mean that we might not end up there but its not our first place to go there with that.

Q: Were you going to elaborate on that thing about what big stars might take away from playing these iconic characters?

Orci: They become the story instead of the franchise, you know, it becomes a personality issue as opposed to really focusing on the movie. Stars in the right place might help it too, I mean we’re not ruling anything out at this point casting wise.

Q: I think Brad Pitt would look real good with Vulcan ears.

Orci: (laughter)

Some interesting news there… so maybe everyone SHOULDN’T pencil in MATT DAMON to play Captain Kirk. Or should they?

Can’t wait for those Comic Con announcements!

No Country for Old Men Trailer– Watch it here now!!!

I can’t stop watching this one… check out the trailer for the new Coen Brothers film, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN:

This one’s got my favorite movie line of ‘07 so far..

Man: If I don’t come back, tell Mother I love her.

Woman: But your mother’s dead…

Man: Then I’ll tell her myself.

New DARK KNIGHT Images– Batman in Action!!!

Two cell-shots from Chicago:

Nice. Keep ‘em coming! Oh, and in case you missed them, we got some looks at Harvey Dent and the new Rachel this weekend!

Jay and Seth vs. The Apocalypse– Watch the Trailer Here!!!

 Whoa? Where the hell did this come from? A little Seth & Jay goodness to get you started on a Monday morning:

Love the Randy Newman action. Apparently it’s a short film they did… this is gonna be great.

(Via AICN)

Haley for Rorschach? Patric for Dr. Manhattan?

Actor Paddy Consadine wants you know that he’s NOT playing Rorschach in Zach Snyder’s upcoming WATCHMEN adaptation… but he knows who is…

Apparently, Jackie Earle Haley has been offered the role.

Now, I haven’t seen LITTLE CHILDREN, but I know Haley got an Oscar-nomination from it. He could certainly look the part. Its an intriguing choice that honors the film’s intent for the character.

Expect all of these rumors to start becoming official announcements soon, with shooting starting up in the fall.

Still can’t believe this film is finally, really happening…

Update: Moriarty posts over at AICN with all sorts of new rumors on the project, here’s the gist of it:

Keanu Reeves wanted too much money to play Dr. Manhattan.

The new favorite is JASON PATRIC– great choice! Billy Crudup is supposedly also in the running.

As for The Comedian, Moriarty indirectly hints that THOMAS JANE might get the part, but also mentions RON PEARLMAN and NATHAN FILLION– so no matter, looks like a fanboy fave is going to nab that role.

Update #2: Man… the WATCHMEN news just won’t let up today. Superherohype has an exclusive with PATRICK WILSON… sounds like he’s in for Nite Owl:

SHH: Recently Zach Snyder made a statement to a reporter basically confirming that there had been an offer put out to you to play Nite Owl in “Watchmen.” Is it true?

Patrick Wilson: (Laughs) Umm… you know… what’d he say? I don’t know if I’m allowed to talk about this stuff. It’s been confirmed on a lot of websites, I’ll just say that.

SHH: Are you familiar with the material?

Wilson: I am, very.

SHH: Are you enthusiastic about the material?

Wilson: (laughs) The material’s phenomenal, let’s put it that way. It’s pretty unbelievable. It’s unbelievable. Just as we were talking about, you know with every huge … and that’s a totally different, when you talk about comic book movies that doesn’t even do an ounce of justice to that script, both the movie script and the original graphic novel is pretty phenomenal writing.

SHH: Totally, and if it is true you’d be a good fit for that role, if you were hypothetically to play it.

Wilson: (sarcastic) If by chance I did have… when does your story run?

SHH: Probably a couple weeks.

Wilson: Oh yeah, well by then I would imagine there might be… I mean, I would blab my mouth cause I certainly haven’t been told to keep quiet. It’s just out of respect for them trying to get everybody else on board before I go ahead and blab my mouth, but it’s pretty cool. It’s exciting stuff.

So, think we can safely pencil him as Dan?

