Entertainment

My voice is back enough to podcast! A miracle! Check out this week's Comic News Insider Episode 322 – Walking The Beat with Heidi MacDonald in which I co-host with Jimmy Aquino:

According to Variety, director David Slade, previous comic book movie veteran of 30 DAYS OF NIGHT, is aboard for a new Daredevil movie which "will not contain material from the Ben Affleck version". Daredevil last swung across the screen in 2003 when a movie starring Affleck, Jennifer Garner and Colin Farrell was the first of many "meh" Marvel superhero films to follow (cf. GHOST RIDER, PUNISHER, HULK 2, etc., etc.) Daredevil is also one of a number of Marvel characters who must be put into development by Disney rivals lest Disney/Marvel get the rights back. (cf. GHOST RIDER.) It is safe to say not many are pining for a new Daredevil movie right now, but better Fox make it than Disney just happen to do it.

Sequart Research & Literacy Organization is a non-profit organization devoted to promoting comic books as a legitimate artform that has published studies on various topics including Batman, the X-Men, and Grant Morrison. Now they are promoting "A Year of Ellis" including several books -Shot in the Face:  A Savage Journey to the Heart of Transmetropolitan and Voyage in Noise:  Warren Ellis and the Demise of Western Civilization -- as well as the movie Warren Ellis:  Captured Ghosts. However. first up is a study of PLANETARY -- the multi-dimensional pastiche on genre fiction by Ellis and artist John Cassaday -- called strong>Keeping the World Strange: A Planetary Guide. Details on the contents have just been released:

Tonight at the Barrientos Mexican-American Cultural Center there is a SXSW Interactive evening event called Plutopia: The Future of Play that anyone can attend. Many speakers will focus on the converging technologies of the science field with arts and entertainment via film, demonstrations, performance art.

Was God trying to tell them something?

"I have known many gods. He who denies them is as blind as he who trusts them too deeply. I seek not beyond death. It may be the blackness averred by the Nemedian skeptics, or Crom's realm of ice and cloud, or the snowy plains and vaulted halls of the Nordheimer's Valhalla. I know not, nor do I care. Let me live deep while I live; let me know the rich juices of red meat and stinging wine on my palate, the hot embrace of white arms, the mad exultation of battle when the blue blades flame and crimson, and I am content. Let teachers and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content."

Just to give you a laugh as you head out for the weekend, the trailer for THE SMURFS, which stars Neil Patrick Harris as the human who gets embarrassed and frazzled by dealing with his new friends, and Harvey Pekar Hank Azaria as Gargamel.

Deadline reports that Jeff Smith's RASL is being developed by SHERLOCK HOLMES roducer Lionel Wigram. The series, the follow-up to Smith's million-selling fantasy Bone, concerns an art thief who jump to different universes to steal priceless works of art, but at a great personal cost.

Continuing Thor's conquest of all media, Marvel is releasing a new animated Thor & Loki: Blood Brothers series, based on the Robert Rodi and Esad Ribic mini, that explains why they don't get along. The series will be available for download on iTunes, XBox and PlayStation starting 3/28 for $2.99 in HiDef and $1.99 in standard. The trailer debuted on Wired and producer Ruwan Jayatilleke talked about the story:

Someday, we predict, someone will write an opera about the Spider-Man musical, which will be all about immensely talented egos, wasted money and mythic archetypes; it will be the Nixon in China for those days. Seriously, how could you have predicted the scene when fucking BONO would have to step out in front of a theatrical group and take the reins as creative leader, saying they had to move forward without the director he himself had chosen?

Well, it looks like The Beatwill have to see Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark again! Because when it officially opens--in JUNE this time--it could be a different show. The NY Times reports that what everyone was whispering yesterday was true: the opening has been delayed until June, and the production -- the most expensive in Broadway history -- will take a break to try to fix some of the problems, and probably bring in a fixer.

It's international Women's Day, yo. To celebrate, let's watch this video of Judi Dench (M) interrogating Daniel Craig (uh, James Bond) who appears in drag. "We're equals, aren't we, 007?" asks Dame Dench. Let's also look at the day in nerd gender relations. There was much tweeting yesterday about the new TCJ.com and the number of lady contributors. Melinda Beasi at Manga Bookshelf sums up the whole thing, and the comments have it out and then everyone sat down and ate a hearty lunch.