Toonami Has Two New Anime: Plus Four Returnees

Two anime new to broadcast in the U.S. were included in the Toonami block on Adult Swim that premiered last weekend. Deadman Wonderland aired at 12:30 a.m. ET and 3:30 ET Saturday. The U.S. anime rights are controlled by FUNimation ; home video has not yet been released. Tokyopop published five volumes of the manga.
Casshern Sins aired at 1:00 and 4:00 a.m. ET. The series was released by FUNimation in a complete set,  and in two parts.

Other shows airing in the block are Bleach; Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood; Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG; and Cowboy Bebop.

G. I. Joe Toys Interrupted : Some Shipped, Others Delayed

 

Hasbro will delay the release of the rest of its toys for G.I. Joe: Retaliation to early next year to tie into the revised release date for the movie , the company announced late last week. Some retailers have already put products from the first wave on sale; they were already being shipped when the move release date delay was announced. But any products not already on sale will be returned , and the remainder of the first wave and future waves will ship in 2013.

This presents an interesting situation, with G.I. Joe collectors chasing the limited amounts of product that has already been released, with the knowledge that larger quantities will eventually be available early next year. No elevated prices were noted on eBay as of Tuesday.

'G.I. Joe' Needed Work : the Real Reason for the Delay

G.I. Joe: Retaliation was testing poorly and needed reshoots, according to Deadline,  which is why the release date was pushed back from June to 2013 . Channing Tatum, who’s gotten hot since the first film, was going to be killed off early in the sequel, but was one of the few things testing audiences liked. Reshoots will help expand his role and keep him alive. And the 3D move was essential, given how the dollars on the summer blockbusters have flowed.
 

The delay of the movie at this late stage, when theaters were booked and licensed merchandise had started to flow, was a radical move, reflecting the degree of risk Paramount perceived in releasing the movie as it was and the size of the opportunity in fixing it

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.