Silent Bob

Oh ok. Yeah that show sucks ass. But let's be fair, the reason that show sucks ass is because it has ass-sucking writing. Batmanime (I'm sticking with that title, dammit) already has Josh Olsen, David Goyer and Brian Azzarello - very not ass-sucking writers.

Ohh, you better not be saying anything bad about Batman TAS. Them's fightin' words.

Tsk, I give everyone casting of The Spirit, Carla Gugino in Watchmen and a Batman anime project, and all anyone pays attention to is "oo, look at Liv Tyler". It's a damn shame.

Indeed he is, I hope they never show his face. Speaking of Miller's The Spirit, they've cast someone in the title role - Gabriel Macht. Yeah, I don't know who he is either, but he was in The Recruit and the Good Shepherd and he looks like this: Nothing to get too excited about, but at least he looks the part. I'm still highly skeptical about Miller's take on this project, it's gonna take a lot to convince me. The Watchmen - The always-gorgeous Carla Gugino has joined the cast of Zack Snyder's Watchmen film. Gugino will be playing Sally Jupiter, the original Silk Spectre. Super Max - Kevin Smith has stated that after his next two films (romantic comedy "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" and horror film "Red State") he thinks he'll finally be ready to direct a superhero flick and the rumor circulating around is that the flick will be David Goyer's proposed Green Arrow movie "Super Max". Now, Smith has always been notoriously wishy-washy about this kind of thing, so I won't consider it confirmed until they put his name on the poster, but that's the rumor. Dark Knight - Harvey Dent will become Two Face during the course of the next Batman film. The London-based special effects company Cinesite has been hired on to start work on his transformation in November. Part of his face will be rendered with cg effects. Also, a direct-to-dvd anime project will be released before the movie that contains short stories bridging the gap between the two films (like Animatrix, basically...Batmanime?). Josh Olsen, David Goyer and Brian Azzarello have been tapped to write some of the stories, among others. Finally, the first trailer with movie footage should ship with "I Am Legend" in December. Wolverine - David Benioff, who is writing this prequel project, has indicated that the story will feature Wolvy's first ties to Weapon X, his time in Vietnam, his first run-in with Victor Creed, a love interest, his bonding with adamantium and more mutants including John Wraith and The Blob (who was actually meant to appear in the first XMen film). The Punisher - Using the same tactics as the Hulk sequel, the Punisher is all new. New writers: a fresh batch of fresh faces, including two TV writers and two writers from Iron Man. A new director: Lexi Alexander, she directed Green Street Hooligans. A new setting: New York City...as played by Montreal. And a new Punisher: Ray Stevenson, fresh from HBO's Rome. I'm a little disappointed that they're not giving Hensleigh another chance. I know the first Punisher wasn't great, but that guy worked hard to get that project made (his first film as a director), he deserves a second shot. Tom Jane is a big loss too, but Stevenson ought to be great in the role.

Now for the record, I like all these posters, but has anyone else noticed a trend in Tom Cruise movie posters? Why don't we just put him on a coin and be done with already?

That's one of my favorite movie posters of all time. Sadly, it's kinda hard to find now.

It kinda reminds me of the cover to Preacher: War in the Sun. And speaking of comic-looking posters, how about this one? Becomes:

"Spaceballs! Well shit...there goes the planet."

Preacher had single issues that could be considered slow too (like...pretty much any of them from All Hell's A-Comin'). It's all about the build-up.

Yeah if this artist thing doesn't work out for me, I swear I'd make a helluva casting director.

Finally picked up the trade for this one (with introduction by Simon Pegg, no less - class). I have a new favorite book. If they ever make a movie (riiiiight) Ray Stevenson needs to play the Butcher.

Sandman's in the works. And Mark Steven Johnson is supposedly still adapting Preacher for HBO. As for Trasmet, yeah, I think that one's dead.

The Dark Knight - Warner Bros didn't make a single mention of The Dark Knight during Comicon (word is they couldn't get footage in time to meet the con's new stricter approval deadline). Instead they relied on a new assault of viral marketing centering around the website www.whysoserious.com (go there to take a look). Throughout the convention, dollar bills began circulating with Washington's face painted over in Joker makeup and the website written across it. They even had smoke messages in the sky outside the convention hall that spelled out "Ha ha" and a mysterious phone number with riddles for the Joker's "followers". But actual news from the movie was scarce, with only a single new image showing up: And the very first teaser (scroll down the page just a little) - a very brief video with no footage but a few snippets of dialogue. All in all, WB is generating a lot of buzz without really showing anything at all. They're building Joker up to mythic proportions before we even see him in action.

