We took much of the week off here, mainly since there was so much news out of Comic-Con that it didn’t leave a lot to include in our semi-weekly entertainment news wrap-up, but there’s still a few things to talk about, especially as everyone fully recovers.
It’s been a bunch of years since I’ve actually been to Comic-Con, and this was the first time I covered it remotely, which made for an interesting experience. I’m sure Heidi will do some sort of Highs and Lows piece on Comic-Con — yup! I was right! — so I won’t go that route, but it’s been a very busy con with Marvel Studios clearly blowing away all expectations with its highly-anticipated panel.
I think the one thing that really struck me was the fact that AMC would be teaming with Universal to release the Rick Grimes Walking Dead movies theatrically, rather than doing the TV movies many expected. I guess we’ll have to see how that pans out, but I just don’t remember too many cases where TV shows have been turned into movies and succeeded. Maybe the first Sex and the Citymovie, but then there are other examples that have gone the other way like Entourage, Absolutely Fabulousand I’m sure there are others. The thing is that The Walking Dead was already a TV show that not only was bringing Robert Kirkman’s now-completed comic book series to the small screen, but it was also paying homage to many of the great zombie movies from George Romero and others. Making a Walking Dead movie, let alone three, seems like it won’t be able to offer more than being “just another zombie movie” except with Andrew Lincoln. We’ll have to see how it goes, but HBO had been threatening Game of Thronesmovies for years before the series came to a close, and there’s been little word more recently. (I did watch the SDCC ’19 panel for Game of Thronesvia Periscope and quite enjoyed it, despite the bigger names being absent.)
In case you missed it…
Have you read ALL of The Beat’s Comic-Con coverage yet? Seriously, there’s so much to read, covering comics, television, movies and more. And everyone should give a huge round of applause … no, a full standing ovation … for The Beat’s secret weapon, Managing Editor Samantha Puc, for the amazing work she did pulling all of that content together over four and a half sleepless days!
I’ve probably said enough about the astounding box office in my report above, but it’s still pretty amazing and might have gotten lost in the shuffle of Comic-Con.
Hulu is developing a HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY series
As a fan of Douglas Adams’ books and many of the adaptations of it, I’m looking forward to what they do with this one.
Rob Guillory’s FARMHAND coming to AMC
This is one comic I haven’t read, but I know it has its fans and AMC has done quite well with comic adaptations so far, going by The Walking Deadand Preacher.
Todd Phillips’ JOKER movie going to TIFF
This is pretty exciting for those people going to the annual Toronto film festival, but sadly, that’s not me… but hey, those who do will see it a month in advance of others.
Onto newer stuff…
THE BATMAN should look nice, at least…
Earlier this week,it was announced that Australian cinematographer Greig Fraser would be the DOP for Matt Reeves’ The Batman, which will start filming in January for its 2021 release. Fraser was previously nominated for an Oscar for the drama Lion, but his previous has worked filming Rogue One, Snow White and the Huntsman and the upcoming Dune. More importantly, Fraser and Reeves previously worked together on Let Me In, a terrific remake of the Swedish horror film Let the Right One In, which starred Chloë Grace-Moretz from Hitmanand Kodi Smit-McPhee from the X-Men movies.
ROGUE TROOPER movie is closer to reality
While HBO is getting ready to release the first season of its Watchmenseries, another one of Dave Gibbons’ co-creations is making its way to the screen, and that’s the 2000 ADserialized comicRogue Trooper, co-created by Gibbons and Gerry Finley-Day back in 1981. Moonand Warcraftdirector Duncan Jones has been developing a movie based on the character, and in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he’s optimistic we’ll be seeing it sooner than later.
“We’re in the exciting bit right now of concept-arting-out some of the elements of the script,” he told Clark Collisof EW. “The script is really looking pretty good now. It’s getting to the point where we’re going to have to start casting and making the thing. I think we’ve come up with a really smart way to approach it. Hopefully, [we’ve] learnt the lessons from previous 2000AD films, where they were either not loyal to what the original comic was, or, in Dredd’s case, just done at slightly too big a budget to actually be successful, even though the film was critically well-received. I think we’ve really kind of nailed this one, so it looks good that we’ll get to make it and I think people are going to really like it.”
But Todd McFarlane’s SPAWN may need to find some more financers…
One of the Comic-Con stories that we didn’t report on, but it was probably going to be expected whenever Todd McFarlane sits down for interviews, it’s expected that someone is going to ask him about “that Spawn movie.” This con’s sucker, I mean “outlet,” was ComicBook.com, who found out that McFarlane needs $20 million to make the movie and doesn’t have all of it. So his plan? KICKSTARTER!