Box Office: Silver Surf’s Up

Turns out they didn’t need Galactus after all.

Defying critics and comic book purists, FANTASTIC FOUR 2: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER scored a strong $57 million at the box office this weekend, just barely surpassing the first film’s opening take.

The big question is how this will do in its second week– will it see the same dramatic dropoff many of the big blockbusters have suffered from? And will international receipts make up the difference?

In what had to be the worst positioning ever, NANCY DREW tanked, earning just $7 million. Why they positioned it up against such a family-friendly mega-movie is beyond my understanding.

The success story of the summer is obviously KNOCKED UP, which sits at a strong #3, with its total earning closing in on $100 million. Hey Hollywood– apparently, people like this kind of film, MAKE MORE OF THEM. Considering it had a budget of less than $30 mil, someone’s making some serious money there.

Also, OCEAN’S THIRTEEN dropped off less than 50 percent, showing it may have some legs.

Review: New Avengers #31

NEW AVENGERS #31
Brian Bendis, Leneil Yu
[Marvel Comics]
Rating: 8.2

Truth be told, I knew the big secret reveal at the end of the issue long before it hit stands. In this age of internet message boards, it was almost impossible to miss, actually. Rich Johnston even cleverly spoiled it over in his CBR column, which is usually pretty fair indication that the gossip you’re hearing has some basis in reality. And it jibed well with the foreshadowing Bendis did in his New Illuminati series, so… I did not have the “holy shit! I can’t believe they did that” moment many readers had, but that didn’t prevent me from enjoying the hell out of this issue, a nice changup after a couple months of boredom with the title…

Read the review after the breaky-break–

Human Tetris

Lose, and apparently they dump you in a pool of urine.

I love Japan.

Wizard World Philly & Heroes Con Coverage: Day 2

Before anything else, HAYDEN PANETTIERE was tonight’s guest of honor in Philly tonight. And you know, that’s really all the reason I need to post the pic above. But here’s the one thing she said about HEROES that’s got everyone talking:

“If the first season was ordinary people dealing with extraordinary situations,”she said, “the second is extraordinary people trying to be ordinary again.”

Now…

So… much… comics news for you. I’m not sure any of the anouncements match yesterday’s, but there was certainy a good deal more of it. Enoy more opinionizing from yours truly…

Messiah Complex: Now this one has me excited. Like many children of the 80’s, I’ve longed for a return to the X-Men’s modern era glory days. I’m a huge fan of the Mutant Massacre-Inferno era, all the way to Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld’s rise to prominence on the titles. Its only recently though, that the books have become readable again. Whedon, Brubaker, Carey, and David have all been writing great stories.

Still, no one can question that The X-books, for the first time in decades, are no longer the anchor of the Marvel U. Will this crossover help them get some of the mojo back? Too early to say, and details are scarce, but one teaser released give us hope…

Apparently, this new crossover will focus heavily on Scott Summers, Cyclops. Good call. The best stories in X-Men history revolve around the Summers family. One reason the movies never took me was their constant fixation on Wolverine. Logan’s a fine character, and no question a fan favorite (though many current readers feel the clawed Canuck is more than overexposed), but he doesn’t really work as the central core of the X-books. Cyclops does, and it looks this crossover aims to make that clear. He’s one of the most complex leader figures in comics, and he’s been neglected too long. Good call Marvel.

Dwayne McDuffie takes over Justice League of America: And here I had hoped by some miracle that Meltzer would stay on. This has become one of my favorite books, and The Lightning Saga crossover with Justice Society is probably the best storyline in comics right now. Brad just has a way of capturing personalities and tapping into nostalgia, which is where DC’s characters shine brightest. McDuffie’s FF has benn just okay for me (not bad, though), but his work on the instant classic JUSTICE LEAGUE animated series gives him plenty of cred coming in. I’ll give this a shot, but I’ll sure as hell miss the old guy.