Vantage Point - A cool Rashomon style political thriller about an attempted Presidential assassination. With Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Sigourney Weaver, Forest Whitaker and William Hurt. 30 Days of Night - Appropiately coming out in October. I Know Who Killed Me - Now I'm sick of Lindsay Lohan as much as the next guy but if I have to watch a movie with her in it, there are worse things than watching her play a stripper and then get brutally kidnapped and killed (kinda). Get Smart - Get Smart was my favorite show as a kid, so when I heard they were making a movie with Will Ferrell, I was pissed off. But now Ferrell is out and Steve Carell is in and I have to admit, if anyone can pull it off, it's him. I just hope Peter Segal (The Longest Yard, 50 First Dates, My Fellow Americans) is up to it. It's a shame that original writers and creators Mel Brooks and Buck Henry have no involvement. 10,000 BC - Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, The Patriot) follows up The Day After Tomorrow with this prehistoric epic. Sleuth - Kenneth Branagh directs this remake of the classic battle-of-wits film. Michael Caine steps into the role that Lawrence Olivier played in the original, while Jude Law takes the role Caine himself played in the original (this is the second remake in which Jude Law has played a character originally done by Michael Caine). Death at a Funeral - Frank Oz directs this film with Peter Dinklage, Ewen Brenmer, Matthew Macfadyen and Alan Tudyk (which, I notice while typing, seems to be the movie of oddly spelled last names) Underdog - Speaking of Peter Dinklage, he also plays the villain (with Patrick Warburton) of this sadly-live-action film. This, coupled with Jason Lee voicing the title character, might actually make the movie worth seeing. The Spiderwick Chronicles - Freddie Highmore is making a good career for himself by starring in childrens book turned fantasy films. 3:10 to Yuma - A great looking Western remake starring Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, and Ben Foster back in scary mode. The original film was written by Elmore Leonard. James Mangold (Walk the Line, Identity, Cop Land) directs. No Country for Old Men - The latest from the Coen Brothers. Based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy. September Dawn - Terrible trailer but interesting story about the first known case of religious terrorism in the US (coincidentally enough, it happened on September 11th...1857). Hint: the "terrorists" were Mormons. December Boys - Daniel Radcliffe proves that he's not just Harry Potter...even if he still looks like it. Beowulf - And finally, this is the trailer that convinced me to update the New Trailers thread. Watch it in high-res if you can. Robert Zemeckis directs this incredible looking all-cg film starring cg versions of Ray Winstone, Robin Wright Penn, Anthony Hopkins, Brendan Gleeson, John Malkovich and a really hot Angelina Jolie. Better yet, the film is written by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary (former writing partner with Quentin Tarantino, wrote The Rules of Attraction and Silent Hill). Polar Express looks like a PS2 cinematic compared to this. And now that I think about it, Angelina Jolie is so hot, I wonder if they've just been using this computerized model of her all alone - S1m0ne style.

Well, Dark Knight comes out next year. Man of Steel is a year or so after that (Superman is supposed to fight a supervillain for once!). There's supposed to be Flash and Captain Marvel movies in the works. Unfortunately, Joss Whedon left the Wonder Woman project so that's in limbo right now. You're right, recent years haven't been kind to them but they have big things on the horizon. In the meantime, Marvel has kind of blown its load (the Spider-man and X-Men series have at least past their prime, if they're not dead completely) so DC has a chance to come out on top again.

