Tim Kring, creator and executive producer of NBC's Heroes, told SCI FI Wire that the upcoming third season will take the show and its characters in entirely new directions--including deep into the backstory. "One of the things that this volume is going to do that, I think, is really going to be fun for the audience is that there were very initial sort of primal questions that the show asked," Kring said in an interview at the Saturn Awards in Universal City, Calif., on June 24, where he accepted an award for best television DVD. "Who am I? What's happening to me? How am I connected? Where are these powers coming from? All of those questions get reframed and turned on their head in a very interesting way in this volume." As with the previous two seasons, the third will be divided up into volumes. T
he first is titled "Villains" and will focus on the nature of good and evil, Kring said. "You're going to see a lot of bad guys in this one," Kring said. "The idea, also, is we're playing off the idea of our characters as heroes or villains. So it's really the duality of good and evil. ... We're playing off of this duality of good and evil. All of our characters were given these powers and possess these powers, and at some point it becomes sort of free will and human nature as to what you're going to do with that. And all of us are given the choice to make decisions that lead us down very dark paths or towards heroic ends. And so, literally, every one of our characters gets faced with that dilemma."
Kring also said that the popular villain Sylar (Zachary Quinto) will continue to be an integral part of the show in the third season. Quinto had originally been written out of the last half of the second season due to his shooting schedule on the upcoming Star Trek film. But because of the writers' strike, that part of the story was pushed into the third season, and Sylar was written back in. "Well, we have no plans of saying goodbye to Sylar right now," Kring assured fans. "I mean, that was yet another silver lining for the strike, was Zach Quinto's availability to us in the third volume. I mean, that was a huge thing for us to be able to have him back. As you guys know, he would have disappeared for a large chunk of the second half of season two. And so, for us, it was a big, big deal." The third-season premiere of Heroes is scheduled to air on Sept. 22.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
'Time' Anoints Graphic Novels
'Hollywood's Newest Goldmine'
June 20, 2008
In a major three-page article in the June 30th edition of Time Magazine, Time’s Rebecca Winters Keegan anoints graphic novels “Hollywood’s Newest Goldmine.” Starting from the premise that “graphic novels—long comic books for grownups—have always had mostly cult appeal,” Keegan demonstrates how A-list superheroes such as Spider-Man and the X-Men rescued the comic book film genre from the nadir of Joel Schumacher’s disastrous 1997, nipples-on-the-rubber-batsuit, Batman and Robin and made “Hollywood’s appetite for comics-fueled material insatiable.”
It would be easy to quibble with Keegan’s appropriation of the “toney term” graphic novel for projects that almost universally appeared first as comic books, and it should be noted that over its 20 years in print Watchmen has racked up bestseller rather than cult hit sales numbers—but this article can only be good news and great publicity for the next round of comic-inspired movies including Wanted, whose creator Mark Millar is quoted throughout and whose stars Angelina Jolie and James MacAvoy are featured in a cool comic-inspired illustration, as well as for Hellboy II, The Dark Knight, The Spirit, and Watchmen all of which are discussed at some length.
One cool feature of the article is a sidebar feature in which “four famous comics junkies” pick the graphic novels they would like to see on the big screen. Frank Miller picks Jeff Smith’s Bone, Mark Millar chooses Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead, Kevin Smith opts for Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, and Dark Horse’s Mike Richardson goes for Paul Chadwick’s Concrete.
June 20, 2008
In a major three-page article in the June 30th edition of Time Magazine, Time’s Rebecca Winters Keegan anoints graphic novels “Hollywood’s Newest Goldmine.” Starting from the premise that “graphic novels—long comic books for grownups—have always had mostly cult appeal,” Keegan demonstrates how A-list superheroes such as Spider-Man and the X-Men rescued the comic book film genre from the nadir of Joel Schumacher’s disastrous 1997, nipples-on-the-rubber-batsuit, Batman and Robin and made “Hollywood’s appetite for comics-fueled material insatiable.”
