First Look at Green Lantern's CGI Togs

The new issue of Entertainment Weekly provides the first look at Ryan Reynolds in his full CGI-created Green Lantern drag. The new look, which differs from the comic book GL costume, appears to feature different shades of green rather than the traditional mixture of green and black used in the comics. Unfortunately the high tech ribbed material depicted in the CGI image, which appears to be durable enough for the patrolling of Sector 2814, didn’t exist on the set where Reynolds wore a motion-capture suit, which evidently wasn’t enough to prevent the star from suffering a separated shoulder during filming.

The most controversial element of the “look” of the new Green Lantern is the treatment of his eyes. The filmmakers have definitely attempted to give the space patrolling superhero’s eyes the blank white look, but he does appear to have pupils, which makes it look like the designers were attempting to have it both ways.

The more successful aspects of the suit include the famous “Green Lantern” logo and way that power ring effect is depicted. Of course it’s impossible to really judge the effect of Hal Jordan’s CGI costume until it is presented in full onscreen mode, but it definitely appears to have possibilities.

Jennifer Lawrence, Kevin Bacon in "X-Men: First Class"

The cast for Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class re-boot is rounding into shape as the studio announced today that Jennifer Lawrence will be playing Mystique and Kevin Bacon will portray the film’s chief villain.

Lawrence, who is currently starring in Winter’s Bone, will play the blue mutant shapeshifter, who was portrayed by Rebecca Romijn in the first three X-Men films.

Fox has not released any information about the character that Kevin Bacon will play, though Variety is reporting than fan speculation is centering on Mister Sinister as the villain for the origin story that stars James MacAvoy as the young Charles Xavier and Michael Fassbender as the youthful Erik Lensherr (Magneto).

'Thor' in 3-D

Marvel will release two 2011 summer blockbusters, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger, in 3-D, according to the Los Angeles Times. Both went through principal photography in 2-D, but special effects were done in 3-D from the beginning, according to the report.

Thor will be released on May 6th ,and Cap will be released on July 22, 2011.

'Jane Austen Zombie' Scribe Signed for 'Dark Shadows'

Seth Grahame-Smith, the Charles Dickens of the mash-up novel who began the craze with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, has been signed to write the screenplay for a feature film based on the long-running vampire soap, Dark Shadows. Johnny Depp is attached to star as Barnabas Collins and Tim Burton will direct, a combination that pretty much insures that the Dark Shadows film will have a great chance to be a blockbuster, if it gets made.

Warner Bros. has not yet announced a date for the film, though Variety reports that it was included on a list of up to 20 films that Warners plans to release via IMAX through 2013. Scheduling for Dark Shadows is complicated, because Johnny Depp reportedly wants to take some time off after finishing Pirates of the Caribbean 4 and Burton is involved in numerous projects.

Grahame-Smith is already working on an adaptation of his historical mash-up Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter for Burton (producer) and Timur Bekmanbetov.

Nicholas Cage in 'Ghost Rider 2'

Nicolas Cage, who played the title role in Ghost Rider, revealed that he’s got a deal to reprise his role in Ghost Rider 2 on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on Thursday night. The film will be directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, who co-directed and co-wrote Crank. They also co-wrote Jonah Hex.

Columbia has been under pressure to start production soon to retain its rights to the property, and there was some question as to whether the film could be made in time with Cage in the title role.

FUNimation Announces a Host of New Licenses

At Anime Expo FUNimation demonstrated its position as the preeminent American anime company by announcing a host of new licenses including the new anime feature, Trigun: Badlands Rumble, which Funimation expects to exhibit in theaters before releasing on DVD. Among the anime that Funimation is planning to release in 2011 are the third Black Lagoon series, Black Lagoon: Roberta’s Blood Trail, Darker Than Black Season 2, Shakugan no Shana Season 2, Hellsing Ultimate Vol.s 5-7, Toaru Majutsu no Index (A Certain Index of Prohibited Books) and its related series Toaru Kagaku no Rerugan (A Certain Scientific Railgun).

Funimation also revealed that it would be simulcasting a number of anime series including Black Butler 2, Shiki, Sekirei—Pure Engagement, Sengoku Basara Two, as well as the live action Moyashimon, which is based on the manga about an ag student who can talk to bacteria and other micro organisms. FUNimation will begin simulcasting all these series this month as they air in Japan.

In addition to these new series FUNimation also announced that it had acquired the rights to a number of former Geneon properties including Ai Yori Aoshi, Armitage III, Haibane Renmei, Hellsing TV anime, Serial Experiments Lain, Tenchi in Tokyo, Tenchi Muyo!, Tenchi Universe, and Texhnolyze.

Amidst this horde of license announcements FUNimation also confirmed that it did not have the license for Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance. Considering that Funimation put out an excellent Blu-ray edition of the first Evangelion movie re-boot , this has to be seen as a real loss for U.S. fans. Perhaps another American anime company will release the remaining Evangelion films, but it appears that Gainax may just not realize how far the market has slipped even for a previously gilt-edged property like Evangelion. There is also the question of how many iterations of basically the same material that even the most devoted fan will buy, regardless of the substantial cosmetic improvements in the new re-booted version.