Will There Be a 'Magic 8-Ball' Movie?

Paramount, which scored a major success with Hasbro’s Transformers, has extended its deal with toy company Mattel by acquiring the rights to make a live action adventure movie based on the Magic 8-Ball, a predictive toy, which contains a die with 20 pre-set answers.

Hollywood’s headlong pursuit of “toyetic” properties, which is evident in numerous projects currently in development including Battleship, Stretch Armstrong, Risk, and Major Mason, made it likely that a studio would try to make a Magic 8-Ball movie, especially since Universal is already prepping a film based on Hasbro’s Ouija Board Game.

Deadline New York is reporting that Paramount, which is already working with Mattel on a Max Steel movie, has hired Jon Gunn and John Mann, who have written Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians for Dreamworks Animation, to write the screenplay for the Magic 8-Ball movie.

Smaller Marvel Movies Could Get Made Too

Marvel is meeting with writers and directors to discuss inexpensive movies based on less widely known characters, according to Chud. Among the properties being discussed are Dr. Strange, Ka-Zar, Luke Cage, Dazzler, and Power Pack, with the movies expected to be made for $20 to $40 million, a very small amount by today’s standards.

Marvel’s history would indicate that it might have some chance for success with the strategy. The first Blade movie, based on a relatively minor character, cost a reported $45 million to make and ended up grossing $131 million worldwide (plus video and TV sales), and spawned two sequels.

Vampire Knight DVD Launch Set for July

Viz Media will launch the Vampire Knight anime in the U.S. with the release of the first DVD, Vampire Knight Vol. 1, on July 20th at an MSRP of $19.97. This will be the first U.S. release of the original, uncut episodes.

The Vampire Knight anime launch will be supported with large scale marketing events at San Diego Comic-Con, Anime Expo, and select Twilight conventions nationwide.

Viz will cross-market the anime with the manga, which was the#2 shojo manga of 2009 and the #3 manga over-all . The DVD Volume 1 will include a manga mini-sampler; and the anime will be advertised in future Vampire Knight manga releases.

Batman : Under the Red Hood

DC Comics and sister companies Warner Premiere and Warner Bros. Animation will release Batman: Under the Red Hood on DVD and Blu-ray on July 27th. The PG-13 animated feature was written by Judd Winick, who wrote the 2005 comics on which the feature is based. It’s directed by Brandon Vietti (co-director of Superman Doomsday) and exec produced by Bruce Timm.

Voice talent includes Bruce Greenwood (Star Trek) as Batman, Jensen Ackles (Supernatural) as Red Hood, Neil Patrick Harris (everything) as Nightwing, John DiMaggio (Futurama) as The Joker, and Jason Issacs (Harry Potter) as Ra’s Al Ghul.

Three SKUs will be offered: a single disc with a $19.98 MSRP, the Special Edition Two-Disc DVD set at a $24.98 MSRP, and Special Edition Blu-ray at a $29.98 MSRP.

The Special Edition DVD set will include two hours of bonus features, including a “Robin’s Story” featurette; two episodes from Warner Animation’s history, chosen by Timm; and an extended preview of the next DC OAV.

In addition to those extras, the Blu-Ray Special Edition will include another featurette, “Death in the House of Batman;” two more Batman toon episodes; and a digital copy.

Death Threats Lead to 'South Park' Censorship

Comedy Central bleeped mentions of the Prophet Muhammad in this week’s episode of South Park, after the edgy 200th episode last week led to death threats against creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker. The censorship extended to Kyle’s final speech, in which he talked about the dangers of “intimidation and fear,” without referencing any religious topics.

Last week’s South Park episode featured a depiction of the Prophet Muhammad in a bear suit. RevolutionMuslim.com, a U.S. Website that has since been shut down, then warned Stone and Parker that they could share the fate of Theo Van Gogh, a Dutch filmmaker who was murdered by extremists in reaction to a film that was critical of the treatment of women in Islam. The site included a photo of Van Gogh’s corpse, and published the addresses of the show’s production office and a link to a story about a house owned by Parker and Stone.

Stone and Parker continued the gag in this week’s show, but Comedy Central apparently decided to pull the plug on any references to Islam, and even to the threat. Stone and Parker issued a statement, in which they said, “In the 14 years we’ve been doing South Park, we have never done a show that we couldn’t stand behind. We delivered our version of the show to Comedy Central, and they made a determination to alter the episode.”