Peter David takes over She-Hulk: It looks like there might be a little switcheroo going on here, with David heading over at SHE-HULK while exiting writer Dan Slott moves over to the Spidey-books (or at least, that’s the popular rumor). At any rate, David’s a great choice. His current work on X-Factor is top-notch. Look for the tone shift to fall right where that book is these days– witty, but not straight-up comedy. I think that will be a good move for the book, sales-wise.

Bendis on Ultimate Origin: Is this what the Marvel guys were talking about earlier this year as the big ‘Ultimate Event’? Hmm. I’m intrigued, it seems like a way to explain the whole Ultimate U in a Heroes/4400 vein, with conspiracies and secrets abounding. I have to say though, I’d really rather see a new Ultimate ongoing or two this year… maybe Daredevil or Hulk?

J. Torres on Wonder Girl and Black Canary Wedding Planner: First up, Cassie (Wonder Girl) needs a new costume, Mr. Torres. Jeans do NOT look good on comic book pages. Help us out with that, would ya? As for Black Canary (and fiancee’ Green Arrow), I really think this marriage idea is a good one– it makes sense for both characters, and I doubt writers will be trying to get out of it in 10 years. Still… is that cover insinuating that Superman is the stripper at her bachelorette party? Ummm…

Other tid-bits: Hulk will fight Juggernaut sometime soon in World War Hulk– what an entertaining and fun story that’s turned out to be! … One of my favorite artists of all time, Walt Simonson will draw Superman #666, which finds Supes in Hell, fittingly– can’t wait for that… Christos Gage will return to the world of House of M for a mini-series focusing on Luke Cage’s Avengers. Its an interesting alternate reality to explore, but those things are hard to go back to… They’re waiting til they have a few issues of ALL-STAR BATGIRL in the can before they release, which is a very good call. Now, how about getting Jeff Smith to keep doing Captain Marvel by adding ALL-STAR SHAZAM?

Voltron Script Rocks!!!

Both IESB and Latino Review have reviews for Justin Marks’ VOLTRON script, and both are overwhelmingly positive, with LR going so far as to call it “a fucking masterpiece, a complete miracle.” Well, that’s pretty euphoric.

Emphasis aside, its good to see the script getting a warm reception, it bodes well for Marks’ other upcoming efforts like SUPERMAX (the Green-Arrow-inside-a-prison-of-supervillains concept), STREET FIGHTER, and HE-MAN.

The new VOLTRON is set on a future Earth that’s been invaded by the evil Drune Empire. The Drune’s ROBEASTS police the planet, and humanity’s only hope lies in alien technology sent here centuries ago from the planet Arus. That technology, of course, brings us VOLTRON.

The script seems to include some nice nods to the cartoon while pretty much re-imagining the property for modern movie audiences. As IESB notes, from the looks of it this film would demand a huge budget– but if TRANSFORMERS does as well as many now expect, you can count on this getting the go-ahead.

As always… Scramble Network would like to see some scripts, too, once in a while… grumble, grumble…

Interworld picked up by Dreamworks!

With STARDUST coming this year, and DEATH finally happening, Neil Gaiman fans have got plenty to be happy about. Now comes word that one of Gaiman’s latest novels (co-written by Michael Reeves), INTERWORLD, has been optioned by Dreamworks Animated. Here’s the book synopsis from Amazon:

Joey Harker isn’t a hero.

In fact, he’s the kind of guy who gets lost in his own house.

But then one day, Joey gets really lost. He walks straight out of his world and into another dimension.

Joey’s walk between the worlds makes him prey to two terrible forces—armies of magic and science who will do anything to harness his power to travel between dimensions.

When he sees the evil those forces are capable of, Joey makes the only possible choice: to join an army of his own, an army of versions of himself from different dimensions who all share his amazing power and who are all determined to fight to save the worlds.

Now, what’s the word on AMERICAN GODS?

Does HALO DS exist?

The rumor has been out there for a while, but few believed it… now IGN’s Matt Casamassina (the guy who started the rumor) is promising some real proof in the next few weeks. We’ll see…

In other HALO news, Newsarama’s got Brian Bendis talking about the upcoming HALO: Uprising graphic novel.

