Entertainment

And a stick figure shall lead them. The sequel WIMPY KID: RODRICK RULES was the box office champion this week, knocking out Zack Snyder's snappy looking SUCKER PUNCH, $24 million to $20 million. Based on Jeff Kinney's immensely popular and charming Wimpy Kid series, the success of the film should come as no surprise. We caught a screening on Thursday as the guest of publisher Abrams, and laughed quite a bit -- it isn't as inventive as the books, but the film treats its characters with fondness, and the kid actors are all cute and funny. Plus Devon Bostick, who plays the evil older brother Rodrick, has "teen idol" written all over him in eyeliner. The humor is classic family stuff - one person we talked to compared it to "Christmas Story" and if it isn't that good it does have the same kind of classic situations -- a party out of control, a scary movie about a foot, a bathroom door without a lock.

Hooray! A grown woman will play the grown-up Lois Lane in the Superman reboot being prepped by Zack Snyder. Oscar-nominated Amy Adams will play the nosy reporter, “There was a big, giant search for Lois,” Snyder said of the casting. “For us it was a big thing and obviously a really important role. We did a lot of auditioning but we had this meeting with Amy Adams and after that I just felt she was perfect for it.”

While the Spider-Man musical has been struggling along with all the momentum of an elderly man wearing roller skates trying to go up Lombard Hill after it has been covered with lard, another nerd-derived Broadway musical has opened with the fanfare of a million angels playing Handel's Water Music while flying over a burning fireworks factory.

CHEW, the cibopathic comedy smash comic by John Layman and Rob Guillory has been picked up for development at Showtime, and a script by Terri Hughes Burton and Ron Milbauer has been purchased. It's being planned as a half-hour comedy; Stephen Hopkins will direct as well as executive produce.

Zenescope is one of those publishers that hangs around the middle of the pack; they've been a it for a while, and if they don't sell giant numbers or have household name hits, they are still at it, occasionally pacting with Discovery or putting out a kids line or doing something else to expand their line. But the bread and butter that keeps Zenescope afloat is cheesecake -- especially of the variant we like to call "loincloth comics." It's like the '90s "Bad Girl" era never went away for GRIMM FAIRY TALES, their flagship title which features skimpily clad girls thrusting their body parts at various fairy tale based characters on the covers. Sometimes tacky, but harmless.

Intensive lab scene accompanied by anxious music? Check. Unsubtle reference to Avengers franchise in title? Check. The line "You don't know when to quit, do you?" Check.

Artist Colleen Doran has been talking about a secret graphic novel project she's been working on for over a year, and it's finally been announced: MANGAMAN, written by Barry Lyga, author of The Adventures of Fanboy and Gothgirl, and Boy Toy The tale is described as a "metafictive" tale of a character from a manga who falls through a "rip" into the real world and falls in love with a real girl. Doran talks about the project here:

Well, this is sad. T.V. Carpio, who plays the much-dreaded Arachne character, has been on hiatus from the soon-to-be-rebuilt Spider-Nan musical after what some are saying is whiplash:

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.