Movies

Young Chloe Moretz is adding to her geek cred by starring as yet another cartoon character, Emily the Strange, Deadline reports. Originally created as a clothing line mascot by Rob Reger, Emily is a cat-loving goth girl (like there is any other kind) who had expanded into print and graphic novels. An Emily comic is published by Dark Horse, and DH head Mike Richardson will be one of the producers.

Yes, there is a GHOST RIDER sequel being made right now, but it won't come out until 2012. And then the world will end. Nicolas Cage rides the flaming chopper again, Splash Page reports. The CRANK team of Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor directs, and it's filming in Romania. You'll recall that although there wasn't that much enthusiasm for the first one, the rights would revert to Marvel/Disney if Sony didn't do something with the property, and Sony wouldn't want that. Because there is life in that flaming chopper.

It seems that the general air of Doompocalypsamagedden has now even extended to the comic book film, a once thriving genre that provided much of the capital that has fueled the biz for the last decade. Over at Comic Book Movie, there's an unsigned "volunteer contribution" that suggests "comic book movie" could go the way of the Western or the POLICE ACADEMY movies:

A new clip from RED, the Bruce Willis-starring movie loosely based on RED by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner, has been released, and to the surprise of no one, it features what is the most eagerly anticipated aspect of the film: Dame Helen Mirren blowing shit up. We're told RED has been tracking very well and may even be the graphic novel base hit that perks up an otherwise painful year.

There's a new Spider-Man franchise underway and it stars young Brit actor Andrew Garfield as the webslinger. But who is this man and will he be able to fill the tights and heavy eyewear of Tobey Maguire and Nicholas Hammond before him? Doing the rounds to promote his new film NEVER LET ME GO, he opened up for the first time about playing Peter Parker, and even if it's just his press agent telling him what to say, as is so often the case these days, Garfield has sold it beautifully:

Forget about THE LOSERS or IRON MAN 2 or SCOTT PILGRIM or any other 2010 comics movie, TAMARA DREWE is the comic book movie event of the year -- at least for indie comics snobs. Based on Posy Simmonds' much-admired graphic novel, the film debuts in the US on October 8th, courtesy of Sony Classics in the US. (It opens in September 10th in Simmonds' native UK.)

Looks like it's the day for hopeful tweeting about comics movies!

Scott Morse has posted two posters which he created for the film portion of the All Tomorrow's Parties Festival in Monticello, NY, Morse writes: The...

While we were out of town, many comic book movie casting decisions were announced, and since it's beach season, here's a great chance to...

So when the tale was written, SCOTT PILGRIM Vs THE WORLD ended up #5 at the box office with a disappointing $10.5 mil. This...

Two summers later, I am still quite taken with The Dark Knight. I have not encountered an American movie — much less an American movie, designed to be a gigantic blockbuster and based on a hugely popular comic book — that is structured as ingeniously and compellingly as this one. I’ve simply never seen anything like it, and after several viewings it still continues to flabbergast.

I’ve worked on a handful of these types of movies as a screenwriter, and let me tell you: they’re hard. They’re really hard. There are so many issues for the writer to address: the protagonist must be active, the villain’s plot must make sense, there must be a romantic interest, there must be due attention paid to the history of the character and the rules of the genre, they must be both fantastic and grounded at the same time. All these balls must be kept in the air and these concerns must mesh in a straightforward, compelling, swift, action-packed cinematic narrative, consistent in tone and true to its source material. I haven’t seen one — not one — that has managed to get everything in and do everything right. None of the Superman movies do it, none of the previous WB Batman movies do it, none of the Spider-Man movies do it, neither of the Fantastic Four movies do it, and, even after 22 tries, none of the Bond movies do it either. (The Iron Man movies come close — really close.) But The Dark Knight not only does a better job than any other movie based on its source material — and by that I mean "superhero comics" — it does it with a radically ambitious screenplay that challenges any number of conventions and brings a new, added weight to its subject.

It's looking like SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD will come in at a disappointing #4 at this weekend's box office, according to Nikki Finke,...