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Monday, July 30, 2007

SDCC 07 Recap + Other Tidbits

As you may or may not have known, the San Diego Comic-Con took place over the weekend, and well, A LOT happened. So much in fact, I couldn’t possible go over everything. Instead, I’ve included below a list of links to various articles highlighting certain events that caught my eye. For full coverage of the Comic-Con, I’d recommend visiting IGN, Newsarama, Sci-Fi.com, and Comi Press. So, grab a chair, strap yourself in and prepare to read yourselves blind:

01. Info on Season Four of Lost
02. Heroes Season Two Info, Kevin Smith, the spinoff Origins, etc.
03. J.J. Abrams and the Star Trek Movie
04. Marvel Studios on the upcoming Hulk and Iron Man movies
05. Warner Bros. on the film versions of “Watchmen” and “Whiteout”
06. Neil Gaiman on Sandman, Stardust, Coraline and much more
07. Newsarama’s Interview with author Joe Hill on his comic book “Locke & Key”
08. Newsarama’s Interview with Cory Doctorow on his Comic Book Miniseries
09. Film Adaptation of Mark Verheiden’s “Ark” Comic Book
10. “Demons of Mercy”—a videogame/comic book property by Marvel Comics & MAXUM Games

Additional thoughts & tidbits:

Videogame/computer publisher & developer Ubisoft Entertainment (Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell/Rainbow Six/Ghost Recon series, Prince of Persia, Myst) has been quite busy recently. First, they announced HERE that they’d be partnering with 20th Century Fox on a videogame based on James Cameron’s (Terminator, Aliens, Titanic) upcoming sci-fi movie “Avatar” with a planned May 2009 co-release. Then, Ubisoft debuted the first official trailer for their Lost videogame at the SDCC. Obviously the game is based on ABC’s award-winning television series of the same name, and is due out in early 2008 for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. You can view the trailer HERE and get more details HERE. Next it was revealed that Ubisoft would be teaming up with Paramount on another movie-based videogame, the Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump, Cast Away)-directed Beowulf, which is scheduled for a November 2007 worldwide release in conjunction with the movie’s opening. More information on the game can be found HERE. As far as the film, Beowulf is using the same technology as “The Polar Express” (2004); stars Angelina Jolie, Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, Brendan Gleeesan, Crispin Glover, John Malkovich, etc.; and was adapted for the screen by Neil Gaiman (Stardust, MirrorMask) & Roger Avary (Silent Hill). Watch the trailer HERE, which looks pretty good :). Finally, Ubisoft announced that they signed a licensing agreement with Universal Pictures Digital Platforms Group to develop and publish a video game based on the television drama series Heroes. Get the full scoop HERE.

Speaking of Heroes, it looks like DC Comics won the rights to the Heroes comic book material that has been released online, and will collect the stories into a graphic novel that will be published by their imprint Wildstorm this fall. Among the artists that have contributed to the stories there’s Michael Turner, Marcus To, Phil Jimenez (Infinite Crisis), etc., while the graphic novel will feature new covers by Alex Ross and Jim Lee (Batman, Superman) as well as the Tim Sale artwork used in the show. HERE’s a great article about the graphic novel including an interview with Tim Sale. A newer interview with the artist is posted HERE. Sounds like a great pickup!

Joss Whedon of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly/Serenity fame announced a couple of projects that he’s working on. The first is a Buffy spinoff called “Ripper”, which would hopefully feature Anthony Head returning as the character Rupert Giles, with BBC producing the show. The second is a flick called “Cabin in the Woods”, which was written with Drew Goddard (Lost, Angel, Cloverfield) and was claimed by Whedon as “The horror movie to end all horror movies... literally”. Sounds pretty cool :D

Virgin Comics’ Director’s Cut line, which already features John Woo (Mission Impossible II), Guy Ritchie (Snatch, Revolver) and Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth, The Four Feathers), recently added actor/director Ed Burns (Saving Private Ryan) to the mix. Coming out in November, “Dock Walloper” is co-written by Jimmy Palmiotti (Painkiller Jane, Jonah Hex), illustrated by Siju Thomas and described as a “classic gangster tale meets superhumans in a modern American mythology”. In related news, Guy Ritchie is planning on making a movie version of his comic book “The Gamekeeper” with Joel Silver (The Matrix Trilogy, V For Vendetta) producing and Warner Bros. distributing. Click HERE for more info on the series.

Comic book writer and novelist Mike Carey is quite the workaholic ;) Aside from his Felix Castor book series and the many comic book projects (Ultimate Fantastic Four, X-Men) including his contribution to the recently announced Coalition Comix, Mr. Carey is now working with Virgin Comics and the Sci-Fi Channel (Battlestar Galactica, The Dresden Files) on another venture, an adventure fantasy series called “The Stranded”. The title will be distributed by Diamond Comics later this year with covers provided by Mark Silvestri (Top Cow CEO, Witchblade, The Darkness) and Greg Horn (She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel). For the full press release, visit HERE.

Neil Marshall who directed the excellent horror movie “The Descent”, debuted the teaser trailer for his next film at the SDCC, a futuristic, post-apocalyptic thriller about a deadly plague called the Reaper Virus. Due out sometime in 2008, “Doomsday” stars Rhona Mitra (The Practice, Boston Legal), Malcom McDowell (Heroes, Fantasy Island), and Bob Hoskins (Who Framed Roger Rabbit?). Hopefully the trailer will come online soon :)


In adaptation news, DreamWorks Pictures has picked up a couple of comic books for the silver screen, “The Damned” and “Courtney Crumrin”, both of which are published through Oni Press. Meanwhile, Walden Media (Chronicles of Narnia, Bridge To Terabithia) is moving forward with their film version of “The Lotus Caves” (1969), which is based on the novel by prolific British SF author Samuel Youd who writes under many different pseudonyms. The movie will mark the directing debut of Rpin Suwannath whose previous Hollywood experience has been mainly in the field of visual effects (X2, Serenity, Superman Returns) and the art department (The Matrix).

If you love dragons, then get ready for the movie Dragon Wars, which opens September 14, 2007 and stars Jason Behr (The Grudge, Roswell). You can check out the trailer HERE. Concept seems pretty cool, based on a Korean legend, but the actual special effects look a bit cartoonish to me. I’m not expecting much, but it could be a fun film! Other trailers worth watching include the one for No Country For Old Men HERE and Death Sentence HERE. No Country For Old Men is based on the novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Cormac McCarthy (The Road), starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin (Grindhouse), etc., and is due out November 9, 2007. Death Sentence is the latest from director James Wan (Saw, Dead Silence), based on the Brian Garfield novels that inspired the original Charles Bronson Death Wish films, and stars Kevin Bacon, Kelly Preston and John Goodman. Death Sentence opens August 31, 2007.

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