“I have to ask people for money, and once you ask people for money, they get to have a say in it,” McFarlane reiterated. “Like I said, it’s a little bit of an uphill battle, because again, I just want to do this little dark ‘R’ movie, and they like those PG-13 success movies.”
He went on to share his idea: “I need 20 million people to give me a dollar, and I will make this movie, and when I get the money back I’ll return the dollar back to you. And you will be my producers… and all I’ll need is the distribution. That’s doable today. I don’t get why Ryan Gosling doesn’t do that for every one of his movies, ‘I need 20 million of you to give me a dollar,’ are you kidding, he’d have it in an hour and could go do his thing! But people in the system are beholden to it and they have obligations, and the guy on the outside, me, goes ‘I’m only going to give them so much time, and then I’m just going to come up with some crazy idea.”
So I guess he’s finally sick of trying to play nice with anyone besides the fans, and he’ll try to find 20 million fans to finance a Spawn movie, and then he actually has to make a movie that someone might want to release.
Meanwhile, the Spawn comic introduced way back in 1992 is approaching its 300thissue, which is quite a milestone, one that few independently-produced comics has achieved.
SUPERGIRL loses Mehcad Brooks but Jeremy Jordan is back
I will freely admit that I haven’t watched as much of the CW’s Supergirlshow as I would like, even though it’s definitely one of my favorite parts of the “Arrowverse” as far as the shows I have watched.
Earlier in the week, it was reported by Deadline that Mehcad Brooks was leaving the cast, having played James Olsen since the very beginning. There are no details about what episode in Season 5 will be his last but one of Supergirl’s ex-boyfriends is leaving for the old nugget of wanting to “focus on feature films” but also a potential cable show.
The good news for sad fans is that actors Jeremy Jordan reported on his own Instagram account that he’ll be returning in Season 5 as “Winn Schott” who is one of Kara’s best friends but is jealous of her relationship with James Olsen – so I guess it’s a good thing he’s leaving, huh? Winn also ended up becoming Vigilante and eventually joined the Legion of Superheroes in the future, so presumably he’ll be back for the “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover come December.
Lots of classic Godzilla is coming to Criterion for Halloween
Something will probably see sooner than another Spawn movie is 1,000th release from Criterion, officially Spine 1000, and it’s going to be an amazing eight-disc Blu-ray set called Godzilla: The Show-Era Films: 1954-1975. That era includes the original 1954 Godzilla in black and white, the 1955 sequel Godzilla Raids Again, King Kong vs. Godzilla (the 1962 Japanese rerelease) and 12 more films with all of the bells and whistles and audio commentaries you’ve come to expect from a Criterion release, as well as a hardcover book with some amazing artists contributing. It will be released on October 29 with a suggest retail price of $224.95, and Criterion has released a trailer for the avid Godzilla fans to drool over until it’s in their grubby hands come Halloween.
Trailers! Trailers! Trailers!
Again, a lot of trailers were run during Comic-Con, so there wasn’t too much left for this week. One of the trailers that we didn’t post was the second one for the Russo Brothers-produced 21 Bridges, which reteams them with Black Panther’s Chadwick Boseman in a New York-based crime thriller, which I first saw previewed at CinemaCon. It’s being released on Sept. 27 even though there’s been word that distributor STXfilms has been having some money issues.
The first big trailer of this week was the teaser for Jojo Rabbit, the upcoming movie from Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok), which looks like a quirky comedy on par with his action-comedy The Hunt for the Wilderpeople, one of the indie movies that preceded Waititi’s move to Marvel. Oh, and Waititi plays Hitler in it, just to give you some idea what sort of dark sense of humor he has. It’s an interesting choice, but it also stars Scarlett Johannson so maybe some will be interested in the movie for her.
On top of that, the very first trailer for a movie I’m super-excited for is the new one for Sony’s Zombieland 2: Double Tap, which debuted yesterday following a random poster during Comic-Con despite Sony not having a presence there. I loved the original movie, which was one of the first film works by Deadpool writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, as well as the feature debut by Venom director Ruben Fleischer. They’re all back for the sequel as is the cast including Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin, as well as some newcomers. I cannot wait!
Also, yesterday saw another trailer for Ang Lee‘s Gemini Man, starring Will Smith, which you can check out here.
By the way, if you don’t have plans this weekend, there’s lot of great stuff leaving Netflix at the end of the month including the first four Final Destination movies (probably going to HBO Max?), Edgar Wright’s Hot Fuzz – in my opinion, the most perfect comedy ever made – and Zombieland! It’s not great for a streaming service that has been having financial issues to lose some of the content that I would watch endlessly in a loop if I had the time.. but I guess servers can only hold so much content.
And that’s it for today’s Studio Coffee Run… let us know what you think of this installment in the comments.
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