Bendis started the panel by showing off some new slides of Halo: Uprising, both covers and some heretofore unseen interior art. Bendis explained that Maleev has used a variety of media to create the images, with Maleev adding that it’s half hand-drawn and half computer-rendered.

“It’s not your typical, cheap licensed book,” said Bendis of the project. “We were honored to be offered the job.”

Maleev then talked about the challenges of doing the book, saying some pages took him about twice as long as Daredevil pages used to.

“Are you dealing with Cortana at all?” asked a fan about whether or not that Halo character would be featured, and Bendis said no, since she split with Master Chief at the end of Halo 2, where Uprising took place.

“Will we see what’s under Master Chief’s mask?” Bendis: “Believe me, I would like to, but no.” Bendis then joked that he would look a lot like Maleev.

An audience member asked who the intended target of Halo: Uprising was, and Bendis said that he’s pulling from a variety of sources (the video games, novels) and is hoping to reach several different groups, both Halo experts and more casual fans. He then teased that the reason he took the job was to ensure that he’d get to play Halo 3 early. The next Halo-related question dealt with whether or not Bendis was able to use new elements, like weaponry, from Halo 3, and Bendis said yes.

With Bendis and Maleev on deck, sounds like a top-notch effort.

An Axel Foley the whole family can enjoy…

Chud’s got some news from the TRANSFORMERS press junket on the 80s franchise we REALLY can’t wait to see brought back: BEVERLY HILLS COP!

Q: We’re revisiting Rocky, Indiana Jones, James Bond, and now Beverly Hills Cop?

Di Bonaventura: Axel Foley is a great character. When you travel with Eddie, people constantly come up to him and go, “When are you going to do Axel?” Like with Indiana Jones, there’s a reason why these things come up, and it’s because people love them so much. They’re the ones who are usually informing us why we should do it.

Q: But now that Eddie’s such a family comedian, would he be able to do R-rated Axel Foley?

Di Bonaventura: I think it’s going to be a really interesting debate, and it’s one we’re going to have for a while.

When a few of us told him there’s no sense in making a PG-13 Beverly Hills Cop IV, di Bonaventura responded, “Would you please call Paramount and tell them that?”

Hmmm… a PG-13 Axel Foley. Just doesn’t sound right. But we’re in, just so long as they keep that wonderful theme music:

All the news from Wizard Philly!!!

I’m not covering Wizard Philly live. This makes me sad. But luckily for us, Newsarama and CBR are doing the usual bang-up job covering the event, and I still have opinions.

So here’s some round the clock punditry to match those great panel discussion summaries:

Mark Waid returns to Flash: Sad as I am to see Marc Guggenheim go, this is probably the right call. The reality is the Flash reboot with Bart Allen in the suit just didn’t take with most fans. The reasons are myriad: DC didn’t have the guts or sense to kill Wally West, so there was never a clean changevoer. The first arc of the new series was botched horribly. Aging Bart was a strange creative choice. I could go on, but why?

The bottom line is the guy who most people feel is THE defining writer of this book is coming back to it. Like most fans, I’m pretty pleased with this news. But I think it only increases the chances that we’ll see Barry Allen, NOT Wally West, back in the suit. Its hard to imagine that Waid has any more stories about Wally to tell; the only way he’d likely come back is to take on a NEW challenge.

One thing I’ve found strange is the lack of a fandom drive to bring Wally back. Most talk about Barry, even though really, Wally became a much more interesting character. Any writer that takes on Barry (who could be a bit boring at times) has a lot of work to do, but the fans will be pulling for them. I think this may be a sort of Hal Jordan side effect. For a while there, DC was dedicated to making a generational shift in their titles: Wally West as Flash, Kyle Rayner as Green Lantern, Conner Hawke as Green Arrow… I was a big fan of this direction for DC (the best use of it being Morrison’s JLA), and I’m sad to see it fall by the wayside.

