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THE STORY: "Axe Cop" By Malachai And Ethan Nicolle

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: At the scene of a fire, one cop found the perfect fireman axe. Armed with a new identity, Axe Cop now holds try-outs seeking the perfect partners for missions ranging from dinosaur extermination to reuniting unicorn-horned babies with their genius parents on snow planets created by the wishes of flute-playing avocado soldiers... and that's just the beginning.

WHY IT WORKS: "Axe Cop" is the brainchild of five-year-old Malachai Nicolle with art by his 29-year-old brother Ethan. As such, readers are sucked in by stories dripping with untainted imagination while more experienced, but no less kinetic lines keep them coming back for more.

Simply put: It's the comic every kid wishes they could draw and every adult wishes they could write. Read more...

Tags Adapt This, Axe Cop, Ethan Nicolle, Malachai Nicolle

Leonardo DiCaprio's upcoming thriller "Shutter Island" hits theaters Friday, but when we had a chance to sit down with the actor, the Martin Scorsese-directed film wasn't the only project on our minds.

Last week, we brought you the news that "Book of Eli" directors Allen and Albert Hughes were in negotiations to helm the live-action adaptation of "Akira" based on a script by "Iron Man" duo Mark Fergus and Hawk Otsby. DiCaprio's production company Appian Way picked up the rights to the film back in 2008, so we had to find out which of the company's projects will come first: "Akira" or the "Twilight Zone" movie announced last year?

"You know, you never want to say anything is going to happen in this town, because everything gets thrown out the window one day and is green lit the next," DiCaprio told MTV News. Read more...

Tags akira, leonardo dicaprio, Video

If you watched the most recent trailer for Pixar’s “Toy Story 3” very closely, you might have noticed a familiar face among the new characters added for the sequel. In the scene when Woody and friends use a computer, a plush Totoro is visible on the left of the screen. Fans of Japanese animation, specifically the films of Oscar-winning filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki (“Spirited Away;” “Ponyo”), know the big rabbit-looking creature as one of the titular spirits from the director’s 1988 classic “My Neighbor Totoro.”

MTV spoke to Pixar head John Lasseter during a recent “Toy Story 3” promotional event about the crossover.

“Totoro has a cameo appearance in “Toy Story 3,” he acknowledged. “We do little homages in our films, and we thought it was a very appropriate homage to let [Miyazaki and his film company] Studio Ghibli know how much they mean to us.” Read more...

Tags Hayao Miyazaki, John Lasseter, My Neighbor Totoro, toy story 3

FROM MTV MOVIES: Taylor Lautner's werewolf performance in "New Moon" netted him his own line of shirtless "Twilight" toys from NECA and legions of female fans. But his flips and mixed martial arts skills during his opening monologue on "Saturday Night Live" last year brought one of Hasbro's most famous toy lines, Stretch Armstrong, to him when Universal offered up the title role in the movie adaptation.

"He is a real actor," Hasbro CEO and "Stretch Armstrong" producer Brian Goldner told MTV News. "And it was so clear to us as we saw him in 'Twilight.' And we look for insights from every audience about where we should go with our brands, so when I saw my daughter and all of her friends go crazy for him, and then I saw the background that he was also this mixed martial arts expert in that 'Saturday Night Live' piece ... that was the real deal."

Continue reading Taylor Lautner's 'SNL' Appearance Clinched 'Stretch Armstrong' Role at Movies.MTV.com.

Tags Stretch Armstrong, taylor lautner

Kevin Smith may have been asked to leave a Southwest Airlines flight out of Burbank over the weekend, but Stan Lee will sit next to him any day. The comics legend who made a famous cameo in "Mallrats" spoke up in defense of the director and occasional Marvel Comics writer. Others in the feed remained suspicious, though, such as Lea Hernandez, who suspects there may be a publicity stunt at work.

Across the country, toymakers convened on New York City for Toy Fair, and Todd McFarlane was among them. Find out what he got up to there, as well as which comics creator had a run-in with Taylor Lautner, who performed with Grant Morrison and who likes listening to Lady Gaga with his daughter.

It's all in the Twitter Report for February 17, 2010. Read more...

Tags chris ryall, daniel way, dave mckean, jeffrey rowland, lea hernandez, paul southworth, Robert Liefeld, stan lee, Todd McFarlane

Pardon the interruption of your regularly scheduled comics news, folks — but since today is new comics day, there's some info I want to send your way before you hit the shop.

If you're planning to pick up any of this week's Dark Horse Comics titles, be sure to check out the back cover for a little shout-out to your friendly neighborhood Splash Page editor, Rick Marshall (that's me). And I'm in pretty good company, too.

The "Hellboy" publisher devoted their monthly "Dark Horse Heroes" section to honoring me and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" comics writer Brad Meltzer (so any negative effect my photo has on the comic's value is balanced out by Meltzer's handsome mug). While I'm honored to be one step closer to actually being a superhero, this seems like a good time to thank all of you for reading Splash Page and let you know where else to find some of the people who make the site what it is every day. Read more...

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"Kick-Ass: Creating the Comic, Making the Movie" hits bookstores next week, and publisher Titan Books has given Splash Page readers an exclusive peek at some of the original art created for the film by "Kick-Ass" co-creator John Romita Jr.

The image below features the "wall of villains" in the apartment of costumed vigilante Big Daddy (played by Nicolas Cage).

Created for the film by Romita, the portraits of various villains targeted by Big Daddy and his daughter, Hit Girl (played by Chloe Moretz), appear to feature mafia lord Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong) at the top of the local crime hierarchy. Read more...

Tags kick ass

The mental well-being of a rural Iowa town is about to be obliterated by a tainted water supply, and no amount of therapy can save survivors from their infected friends and neighbors.

Overture Films' new take on George Romero's 1973 film "The Crazies" looms close and with it, a companion comic book narrative set to flesh out the tale's horrific causes and effects.

Produced by Jeff Katz of American Original and printed by Top Cow, the four-issue miniseries follows four distinct chapters featuring individual creative teams. Ivan Brandon and Jon Buran handle "Hopman Bog," followed by Brian Reed and Hugo Petrus on "Dwyer Creek," Marc Andreyko and Vincent Spencer on "Black Pond" and Joshua Hale Fialkov and Rashan Ekedal handling "Ogden Marsh." Read more...

Tags jeff katz, motion comics, The Crazies

Last month, director Kenneth Branagh’s highly anticipated “Thor” adaptation finally began principle photography. And while Marvel Editor-In-Chief Joe Quesada has already claimed that "Thor" will "redefine the superhero genre", Anthony Hopkins found a more personal connection in the film's depiction of the family relationship between Odin, and his sons Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston).

"I don't just play a father, I play the god-father" explained Hopkins in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. "[Odin's] a stern man. He's a man with purpose. I play the god who banishes his son from the kingdom of Asgard because he screwed up. He's a hot-headed, temperamental young man — probably a chip off of the old block — but I decide he's not really ready to rule the future kingdom, so I banish him." Read more...

Tags anthony hopkins, thor

It seems like "The Losers" just can't sit still. Following Warner Bros. Pictures' announcement that the film would transition from its original April 9 release date to a later June opening, the studio has now shifted the film back to an April 23 premiere.

The move was reportedly intended to keep "The Losers" from closely competing with the action-oriented "Clash of the Titans," which would be playing its second weekend in theaters. Additionally, the June move was intended to provide the studio with ample time to make corrections based on audience feedback from test screenings.

Apparently those changes won't take as long to make as initially expected, meaning Warner Bros. is returning "The Losers" to April, even if the new date is still a few weeks later than first planned. Read more...

Tags the losers