The MPAA is notoriously lenient on graphic violence and notoriously prudish about sex. The Hostel movies have no trouble getting an R but show a penis and you're pretty much guaranteed an NC-17. In Daredevil (because this is the comic book movie thread after all) the MPAA had no objection to showing Elektra getting stabbed for a PG-13 rating, but having Bullseye kiss her as he did it pushed it into R. Even just talking about sex can be enough - Clerks was originally rated NC-17 based on graphic conversations alone. Natural Born Killers was actually cut down to an R, but what is now considered the director's cut was NC-17...probably one of the few NC-17 movies that actually earned the rating based on violence. But baytor and jax are right - NC-17 is the stamp of death on a movie. Even without considering all the restrictions, the below-17 audience is still the biggest group of ticket-buyers in the country, and if you care at all about ticket sales, you can't put out a movie that denies them. It should be noted, though, that despite all this, there has been an X-rated film that won Best Picture - Midnight Cowboy. Its rating was later changed to R after the unfortunate association with the X-rating and pornography. Now, back to comic book movie news. Iron Man - Marvel has confirmed that Sam Jackson will cameo in Iron Man as everyone's favorite cycloptic superspy, Nick Fury. This is meant to set up a solo film down the line. It's been revealed that a similar cameo is being set for Hilary Swank, though her character is yet to be revealed. Also, a small new pic: Silver Surfer - The Silver Surfer is getting his own movie and word is that Marvel is actively seeking Alex Proyas (Dark City, The Crow, I Robot) to direct. Y the Last Man - DJ Caruso and Carl Ellsworth will be directing and writing Y, respectively. The two recently teamed up together on Disturbia. Jonah Hex - Warner Bros is bringing Jonah Hex to the screen. Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor will likely handle the writing and directing. The two recently did Crank. Watchmen - Sadly, Jude Law couldn't make it. The role of Ozymandias has instead gone to Matthew Goode (Match Point, The Lookout). It should be noted that Goode is 29...not exactly what I'd expect for a retired superhero The Green Hornet - Since Kevin Smith abandoned the project years ago, the Green Hornet movie has been in development purgatory. No longer. The project has now been picked up by Seth Rogen (40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up) who plans to write and...star(?) in the film. Yes, Rogen himself is planning to play playboy-turned-superhero Britt Reid, potential casting that seems almost as strange as those old Jack Black/Green Lantern rumors, maybe even moreso because this one is true. Rogen is trying to convince Stephen Chow (Kung Fu Hustle) to play Kato.

In retrospect, I should have voted for The Producers.

Tom Jane is the only reason I wanted a Punisher sequel. As far as I'm concerned, he was perfect, even if the movie was far from (he was even more perfect in the video game). But I'm also a big fan of Stevenson so I might give it another shot. The only plot details so far are that it's set in New York (yay - though Tampa was cool for its novelty) and the villain is Jigsaw. The cast of Watchmen is certainly shaping up. But I just saw 300 today and now I'm not so sure about the director.

First I've heard of it...methinks somebody got their info wrong. Some official - yes, finally, official - casting for Zack Snyder's Watchmen project. Billy Crudup (Almost Famous, Big Fish) is Dr. Manhattan. Malin Akerman (look her up, I dunno her) is the Silk Spectre. And Jackie Earle Haley is confirmed as Rorschach. This on top of the (rumored) Jude Law as Ozymandias, Patrick Wilson as the Nite Owl and Tom Jane as the Comedian. Speaking of Tom Jane, he is definitely out of the Punisher sequel. He's been replaced by Ray Stevenson. If you don't know 'im, watch Rome. On a Dark Knight front, the first official teaser is scheduled to be released to select theaters with The Simpsons, this Friday. Reportedly, it's an all-Joker spot. And look! 30 Days of Night trailer!

Aw Drifter, your heart's just not in it. If you really wanted to hurt him, Lazenby would be your man.

Nope. Apparently he's enjoying retirement too much.

Actually, there is. Latest reports indicate that when Harrison Ford signed the contract for Indy IV, he also agreed to the option of doing two more(!) Indy movies after this one. Shia Labeouf is signed on for four in his contract. So not only are they considering more Indy movies after this one...they're also talking about continuing the series without Ford. Normally, I'd say, hell no, no way. Not only to an Indy without Ford, but that would mean and Indiana Jones adventure...what, in the 60s? That's hard to picture (of course, I'm one of the guys who just could not wrap my head around the Corleone family in the 80s, for Godfather Part III). But I'll reserve final judgment until I see how Shia does in the franchise. The kid continues to impress me and if they insisted on putting the franchise on another actor's shoulders, he just might be the guy for it.

Shia LaBeouf would make a good young Ghostbuster. Or Ryan Reynolds. It's sad that the Ghostbusters have highjacked Indy's thread.

Gibson has pretty much guaranteed that the Lethal Weapon series is finished. Same with Mad Max. Shame, his career couldn't need it more right now. And Evil Dead is supposed to be getting a remake.

Arch, I don't think any of us look half as good now. By the way, Willis is 52.