It would be easy to quibble with Keegan’s appropriation of the “toney term” graphic novel for projects that almost universally appeared first as comic books, and it should be noted that over its 20 years in print Watchmen has racked up bestseller rather than cult hit sales numbers—but this article can only be good news and great publicity for the next round of comic-inspired movies including Wanted, whose creator Mark Millar is quoted throughout and whose stars Angelina Jolie and James MacAvoy are featured in a cool comic-inspired illustration, as well as for Hellboy II, The Dark Knight, The Spirit, and Watchmen all of which are discussed at some length.
One cool feature of the article is a sidebar feature in which “four famous comics junkies” pick the graphic novels they would like to see on the big screen. Frank Miller picks Jeff Smith’s Bone, Mark Millar chooses Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead, Kevin Smith opts for Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, and Dark Horse’s Mike Richardson goes for Paul Chadwick’s Concrete.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
An Evening with Preston Bailey - Designer to the Stars
Monday, September 8, 2008
6:00pm-9:00pm
Ticket Price: $88.00
Stardome Comedy Club, Hoover, AL
An Evening with Preston Bailey - Designer to the Stars | 6:00 PM
Dorothy McDaniel's Flower Market presents an evening with the world’s preeminent event designer, Mr. Preston Bailey. Join us for an evening of Hors D'oeuvres and see the latest trends in Floral and Event Design as well as designs that Preston has created for Celebrities. Book signing to follow.
6:00pm-9:00pm
Ticket Price: $88.00
Stardome Comedy Club, Hoover, AL
An Evening with Preston Bailey - Designer to the Stars | 6:00 PM
Dorothy McDaniel's Flower Market presents an evening with the world’s preeminent event designer, Mr. Preston Bailey. Join us for an evening of Hors D'oeuvres and see the latest trends in Floral and Event Design as well as designs that Preston has created for Celebrities. Book signing to follow.
Visions Poll Results Announced
SCI FI Channel's Visions for Tomorrow campaign has announced the results of an online poll to determine the top 10 things to read, watch and do to save the world. The poll asked readers to vote on which science-fiction films, television series and literary works resonate most with them and which positive courses of action they inspire. More than 20,000 votes were cast in each of the four categories.
Topping the lists were Ridley Scott's film Blade Runner, Joss Whedon's television series Firefly and George Orwell's novel 1984.
Reading was identified as the number-one world-changing course of action. To encourage people to read, SCI FI has partnered with Booksfree.com, the largest online paperback and audiobook rental service. A special 20 percent discount will be given to members who sign up for the service from SCI FI's Visions for Tomorrow Web site.
A complete list of the results follows.
Top 10 Films to Watch
1. Blade Runner
2. The Matrix
3. The Terminator
4. 2001: A Space Odyssey
5. Jurassic Park
6. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
7. The Day After Tomorrow
8. The Day the Earth Stood Still
9. Children of Men
10. Armageddon
Top 10 Television Series to Watch
1. Firefly
2. Battlestar Galactica (2004)
3. The X-Files
4. Heroes
5. Stargate: SG-1
6. Doctor Who
7. Star Trek: The Next Generation
8. Babylon 5
9. Star Trek
10. Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Top 10 Books to Read
1. 1984 by George Orwell
2. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
3. Dune by Frank Herbert
4. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
5. I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
6. The Stand by Stephen King
7. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
8. 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
9. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
10. The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton
Top 10 Things to Do
1. Read.
2. Recycle.
3. Register to vote. Cast your ballot in November.
4. Eat healthier.
5. Be kind.
6. Empower children and yourself through education.
7. Protect wildlife.
8. Conserve energy by switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs).
9. Plant a tree and print less paper.
10. Give blood.
Topping the lists were Ridley Scott's film Blade Runner, Joss Whedon's television series Firefly and George Orwell's novel 1984.
Reading was identified as the number-one world-changing course of action. To encourage people to read, SCI FI has partnered with Booksfree.com, the largest online paperback and audiobook rental service. A special 20 percent discount will be given to members who sign up for the service from SCI FI's Visions for Tomorrow Web site.
A complete list of the results follows.
