Archive for the ‘green hornet’ Category
Filed Under barbarella, green hornet, indiana jones, mystery, red sonja, space opera, tiki
Aliens in Indiana Jones?
I know a lot of people were bugged by the scifi element in Crystal Skull, but they’re forgetting that there’s a precedence for it. As far back as Raiders there’s evidence that our ancient civilizations had contact with life – droid life, anyway – from the stars.
“Indy! No hitting!”
I still have a lot of Indy links to post. Like this one about how the Indiana Jones stunt show at Disneyland will no longer feature Dr. Jones’ directly hitting anyone. One of the senior show directors said that even though there haven’t been a lot of complaints, there “will be more pushes and shoves than direct hits.” Crowds don’t seem to like it when he punches Irina Spalko. Stupid crowds.
Re-reading the article, I notice that it says three punches are being removed, but it doesn’t say how many punches Indy used to throw. So I suppose he could’ve thrown about 20, leaving 17 of them intact. I wouldn’t bet money on it though.
Incidentally, I got to be in the Indy stunt show at Disney World last time I was there. I’ll have to scan some pictures from that.
Waiting for Dr. Jones
And speaking Disneyland’s Indiana Jones Adventure, this guy’s taken tons of pictures of the queue. Disney sure knows how to make waiting in line fun.
Indy party!
Want to throw an Indiana Jones-themed shindig? Here’s how.
Indiana Jones makes bath time better
Indy towels.
Red Sonja casting
Apparently Rose McGowan is your new Red Sonja. This is older news and there was a minor hitch in it thanks to a tabloid’s reporting that Rose and Red Sonja producer Robert Rodriguez had broken up. Rose has denied that rumor though and will be at San Diego Comic-Con with Rodriguez to promote the movie, so it sounds like she’s still in. (For Barbarella, too.)
And in other Unlikely Casting news…
Here’s Seth Rogen to defend why he’s playing the Green Hornet.
For years we’d really been trying to write a movie that was kind of about a hero
and his sidekick. When we heard the Green Hornet movie was up for grabs, we
thought that could be the perfect way to do this story, because he is the only
hero whose sidekick is more known than he is.
More about space opera
Related to Monday’s post about the relevance of space opera, Barnes & Noble ran a nice overview of the genre. Paul DiFilippo looks at it’s history and talks about not only the successes, but what hasn’t worked and why. Interesting stuff.
Tiki Joe Mysteries
I’m all for more murder and mayhem in the Pacific islands. Even if it doesn’t include a hot detective or the walking dead.
Filed Under alexandre dumas, giant robots, green hornet, jesse james, swashbuckling, wonder woman, zorro
Kill All Monsters!-Related
Dude changed his middle name to Megatron.
Dust to Dust-Related
This looks like old news, but apparently Barry Upton and Sam Snape are writing a Jesse James musical.
Swashbuckling
Today would’ve been Alexandre Dumas’ 205th birthday. Happy Musketeer Day!
When I first heard about Dynamite’s doing a Zorro comic, I had mixed feelings. A Zorro comic should be cool, but I was never able to get into Topps’ attempt at it (though they did have some awesome covers). Of course, Topps didn’t have Matt Wagner writing it.
Pulp
If you’re having a hard time picturing Seth Rogen as Green Hornet you might like this short, fan film version better. It was made by French guys, but it’s in English. (Thanks to Kevin Melrose for the link.)
Science Fiction
Writer Carl Ellsworth and director D.J. Caruso, aka the guys responsible for Disturbia, have been hired to also write and direct the Y: The Last Man movie.
Wonder Woman
Today is also Lynda Carter’s birthday. According to Wikipedia, she’s 56. Happy Birthday, Wonder Woman!
Filed Under alpha flight, captain nemo, dinosaurs, giant monsters, giant robots, green hornet, harry potter, jericho, jesse james, perry mason, wonder woman, writing is hard
Kill All Monsters!-Related
Steve Bissette continues his look at giant monsters.
He also talks about DC’s GIs-versus-dinosaurs comics that are collected in Showcase Presents: The War that Time Forgot. I started reading them myself, but was disappointed that instead of a continuing storyline about soldiers stranded on an island of dinosaurs, most of the stories are self-contained (except for an occasional one that takes two or three issues to complete) and feature new characters in every tale. It’s still a cool idea, but I was hoping to get to know the soldiers better than the format allows.
