Universal Moves 'G.I. Joe: Retaliation' to March, 2013

Paramount has moved G.I. Joe: Retaliation, which was slated to debut on June 29th, to March 29th, 2013 in order to add 3-D in an attempt to bolster foreign sales. Paramount is giving up one of the prime dates of the summer and Universal quickly stepped in to help fill the late June void with the buzz-generating Ted, an "R" rated comedy by Seth MacFarlane about a foul-mouthed Teddy Bear that stars Mila Kunis and Mark Wahlberg.

Paramount has already spent quite a bit promoting the $125 million G.I. Joe sequel including a pricy Super Bowl ad and several trailers. Based on the Hasbro property, G.I. Joe: Retaliation was directed by Jon M. Chu and adds Bruce Willis and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to a solid ensemble cast.

As Deadline points out, Paramount has had some luck in the past changing release dates. The studio delayed the release of Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island and managed to give the director his box office best.

Paramount isn’t the only studio that has delayed a studio tentpole that was supposed to debut in 2012 in order to add TV. Already smarting from what appears to be a considerable loss with Battleship, Universal has moved the Keanu Reeves-starring 47 Ronin to 2013 and is citing 3-D as the reason. However Hollywood rumor has it that the studio is afraid the $200 million plus samurai epic is too risky to open in the same year in which Battleship has already put a major dent in the Universal’s bottom line.

A Gay Wedding for Marvel in "Astonishing X-Men #51"

Spoiler Alert--As expected Marvel’s major announcement on the ABC network talk show The View this morning was that the Canadian-born mutant Northstar would be wedding his longtime boyfriend Kyle in the pages of Astonishing X-Men #51, which goes on sale in June and features a festive wraparound cover. Marvel has been teasing the event for months with a "Save the Date" poster that came out in March and warned retailers in advance that the company "had secured mainstream coverage both on-air and in print for something that has never been seen in the pages of a Marvel" for an event in the pages Astonishing X-Men #51, which pretty much convinced most observers that Marvel was going to follow Archie Comics lead and hold the first gay wedding ever in the pages of a Marvel comic.



It is pretty clear that the folks at DC had deduced what was going to happen in Astonishing X-Men #51 and what Marvel was going to announce on The View, since over the weekend DC Comics co-publisher Dan DiDio attempted to steal some of Marvel’s thunder with an announcement that "an iconic DC character" would come out of the closet in June. This sort of one-upmanship is all too representative of the frosty relationship between the country’s two leading comic publishers.

The proposal, which has Northstar down on his knees in the traditional pose, will be depicted in the pages of Astonishing X-Men #50 that is due out tomorrow (Wednesday, May 23rd) with the wedding to follow in the traditional month of June. The ladies of The View and the audience appeared pleased with the announcement, and panelist Joy Behar, who may not have been aware of Kevin Keller’s nuptials in the pages of Archie comics, called Marvel "cutting edge."

Northstar, who is the focal point of the cover of Astonishing #50, was created by Chris Claremont and John Byrne and debuted in 1979 as a member of Alpha Flight. In Alpha Flight #120 in 1992 Northstar became one of the first openly gay superheroes. Northstar later joined the X-Men and became a regular member of the cast of Astonishing X-Men. His relationship with Kyle began in 2009 and moved to a new level when the two began living together a few months

Major, Iconic DC Character to "Come Out"

DC Comics has revealed that a "major, iconic" character will reveal "he" is gay in a June storyline, according to ABC News and announced at Kapow! Comic Convention in London last weekend. DC had previously kept the sexual orientation of all of its characters consistent in the post-New 52 world, despite changes to many other characteristics of the characters in the relaunch.

As is often the case with maneuvers by the Big Two American comic publishers, who have competed for over half a century, there’s a subplot. Marvel has teased that there will be a "major announcement" on The View on Tuesday about Astonishing X-Men #50, believed by some to be a storyline involving a gay character.