Top 10 Films to Watch
1. Blade Runner
2. The Matrix
3. The Terminator
4. 2001: A Space Odyssey
5. Jurassic Park
6. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
7. The Day After Tomorrow
8. The Day the Earth Stood Still
9. Children of Men
10. Armageddon
Top 10 Television Series to Watch
1. Firefly
2. Battlestar Galactica (2004)
3. The X-Files
4. Heroes
5. Stargate: SG-1
6. Doctor Who
7. Star Trek: The Next Generation
8. Babylon 5
9. Star Trek
10. Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Top 10 Books to Read
1. 1984 by George Orwell
2. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
3. Dune by Frank Herbert
4. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
5. I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
6. The Stand by Stephen King
7. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
8. 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
9. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
10. The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton
Top 10 Things to Do
1. Read.
2. Recycle.
3. Register to vote. Cast your ballot in November.
4. Eat healthier.
5. Be kind.
6. Empower children and yourself through education.
7. Protect wildlife.
8. Conserve energy by switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs).
9. Plant a tree and print less paper.
10. Give blood.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Freelancers Report that PiQ's July Issue Is Its Last
Freelance writers are reporting that PiQ magazine editor Kevin Gifford notified them that the magazine's current July issue is the last one. Freelancers will still be compensated for any work they had done for the unpublished August issue. According to the reports, PiQ's editorial staffers have already vacated their office. PIQ has not made a formal, public announcement about its status yet, and PIQ staffers were unavailable for comment.
PIQ began publishing in March after A.D. Vision ceased publication of its Newtype USA magazine. PIQ inherited much of Newtype USA's editorial staff, stable of freelance writers, and list of subscribers. However, PiQ differentiated itself by expanding its focus beyond Newtype USA's anime/manga coverage to popular culture in general. It also offered Newtype USA subscribers two issues for every remaining issue of Newtype USA still owed on their subscriptions. The July issue is PIQ's fourth issue.
PIQ began publishing in March after A.D. Vision ceased publication of its Newtype USA magazine. PIQ inherited much of Newtype USA's editorial staff, stable of freelance writers, and list of subscribers. However, PiQ differentiated itself by expanding its focus beyond Newtype USA's anime/manga coverage to popular culture in general. It also offered Newtype USA subscribers two issues for every remaining issue of Newtype USA still owed on their subscriptions. The July issue is PIQ's fourth issue.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Capra Coming To Heroes
Francis Capra (Veronica Mars) is joining the NBC hit Heroes this fall in a recurring role, TV Guide reported. Capra will play Jesse, a mysterious character who turns out to be evil. The character's villainous storyline will find him crossing paths with Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia), the site reported.
Capra's appearance may reunite him with fellow Veronica Mars star Kristen Bell, who is rumored to be reprising her previous Heroes role as electric girl Elle Bishop in the upcoming second season.
Capra's appearance may reunite him with fellow Veronica Mars star Kristen Bell, who is rumored to be reprising her previous Heroes role as electric girl Elle Bishop in the upcoming second season.
"Happening" Needed R Rating
M. Night Shyamalan, writer-director of the upcoming paranoid thriller The Happening, told reporters that there was no way around its R rating. In the film, an unexplained event compels people to commit suicide in often grisly ways. Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo and Ashlyn Sanchez star as a quartet of Philadelphians trying to stay one step ahead of the deadly threat, which could be man-made, a force of nature or the result of an accident.
"I got an R on two other movies, on The Sixth Sense and The Village," Shyamalan said during a press conference in New York on June 9. "I got an R initially, for the intensity of certain scenes, and I needed to pull back a sound effect. We were right on the line, and I could always just pull back a sound effect and re-submit it, and they'd go, 'Oh, it's much better.' And all I did was take out some sound effects. It's always the impact; what you emotionally feel is different than what I actually showed." But on The Happening, Shyamalan couldn't dodge the R.
"The screenplay that I wrote, there was just no way to do it any other way," he said. "One of the movies I was thinking about was Pan's Labyrinth. I was thinking about that a lot when I made the decision, because I didn't want to make it as an agenda. You want to make an organic decision about: What does the material want to do? And when I thought about Pan's Labyrinth, which had visceral moments of violence juxtaposed against the softer kind of things that are going on against the canvas; it gave it authority and some teeth."
Shyamalan added that a PG-13 version of Guillermo del Toro's Pan would not have worked as well. "It wouldn't have stayed with me the way that movie has stayed with me," he said. "And so [on The Happening] it felt like the right balance of things. It was exciting, and it was disturbingly easy to shoot all those scenes. I had such a fun time." The Happening opens June 13.