Chris Sims convinces me to read Marvel MegaMorphs, about Marvel superheroes who pilot giant-robot versions of themselves.
Forget Transformers. How’sabout a life-sized Gundam giant robot figure?
Blogarama has a preview of Josh Cotter’s giant-robot-featuring contribution to the Indie Spinner Rack anthology. Cotter’s very cool Skyscrapers of the Midwest series frequently features giant robots, so this is no surprise. That doesn’t make it any less welcome though.
Dust to Dust-Related
Looks like I missed TiVoing Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda in Jesse James on Fox Movie Channel this morning, but they’re rerunning it on August 24th. Now if I can just remember…
Pulp
This is only a rumor as far as I can tell, but everyone else is talking about it so I might as well mention that Knocked Up star Seth Rogen may be writing and starring in a Green Hornet movie.
Mystery
You’ll have to click on the link to get the full skinny, but the Sci Fi Channel’s got some details about the second season of Jericho. Like how they’re going to squeeze 22 planned episodes into the 7 that CBS ordered and how the plot will be intentionally reminiscent of events in Iraq.
In the comments to my post on Erle Stanley Gardner’s birthday, Rupert from The Book Garden mentions that he’s building a Squidoo list of Perry Mason novels. Quite an undertaking and very useful information considering the huge number of them that Gardner wrote.
Fantasy
Starting tonight, I’m not reading anything online that has either “Harry Potter” or “HP” in the text. Hewlett Packard news will just have to wait until I’m caught up. But before I go dark on the Harry news, I’ve got to share this press release that a friend forwarded to me. It’s from a grief counselor offering “to speak with parents and children, as well as the media, on how to cope with feelings of grief and loss” once the series concludes. “This could have a serious impact on children, millions of whom have grown up reading, watching and profoundly enjoying the characters and storylines of the Harry Potter series.” Maybe I’m a heartless bastard, but really?
Science Fiction
This is even more rumor than the Green Hornet story, but the Disney Blog is reporting conversations about Disney’s remaking 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, possibly with “a certain captain from the Pirates franchise” as Nemo. That last bit sounds like wishful thinking more than informed speculation to me, but I don’t have the contacts that the Disney Blog does, so don’t listen to me.
Wonder Woman
That’s Fit has links to some cool Wonder Woman gear for women. It’s all under item number four in their “five ways to emblazon yourself with a message of strength.”
Alpha Flight
Ramon Perez (Butternutsquash) has a fantastic post where he’s drawn all the characters from the classic Alpha Flight team. Made me homesick it did.
Writing is Hard
One of the Three Golden Rules of Writing is “show, don’t tell,” but Writer Unboxed read a review of Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo that made them wonder how strictly the rule should be followed. After all, “does the description of ‘a little man with no compassion or concern for others’ really hurt him? It helps the reader develop an instantaneous feeling about the character so the story can move forward, after all. Is that always bad? Did (Leven Thumps author Obert) Skye need to develop a sequence showing the character acting like an a-hole?” Good question. I’d be interested in hearing opinions on this one.
Stuff Nobody Cares About But Me
This post on the Simpsons Movie promotional donuts made me very hungry. I gotta find a 7-11.
Filed Under doctor who, dracula, fantasy, green hornet, harry potter, scifi, supergirl, westerns
Westerns
Clint Eastwood’s “Man with No Name” character is getting his own comic book series. I’ve been itching for a good Western comic, so I’ll be giving it a look.
Horror
The absolutely least interesting part of the Dracula story for me is his origin, so a Dracula Year Zero movie sounds like a really awful idea to me. Until you tell me that Alex Proyas (The Crow, Dark City) is directing it.
I’m not really confident about sticking this under “Horror,” but since the very funny Doug Jones plays Abe Sapien in the Hellboy movies, I’ll tell you here about his blog.
Fantasy
Kerwin Mathews, the guy who played Sinbad in The 7th Voyage of, died July 5th. He was 81.
Movie studios are looking for the next Harry Potter success. So of course they’re snatching up the rights to any book series that remotely features wizards and spells. I guess as long as you’re looking to rip off the Potter movies, you might as well go to the Potter rip-off books, but I’m thinking that this is going to get old real fast.
I’m a nerd for historical movies and I’ve wanted to see one for a while that covers the period between cave men and the first civilizations. Prayer answered. And it looks good too.
Science Fiction
Make your own Dalek cupcakes. (Thanks for the link, Kelly Sue!)