Amazing Spider-Man goes almost-monthly: I liked this news. Instead of 3 Spidey titles, we just get AMAZING 3 times a month. This wil no doubt be a big sales boost to Marvel, too– plenty of fans only bought Amazing (well, or FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD for the anti-Stracynski set) and skipped the other two. That’s no longer an option, which means these folks effectively just added two titles to their weekly pull lists (or I suppose they could just drop Spidey all-together or go with ULTIMATE instead).

To my ears, though, this would’ve been a much bigger and more exciting move if they’d decided to just go weekly, maybe with some scheduled off-weeks to ease the burden. As ballsy as 52 was, it would be even bigger to see a company make one of their existing top titles weekly. If this Spidey move works, look for this to happen on other books, somewhere. Top candidate: X-Men, which has 3 titles now (Uncanny, Astonishing, and Adjectiveless) which see uneven sales currently.

Terry Moore takes over Spider-Man loves Mary Jane: This one warmed my cold heart up. Mary Jane has been one of my favorite books for a long time now, and I was very worried about writer Sean McKeever’s exit. But Terry Moore, of STRANGERS IN PARADISE fame, is far and away the best possible replacement. No word on an artist yet, but I’m hopeful they’ll stick to the manga style, its a huge part of the book’s appeal.

I’d like to take moment to interrupt this self-important pundritry and urge all of you to go out and pick up the digest versions of this book. With all due respect to ULTIMATE, or FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD, this is the BEST Spidey book you can find, and one of the best ever. I pitch it to folks as the SMALLVILLE/BUFFY version of Spider-Man, and people seem to dig that description. Really, just a wonderful book, and the art is gorgeous.

Now, onto some amazing artwork after the break…

Mischa to star in THE SOPHOMORE

Mischa Barton is set to star in THE SOPHOMORE, a retelling of Chinatown, set in a Catholic high school. Think Cruel Intentions with Dangerous Liasons. Or O with Othello. Or 10 Things I Hate About You with The Taming of the Shrew. Or… more to the point, think of Mischa in a Catholic schoolgirl outfit. See? Making movies is easy.

This one sounds interesting. Bruce Willis stars as the evil principal, with his daughter Rumer Willis playing Mischa’s “troublemaking sidekick” (not the phone, the type of friend). Brett Simon directs.

Can someone figure out how to squeeze in the line”Forget it, Jake. It’s St. Cecilia” somehow? ‘Cause then we’re all set.

Mischa= hottest girl on the planet, so I’m in.

Mischa is also set to star in “Finding TaTu,” about Russian teen lesbians. So… yeah… 2008 is gonna rule.

Keanu won’t WATCHMEN

Keanu Reeves will NOT be playing Dr. Manhattan in Zack Snyder’s upcoming adaptation of WATCHMEN.

Apparently, he WAS offered the role, and TURNED IT DOWN.

Its hard to imagine any actor saying no to the most complex role in one of the greatest pieces of fiction ever written, but Mr. Reeves can be a little strange sometimes.

Well, I say– who needs you anyways Keanu?!! HARDBALL sucked the big one!

Just kidding… Keanu’s cool.

So now who should get the part? I’m going with BILL PULLMAN. Crazy, huh?

Then get Cusack in as Nite Owl, Julianne Moore for Silk Spectre, Jude Law as Ozymandias, Gerard Butler as The Comedian, and Steve Buscemi as Rorschach. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

What’s YOUR Watchmen cast look like?

Justice League Script is out there!!!

And I want it. If you’ve got it, leak it on over. Confidential squared.

Apparently, its really good. It was penned by Kieran Mulroney and Michele Mulroney. Neither writer has ever done anything like this project before; in fact, as best I can tell, this is their first major screenwriting effort of ANY kind. So to be garnering some strong positive buzz, on a project this tough to do, is pretty commendable.

But again, I wanna see it. If you drop one script in my lap this year, God, please, let this one be it.