Young Justice, Mad, Looney Tunes

Cartoon Network announced a number of new shows in its upfront presentations this week, including new DC superteam show Young Justice, an animated Mad, and a reboot of Looney Tunes. Young Justice, produced by Warner Bros. Animation with Sam Register (Teen Titans, Ben 10, Batman: The Brave and the Bold) exec producing, will include Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash, Superboy, Miss Martian and Artemis. Brandon Vietti (Batman: Under the Red Hood, Superman Doomsday, The Batman) and Greg Weisman (Gargoyles, The Spectacular Spider-man, W.I.T.C.H.) will produce.

The Mad animated series will feature comedy sketches on current movies, TV shows, games, and pop culture. Classic characters such as Alfred E. Neuman and Spy vs. Spy will appear. Register will exec produce for Warner Bros. Animation, and Kevin Shinick (Robot Chicken) and,(KaBlam!, The Andy Milonakis Show) will produce.

The Looney Toons reboot will put Bugs and Daffy in the burbs, along with other classic characters. Musical numbers will be branded Merrie Melodies, and Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote will appear in CG shorts.

Toei Shopping 'Sailor Moon' Anime

Toei Animation is offering 200 refurbished episodes of the Sailor Moon Magical Girl anime at the MIPTV market that will be held next week in Cannes. MIPTV is a worldwide content market at which producers such as Toei offer their wares to representatives of TV networks and syndicators of electronic entertainment from more than 100 countries. In addition to the Sailor Moon episodes Toei is also offering the rights to the 243 episodes of the 1980s TV anime Dr. Slump, which is based on the manga series by Dragon Ball-creator Akira Toriyama.

The 200 episodes of Sailor Moon would presumably include all the Sailor Moon TV anime series including the original series (46 episodes), Sailor Moon R (43 episodes), Sailor Moon S (38 episodes), Sailor Moon Super S (39 episodes), and Sailor Moon Stars (34 episodes, the only episodes that have never been available in the U.S.).

Harrison Ford in "Cowboys & Aliens"

Harrison Ford has been cast in Cowboys & Aliens, according to a Tweet by director Jon Favreau. Ford joins Olivia Wilde and Daniel Craig.

Favreau is done with Iron Man 2, and with casting well underway it seems that production on the film based on the Platinum graphic novel could start soon.

Hugo Award Nominations for Best Graphic Novels

The nominations for the Hugo Awards have been announced, including the list of titles nominated for the Best Graphic Story Award:

Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?
Written by Neil Gaiman; Pencilled by Andy Kubert; Inked by Scott Williams (DC Comics)

Captain Britain And MI13. Volume 3: Vampire State
Written by Paul Cornell; Pencilled by Leonard Kirk with Mike Collins, Adrian Alphona and Ardian Syaf (Marvel Comics)

Fables Vol 12: The Dark Ages
Written by Bill Willingham; Pencilled by Mark Buckingham; Art by Peter Gross & Andrew Pepoy, Michael Allred, David Hahn; Colour by Lee Loughridge & Laura Allred; Letters by Todd Klein (Vertigo Comics)

Girl Genius, Volume 9: Agatha Heterodyne and the Heirs of the Storm
Written by Kaja and Phil Foglio; Art by Phil Foglio; Colours by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)

Schlock Mercenary: The Longshoreman of the Apocalypse
Written and Illustrated by Howard Tayler

Girl Genius won last year’s award in this category. Like Girl Genius, Schlock Mercenary is a Webcomic (with trade paperback editions).

FUNimation Gets "Chobits and "Eden of the East"

FUNimation announced two acquisitions over the weekend, both of which are planned for DVD and Blu-ray release in 2011: Chobits and the three Eden of the East features. The 26-episode Chobits anime series, based on the hit manga series from Tokyopop (in the U.S.), was previously released by Geneon.


The three Eden of the East (Higashi no Eden) films from Fuji Creative Corporation are all written and directed by Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex) and produced by Production I.G. The story line follows the event in the Eden of the East tv series.

"True Blood" Comics

IDW announced at WonderCon this weekend that it will produce comic series based on the HBO series True Blood in partnership with HBO. True Blood #1, the first issue of a six-issue miniseries, will launch in stores and at San Diego Comic-Con in July.

The story is by True Blood series creator Alan Ball, along with series writers Elisabeth Finch and Kate Barnow, and co-written by David Tischman and Mariah Huehner. Interior art is by David Messina; covers by J. Scott Campbell.

The comic series will be available both in print and digital formats