10 Reasons Why John McClane is More Badass than Optimus Prime.
Superheroes
Smallville watchers, meet your Supergirl.
Writing is Apparently Not That Hard
At least, Joe Mathlete makes it look easy with this excerpt from a fictional book (as in, it doesn’t actually exist) that I would totally buy. I want to give you a best line, but the whole damn thing’s awesome, so I’ll just feed you the first in order to entice you to reading the whole thing: “Jameson P. Greeley sipped his glass of milk through a straw, savoring each drop like a kitten would vodka, if the kitten were an alcoholic and/or Russian.”
Stuff Nobody Cares About But Me
I thought Meredith’s half-sister Lizzie was completely charming in her Grey’s Anatomy appearances. Apparently I was in the minority because focus groups didn’t like her. Fortunately, the show’s producers told the focus groups what to do with themselves and made her a regular character. Just one of the many reasons I love the creators of that show.
Filed Under adventure, comics, fantasy, green hornet, pirates, shazam, superheroes, swashbuckling, zorro
Adventure
- I’m really looking forward to Marvel’s World War Hulk storyline. I’ve been reading The Incredible Hulk ever since some of Marvel’s hoighty-toightier “heroes” tricked him and exiled him to outer space, and I cannot wait for him to get back and smash the crap out of them. Especially Iron Man, who somehow turned into my new favorite Marvel villain over the course of the Civil War event. Anyway, the reason I’m bringing this up is that one of my favorite up-and-coming artists, Chris Moreno, is going to be drawing back-up features about a bunch of goofy superheroes trying out for Rhode Island’s official, new superteam in the World War Hulk: Frontline mini-series. Which makes me even more excited about it all.
- I missed Oni’s Northwest Passage mini-series the first time around, but promised myself that I’d catch it in the trade paperback collection. Looks like it’s going to be a far prettier collection than I thought.
- I’m a big Captain Marvel fan. DC’s “Shazam” one, not Marvel’s outer-space hero one. Looks like 2008 is going to be a big year for him and his supporting characters, including an animated series and a new toy line.
- Speaking of which, Mary Marvel fans are in an uproar about her possible role in DC’s upcoming Countdown series. Mary’s always been a character who’s remained unexploited by DC and folks are concerned that that’s going to change in Countdown’s “Seduction of the Innocent” storyline. Their fears aren’t groundless, but I’m not ready to get out my torch and pitchfork just yet. One of the reasons that Mary’s never been exploited by DC before is that frankly she hasn’t been in their books a whole lot outside of the various Shazam series and an occasional guest-appearance. I’m not saying that I want her to become a dark and dirty character; I’m just not convinced yet that that’s the ultimate plan DC has for her.
- Seen the new Pirates of the Caribbean trailer yet?
- Speaking of swashbuckling, you can now read the entire first issue of the excellent Black Coat mini-series online for free. There are also five-page previews of the other issues in the series.
- And in still more swashbuckling news, Michael Chabon’s (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay) new novel Gentlemen of the Road will be released in November from Del Rey. It features “a pair of wandering adventurers—swords for hire, horsethieves, flimflam artists, unlikely soul mates—who get caught up in the schemes and battles that follow a bloody coup in the great medieval Jewish empire of the Khazars.”
- Kevin Smith’s Green Hornet movie may not have gone anywhere, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be a Green Hornet movie.
- Dynamite Entertainment’s giving a Zorro comic a shot. Zorro’s a hero who sometimes works better for me in concept than in execution, but I’m looking forward to seeing their take on him.
- I think I heard about this a long time ago, but I’d forgotten that there’s an Underdog movie in the works. Can’t say I like the direction they went, but it looks like it’s just about ready.
Fantasy
Other Comics
- Civil War writer Mark Millar is known for making loud, self-hyping, and often controversial statements. Too bad they aren’t always true. He recently claimed that his work on Civil War would spill over and benefit poor, little books like Captain America that “hasn’t sold over 45K in half a decade.” Now, he speculates, “they’ll be regular 90K-plus books and even more for a little while.” Only problem is, according to Captain America writer Ed Brubaker, “Cap 1, which came out two plus years ago, sold in the mid-70s, and the regular monthly book has been selling in the mid-50s since around issue 14, I believe.” Not that Brubaker’s claiming that Civil War won’t help boost those numbers, but Captain America wasn’t quite as beleaguered as Millar made it out to be.