"I got an R on two other movies, on The Sixth Sense and The Village," Shyamalan said during a press conference in New York on June 9. "I got an R initially, for the intensity of certain scenes, and I needed to pull back a sound effect. We were right on the line, and I could always just pull back a sound effect and re-submit it, and they'd go, 'Oh, it's much better.' And all I did was take out some sound effects. It's always the impact; what you emotionally feel is different than what I actually showed." But on The Happening, Shyamalan couldn't dodge the R.
"The screenplay that I wrote, there was just no way to do it any other way," he said. "One of the movies I was thinking about was Pan's Labyrinth. I was thinking about that a lot when I made the decision, because I didn't want to make it as an agenda. You want to make an organic decision about: What does the material want to do? And when I thought about Pan's Labyrinth, which had visceral moments of violence juxtaposed against the softer kind of things that are going on against the canvas; it gave it authority and some teeth."
Shyamalan added that a PG-13 version of Guillermo del Toro's Pan would not have worked as well. "It wouldn't have stayed with me the way that movie has stayed with me," he said. "And so [on The Happening] it felt like the right balance of things. It was exciting, and it was disturbingly easy to shoot all those scenes. I had such a fun time." The Happening opens June 13.
Monday, June 9, 2008
2009 Assorted Movie News
ComingSoon.net cited an interview with Terrence Howard at Military.com in which he revealed that he will begin filming Iron Man 2 in March of 2009.
Dan Mazeau is the latest screenwriter to be hired to work on an untitled Jake Gyllenhaal action film about lunar colonization. Director Doug Liman wrote the original screenplay with John Hamburg, and it was later revamped by Black Hawk Down author Mark Bowden.
CHUD.com confirmed fan speculation that Michael Bay's upcoming sequel Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen will draw on the mythology of the Transformers comics and the origin of a Lucifer-type character known as the Fallen.
Dan Mazeau is the latest screenwriter to be hired to work on an untitled Jake Gyllenhaal action film about lunar colonization. Director Doug Liman wrote the original screenplay with John Hamburg, and it was later revamped by Black Hawk Down author Mark Bowden.
CHUD.com confirmed fan speculation that Michael Bay's upcoming sequel Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen will draw on the mythology of the Transformers comics and the origin of a Lucifer-type character known as the Fallen.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
The Vertigo Encyclopedia
Slickly produced and highly informative books about comics such as DK Publishing’s The Marvel Encyclopedia have sold extremely well in both the bookstore and direct markets and, given the devoted following that DC’s Vertigo imprint has developed, DK’s The Vertigo Encyclopedia is likely to follow suit. The 240-page, full color hardcover edition of The Vertigo Encyclopedia ($30) by Alex Irvine is due out in September and will clearly be one of the top holiday books of 2008.
The Vertigo Encyclopedia includes comprehensive entries for all the key Vertigo properties including The Sandman, Preacher, Hellblazer, 100 Bullets, DMZ, Swamp Thing—and the two series that are currently burning it up in both the comic shops and the bookstores, Bill Willingham’s Fables and Brian K.
Vaughn’s Y: The Last Man--as well as 72 additional Vertigo delights that will all receive the in-depth treatment (120 other lesser-known Vertigo releases are covered in an “A to Z Gazetteer” section). The in-depth entries include an overview of the series, profiles of the creators involved, storyline summaries, creation notes, illustrated profiles of all the major characters, collections of outstanding moments, plus lists of all trade paperbacks and spin-offs associated with the property.
The Vertigo Encyclopedia includes comprehensive entries for all the key Vertigo properties including The Sandman, Preacher, Hellblazer, 100 Bullets, DMZ, Swamp Thing—and the two series that are currently burning it up in both the comic shops and the bookstores, Bill Willingham’s Fables and Brian K.
Vaughn’s Y: The Last Man--as well as 72 additional Vertigo delights that will all receive the in-depth treatment (120 other lesser-known Vertigo releases are covered in an “A to Z Gazetteer” section). The in-depth entries include an overview of the series, profiles of the creators involved, storyline summaries, creation notes, illustrated profiles of all the major characters, collections of outstanding moments, plus lists of all trade paperbacks and spin-offs associated with the property.
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