Johnny Depp's 'Nightstalker' Gets a Writer

Disney has picked High Fidelity scribe D.V. DeVincentis to pen a big screen adaptation of the ABC TV series The Night Stalker. Darren McGavin starred in the short-lived TV series that lasted just one season in 1974-1975, but became a cult hit in syndication. Edgar Wright, director of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and Scott Pilgrim, has signed on to direct the big screen Night Stalker.

The TV series followed the exploits of the Chicago-based investigative reporter Carl Kolchak whose specialty is stories involving bizarre occurrences, often with supernatural overtones. Depp’s Infinitum Nihil production company acquired the rights to the Night Stalker in 2011, and the signings of DeVincentis and Wright appear to signal that Disney is making the project something of a priority.

"Sin City : A Dame to Kill for" Release Date Set

Dimension Films has announced that the opening date for the screen adaptation of Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame to Kill For has been set for October 4th, 2013. Miller and Robert Rodriguez will co-direct the film from a screenplay written by Willam Monahan, Miller, and Rodriguez.

Deadline reports that Mickey Rourke and Jessica Alba are returning to reprise their roles from the first Sin City movie, which earned nearly $160 million back in 2005, and that "other cast members are expected to return." Rodriguez has already spoken to Rosario Dawson, who also appears set for the sequel. After years of delays the long-awaited sequel project has finally got momentum.

Downey Jr.s Cut Dwarfs Other Avengers' Take

Robert Downey Jr.’s payout from Marvel Studios’ smash hit The Avengers could reach upwards of $50 million, a level of compensation that is certainly not out of line by Hollywood blockbuster standards, but which totally dwarfs the amounts earned by Downey Jr.’s fellow Avengers. According to inside sources quoted by The Hollywood Reporter, Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Mark Ruffalo (Hulk), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye), and Chris Evans (Captain America) should end up making $2-3 million with bonuses, while Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson could take in roughly twice that amount.

While six million is a pretty good payday, it’s eight times less Marvel Moolah than the amount the actor playing Tony Stark will bring home. According THR after Iron Man earned $585 million worldwide in 2008, Downey Jr.’s agent negotiated a deal that gave the actor a 5-7% slice of Marvel’s take on future films featuring Iron Man.

Big payouts for charismatic stars in major franchises are hardly unknown in Hollywood. Johnny Depp has earned in excess of $250 million for the four Pirates of the Caribbean films in which he starred. What is interesting about The Avengers situation is the fact that it is the notoriously frugal Marvel that is making the payouts.

While Marvel did what it had to do to lock down Downey, Jr. the studio sent a major message when it replaced actor Terrence Howard with Don Cheadle as Jim Rhodes (War Machine) in Iron Man 2 and kept the compensation for key supporting roles like those played by ScarJo and Mickey Rourke in Iron Man 2 at the very low end of the Hollywood talent pay scale.
Marvel Studios’ frugality makes sense not just for the studio’s bottom line, but also in view of the kind of films that Marvel wants to make. Performers’ salaries could become a major stumbling block for superhero team-up movies. As constituted for the movie, The Avengers team includes seven major performers. If they all received compensation at the level of Downey Jr., the movie would have to earn an Avatar-like $2.2 billion just to break even.

As the lead actor in Marvel Studios’ break-out film Iron Man, Downey Jr. was able to strike a very good deal for himself—and considering the fact that director Michael Bay took home $80 million for helming the first Transformers movie, the $50 million for Downey Jr. looks like a pretty good deal for Marvel too, especially since most of that money results from the fact that the movie was an absolute worldwide smash and wouldn’t have been paid out at all if the film had been an abject failure like The Green Lantern.

Toonami Returns to Adult Swim

Anime will return to Adult Swim on May 26th, when the Toonami programming block returns, the company announced. The block will run from midnight to 6 a.m. ET/PT Saturdays. The programming will be a mix of series previously seen on the Toonami block and new anime programming developed by Adult Swim.