FROM MOVIES BLOG : As long as Hollywood is turning board games into movies, why not also mine game shows? I'd love to see movies made out of "Press Your Luck" and that Japanese show where contestants had to guess what dangerous animal was atop their head. In a way, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" has already been turned into a movie ("Slumdog Millionaire"), and now a producer of "300" is bringing "American Gladiators" to the big screen.
Scott Mednick, also an executive producer of this fall's "Where the Wild Things Are," has hired "Point Break" screenwriter Peter Iliff to script the previously announced adaptation of the physical competition series as a movie that, Variety says, will "feature the Herculean characters as superheroes." But will amateur athletes be cast as the villains? It would certainly be appropriate to the format of the show, which involved everyday contenders battling the gigantic male and female Gladiators for a shot at $100,000 and a car.
Continue Reading: 'American Gladiators' And 'Jackass' Bring Their Stunts To 3-D
When "Shaun of the Dead" director Edgar Wright was first announced for the big-screen adaptation of of Bryan Lee O'Malley's "Scott Pilgrim" series, you could practically hear the collective sigh of relief around the 'Net. For many fans, the belief was that if anyone can successfully bring the surreal adventures of slacker hero Scott Pilgrim to theaters faithfully, it's Wright.
And while we haven't seen any footage from the much-anticipated film yet, "Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World" actor Jason Schwartzman would seem to agree with the sentiment that Wright was the right man for the job. Schwartzman plays Gideon, one of the final "evil ex-boyfriends" the title character must battle to win the affection of his girlfriend.
"One of the things that's so great about Edgar is that if he wasn't directing this movie, he would be Ticketholder #1 in line for it," Schwartzman told MTV News. "He is such a fan of movies and of these comics and what this movie is going to be. He gets just as excited as the people do — the fans. He's a fan." Read more...
With filming of “30 Days of Night: Dark Days”, currently underway in Canada, Steve Niles — the writer and creator of “30 Days” — is hinting that more sequels may follow.
"Right now we’re just trying to get this one in the can," said Niles in an interview with Bloody Disgusting. "If that goes well, we’re set up to move forward. We got a great young cast that we can bring along if this works out well, and we’ll be ready to keep going with the story. Plus, the comics are done. God, what do we have, like seven different graphic novels now if it actually took off?"
“30 Days of Night” was first published in 2002 as a three issue miniseries by IDW with Niles and artist Ben Templesmith as the creative team. The story follows the residents of a small town in Alaska who must endure a siege of vampires during an extended period without sunlight. A feature film adaptation was released in 2007 starring Josh Hartnett as Sheriff Eben Olemaun and Melissa George as his estranged wife Stella. Read more...
As production on director Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation of “Thor” continues to heat up, Idris Elba is the latest addition to the cast.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Elba will portray Heimdall, the guardian of the Bifrost bridge to Asgard. In Marvel’s “Thor” mythology, Heimdall is also the brother of Sif.
Elba — who is perhaps best known for his role as Stringer Bell on “The Wire” — recently finished filming his part in “The Losers”, an adaptation of the Vertigo comic by Andy Diggle and Jock. Read more...
By Steven Roberts
It’s not every day that an Eisner Award-winner teams up with a Los Angeles streetwear company, but judging by Stan Sakai’s collaboration with The Hundreds, it might not be a bad idea. The Hundreds will release two t-shirts Saturday, November 21 at their flagship store in Los Angeles and their store in San Francisco celebrating the 25th anniversary of Stan Sakai’s series "Usagi Yojimbo."
For those who haven't tapped into the world of "Usagi Yojimbo" yet, Miyamoto Usagi is a rabbit ronin samurai (the series' title translates to rabbit bodyguard in Japanese, kids), and the main character of Sakai’s long-running Dark Horse comic series. Sakai created the character in 1987 and modeled him after legendary samurai Miyamoto Musashi. Read more...
The worlds of comic books and "Twilight" overlapped unexpectedly back in August when "Youngblood" director Brett Ratner mentioned a desire to see "Twilight Saga" star Robert Pattinson in the lead role for the superhero team-up movie. Now, on the eve of the "New Moon" premiere, we have another "Twilight"/"Youngblood" crossover for you.
"Youngblood" creator Rob Liefeld revealed on Twitter earlier today that "New Moon" director Chris Weitz had drafted a script in 1996 for a movie based on Badrock, one of the fan-favorite Youngblood superheroes. Describing the screenplay as a "Beavis/Butthead/South Parky take on a kid superhero," Liefeld said studio New Line balked at the film's initial budget and eventually dropped the project.
I got in touch with Liefeld to find out more info about the "Badrock" movie that never happened, how Weitz got involved and some details about the film's plot. Read more...
Something unthinkable is happening in Hollywood, as Mandalay Pictures has picked up the rights to "Unthinkable," a comic book series from Boom Studios.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, writer Mark Sable's "Unthinkable" will be produced by Mandalay's Peter Guber and Cathy Schulman, with Boom's Ross Richie and Andrew Cosby producing as well. "Unthinkable" marks the latest Boom comic book to get optioned for film, with "Tag" and "2 Guns" currently set up at Universal Pictures.
Read more...
This one veers off our normal subject matter a bit, but it's so full of awesome I had to pass it along. Boing Boing's Xeni Jardin alerted me to the recent debut of an animated music video for "Spacious Thoughts," a collaboration between Tom Waits and Kool Keith (no, seriously!) created by the N.A.S.A. (North America/South America) project.
The animation for "Spacious Thoughts" is absolutely wild (see it for yourself after the jump), and BoingBoing spoke to the creators of the video's visual element, the Montreal-based duo Fluorescent Hill.
"The giant Cloud in the chorus was the first thing we came up with," said the duo. "We felt the chorus had to be big, and Waits' voice is just so huge you just have to go with something towering over the rest of the video, and in this case the city....which ended up working out really well for the lyrics in that section. Also we didn't want to do caricatures of the singers, it had been done before with waits, I believe Ralph Bakshi had anmiated/rotoscoped him, so to try and just get at the quick pop of Kool Keith and the growl and bark of Tom Waits." Read more...
Marvel Editor-In-Chief Joe Quesada and “New Avengers” writer Brian Michael Bendis have offered first hand accounts of their recent visit to the set of director Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation of “Thor.”
“I could listen to Branagh talk about ‘Thor’ all day long,” related Quesada on Twitter. “Cast is in place, sets are being built and screenplay is brilliant. Marveldom rules!”
Meanwhile, Bendis added on his own Twitter that “Thor movie meeting with Ken Branagh was over the top amazing. Visited the sets! I was in Odin's chamber!” Read more...
The superhero rumor mill is getting awfully catty these days when it comes to "Spider-Man 4." Even with the Rachel McAdams as Black Cat rumor effectively squashed, there are still other reports pegging high-profile actresses for the potential "Spider-Man" nemesis — like Anne Hathaway, for example.
The "Rachel Getting Married" star is the latest actress to be named in connection with "Spider-Man 4." According to Deadline Hollywood Daily, Hathaway has been approached by the film's producers for a starring role. While Finke isn't as certain that Hathaway would be playing Felicia Hardy as the rest of the fan community, she does know that the actress won't take over the role of Mary Jane. Read more...
