They have totally changed the opening to the Walking Dead.
Now, hit the break for lots more foolishness, including the latest on the “real” Batman movie, the status of the Deadpool flick, Green Arrow’s TV show, new Garth Ennis work, and the latest on The Walking Dead.
It’s been a while since I did an update, so lots to tell. Let’s start with the world of film…
MOVIES ABOUT COMICS
DARK KNIGHT RISES. And it’s now certain: The movie will involve Talia al Ghul as a young girl.
DEADPOOL. Starring Ryan Reynolds. It’s a go (or as certain to be a go as anything in Hollywood ever is) to start shooting this year. And it’ll be R-rated. The director will be Tim Miller, an FX guy from the X-Men movies, and they’re still working with the script from Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, who wrote the stellar R-rated horrorcom Zombieland. A leaked shot of Reynolds in costume appears at right.
THOR, TONY, CAP AND FURY. Marvel Studios is wrapping Thor 2 this year, beginning filming on Iron Man 3 in May, and will then launch into Captain America 2 and then…A Nick Fury movie. Is that really what everyone is clamoring for? I would so much rather see something like a well done Punisher or Daredevil or the Ant Man movie they’ve been promising us, or even the Doc Strange flick that’s apparently in development. Fury is best as a side character, even in comics.
WOLVERINE. Is also a go, and will still star Hugh Jackman.
KICK ASS 2. Will NOT be directed by Matthew Vaughn. And volume 2 of the comic book doesn’t come close to vol. 1. So there’s a high suckage risk here. Still, I loved the first movie…
BONE. Yes, Jeff Smith’s genius book is being adapted as a cartoon movie by Animal Logic, the gang behind “Happy Feet 2” and “Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole.” It’s being written by Patrick Sean Smith, creator of ABC’s “Greek” TV show, with P.J. “Muriel’s Wedding” Hogan to direct. Can’t say that any of that sounds particularly promising to me…I hope Jeff is at least getting some bux out of it.
THE GOON. David Fincher, one of my all-time favorite directors, is producing the adaptation of the critically acclaimed comic book, and Paul Giamatti is signed to voice Franky, The Goon’s sidekick. The movie is slated as a CGI production, but is still in early development.
HACK/SLASH. The horror comic from Image will be translated into film by Marcus “Conan the Barbarian” and lame remakes of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Friday the 13th” Nispel. Let’s just say that the magic 8 ball doesn’t like the looks of that.
HANCOCK 2. Oh, God, please. No. Make it stop.
I’m as excited by the above films in the order they appear here. (I was one of the few who actually liked the Wolverine movie.) And now for the boob tube:
TELEVISION SHOWS ABOUT COMICS
ARROW. The Green Arrow live action TV show I reported on a few weeks ago now has a title. And the worst news is, it’s being produced and written by the guys who wrote the Green Lantern movie. The cast list has been released, and it includes roles for Black Canary and Tommy Merlyn (the Green Arrow version of Lex Luthor). There’s also an ex-soldier named “John Diggle,” which I assume is a nod to Andy Diggle, who wrote the best Green Arrow story of all time, Green Arrow: Year One. That’s kind of damning with faint praise though because other than some of the old Neal Adams Green Lanter/Green Arrow stuff, Green Arrow comics have been consistently dull. I’ll watch this, but I’m not waiting with baited breath.
THE WALKING DEAD. Lots of folks associated with the series are doing the press junket in prep for the show’s return. In doing so, they’ve given away/revealed some interesting tidbits:
Micchone will NOT appear this season, but will appear in future seasons.
- The band will leave the farm this season…And Shane will still be along for the ride.
- The team will also meet up with “other survivors” who might be able to help them…I figure that’s got to be the Governor’s crew, especially since Robert Kirkman just wrote a book about the dude.
- Darabont has confirmed that he left the show because they wouldn’t give him the budget he felt he needed to do justice to the project.
And finally, the most important medium of all media…
COMIC BOOKS ABOUT COMICS
GARTH ENNIS KNOWS WHAT EVIL LURKS IN THE HEARTS OF MEN. Dynamite publishing signed Garth to write a new Shadow comic, based on the old radio serial hero. Ennis’ stuff is rarely bad, so I’m hopeful. I haven’t read a good Shadow comic since Howard Chaykin’s book from the 1980s. And speaking of Ennis…
ENNIS BACK ON CROSSED. “Crossed,” the “hard R-rated” book about a plague that turns people into sex-crazed lunatics who are impervious to pain and get off on murder and mutilation, has fallen on sad times since Garth Ennis left the book after the original 8-issue series ended. It’s a staple book, always selling pretty well, but the quality hasn’t kept up. Don’t get me wrong, I think David Lapham is a very talented comic book writer, but his work on Crossed seems to be more about being as gross and offensive as possible than it is about telling a story. So it’s good news that Ennis and Jacen Burrows, his co-creator on the original series, will be returning to the book. Coming this March from the great Avatar press.
RANDOM RECOMMENDATION. Gail Simone’s “old DCU” Secret Six book was far and away one of the best things DC did this century. The final volume, “Darkest House,” is available now and is a great example of how to end a series.
CUL DE SAC. Finally, we offer best wishes for Richard Thompson, the creator of the most brilliant strip you’ve never read, “Cul De Sac,” who has put the comic on hiatus while he undergoes treatment for Parkinson’s Disease. I met him at Balticon. He’s a hell of a guy, and his strip is easily as great as Calvin and Hobbes, Bloom County or any of the other more famous, more celebrated comics.
