Movies

You could learn a lot from Mark Millar. Seriously. Not content to let his movie option deal announcement go live and get covered everywhere, he got a full three days of publicity out of it! And made such a big deal of it that Bleeding Cool literally wouldn't sleep until they scooped Deadline on the news -- which everyone we talked to seems to have known for days. So a big deal becomes a Bigger Deal. That is how you market it, Mark Millar, and we salute you.

The road to comic book Valhalla is lined with companies that have tried to do "celebrity comics" as a means of switching to the fast lane of movie money and licensing gold. Tekno, Virgin, CrossGen. There is hardly a company that does not have some kind of celebrity "vanity project" comic out there made mostly to show to producers as a bible for a film. And all of this is despite the fact that not a single movie has yet been made from a comic book that was published just to be turned into a movie. COWBOYS & ALIENS, which is certainly an A-list project with Jon Favreau, Daniel Craig, and Harrison Ford aboard is set to be the first comic of its genre to ever actually get turned into a big movie. But this is the first time it has ever happened and it took 10 years. And despite this, there are still no other Platinum, Tokyopop, Radical, or Liquid movies. No one can go to Netflix and order the MAYHEM movie or OCD movie or GAMEKEEPER movie.

• The fellow who produced WATCHMEN is now interested in developing MAGE, Matt Wagner's modern day Arthurian fantasy. Lloyd Levin, who professes to be a big fan of the material, has optioned the "Hero Discovered" portion of the tale of Kevin Matchstick and his wonder-bat. Originally published in the indie-comics-lovin' 80s, MAGE is one of those tried and true tales which remains a good read, and always in play for Hollywood -- Zack Snyder was attached to a previous deal.

Has all the Comic-Con hype actually TURNED OFF some moviegoers? That's what what a chart over at THR seems to show, Jay Fernandez reports:

Contrary to its reputation as a garish, headache-inducing day-glo nightmare, Batman &Robin is, in fact, a sensitive, heartfelt examination of power, frailty, family, humanity’s custody of the earth, the ties that bind and the mysterious ways of the human heart.

I kid, of course. Batman & Robin, as every schoolboy knows, is ridiculous. A ludicrous traffic-jam of a narrative, it makes no goddamn sense whatsoever from any conceivable point of view. However, that does not mean it is unworthy of study. To paraphrase Charlie Brown, if one learns more from one’s mistakes, that must the creators of Batman & Robin the smartest storytellers who ever lived.

No fewer than six main characters vault into the narrative of Batman & Robin, each with his or her own agenda. Some of these agendas cohere into a compelling, thematically- linked narrative. Others, well, not so much.

Boilerplate, the not-so-historical mechanical man dreamed up by Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett, has been optioned by J.J. Abrams, whose Bad Robot production company...

The THOR footage shown at Comic-Con has been leaking out all over the place, and far be it from us to link you to a place to see it, as it's being taken down quickly, but in case you can't find it, Splash Page has a blow-by-bow account.

Via pr: Legendary comic book master Will Eisner's groundbreaking graphic novel "A Contract with God" is being adapted into a live action feature film, it...

This is not comics, but it sounds too cool not to post.

A lot of new Captain America and especially Thor movie art floating around today. From Yahoo Movies, two posters that Marvel will be distributing...

A new THOR still, new RED posters, new PRIEST stills, and the sequel that you fear the most.

This is the other superhero movie sneak peak making the rounds, the first look at Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Anthony Hopkins as Odin and Tom Hiddleston as Loki. This still has met with very mixed reaction on the new, looking as it does kind of .. Marvel Studios-ey, if you know what we mean. Since Norse gods don't wear wife beaters, getting the look right is very important.