Episode 135 - Free Falling

No particular topic, just conversation, rants and lots of picking on lots of people. The first in a Hideout Marathon. Enjoy.

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Patterson Comes to Comics

James Patterson, author of numerous bestsellers, has signed a deal with IDW Publishing to create comics and graphic novels. The pact includes comic adaptations of his books, brand new material, and spin-offs from his existing works. The first IDW Patterson-based release will be a five-part comic book series based on the author’s bestselling YA novel, Witch and Wizard. Witch and Wizard: Shadowland, which will be written by Dara Naraghi with Patterson handling the plotting, will debut in May with art by Victor Santos and a painted cover by J.K. Woodward. In June IDW will follow up by launching a 4-part adaptation of Patterson’s “non-fiction thriller” The Murder of King Tut with Alexander Irvine handling the adaptation. Christopher Mitten will provide the art for the sequences set in Ancient Egypt, while Ron Randall will depict the 1920's expedition by the archeologist Howard Carter who discovered the tomb. Darwyn Cooke will create the covers for the series.

Siege the Blackest Night

With DC’s Blackest Night miniseries skipping January, Marvel’s new Siege #1 took the top spot on the “Top 300” chart of periodical comics. Two other Siege tie-ins, New Avengers #61 - at #5 and Dark Avengers #13 - at #8 - also made the top ten.Even though the Blackest Night miniseries skipped the month of January, the DC Comics’ “event” continues to influence the charts. Three Blackest Night tie-ins made the top ten including Green Lantern #50 - at #2, Green Lantern Corps #44 - at #7, and Blackest Night: The Flash #2 - at #9. Also the last issue of the miniseries, Blackest Night #6, which was the best-selling comic in December when it sold 100,351 copies, sold an additional 35,344 copies in January, the majority of which probably came from retailers who didn’t participate in DC’s “Green Christmas” promotion. This puts the total sales for Blackest Night #6 at 135,695, which is much closer to the ring-aided November total for Blackest Night #5 - 144,395.

Justin Haythe, who penned the deep-dish adaptation of Richard Yates’ Revolutionary Road, is set to write the screenplay for The Lone Ranger for Disney. Action film specialist Jerry Bruckheimer is producing the film and Johnny Depp has signed on to play Tonto in the movie. Writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rosio, who worked on the Pirates of the Caribbean films, wrote an early draft of The Lone Ranger. According to The Hollywood Reporter the announcement that Haythe is writing the film “could indicate that the franchise potential of the material is a high priority for the new Disney regime,” something that would be good news for Dynamite, which publishes a comic book adaptation of the 1930s radio show that has found considerable success in other media.

Soul Akira

Fresh of the success of The Book of Eli, which has earned over $93 million worldwide so far, Albert and Allen Hughes are set to direct a two-film adaptation of Katushito Otomo’s Akira for Warner Bros. and Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way Productions. Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, who wrote Iron Man and Children of Men, penned the adaptation of Akira along with Gary Whitta, writer of the The Book of Eli. Instead of Neo-Tokyo, the new version of Akira will be set in “New Manhattan.” According to New York Magazine’s Vulture blog, which broke the story, the Akira saga will be split into two parts on the big screen with the first film, which Warners hopes to be able to release next year, covering the first three books in the 2,182-page manga saga. The Hughes brothers, who directed an adaptation of Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell’s From Hell in 2001, have had experience in putting dark, edgy graphic novel material on the big screen. Otomo’s Akira saga was first published here in the U.S. by Marvel starting in the late 1980s. Dark Horse published the entire saga during the early years of this Century, while fledgling Kodansha Comics published the first of the six volumes in the series last October, and will likely complete the series as the movie project moves along. Bandai Entertainment has released a spectacular Blu-ray edition of Otomo's anime adaptation of his manga series.

Episode 134 - Our Favorite Things

Shawn Pryor of PKD Meida and PKD Black Box joins the Hideout crew for a discussion of their favorite geeky things.

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3-D Spidey

Sony has announced that its reboot of Spider-Man will be produced in 3D for release on July 3, 2012, according to the Hollywood trades. Once the studio moved off its May 2011 dates and committed to a new director and cast, it was just a question of when a new script would be agreed upon and production scheduled. A script by James Vanderbilt, based on Bendis’ and Bagley’s Ultimate Spider-Man story of the high school Peter Parker, is planned as the basis of the new production.

F'ing Tea Baggers

A protest depicted in Captain America #602 has drawn the ire of Tea Party groups, resulting in an apology from Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada. Quesada’s apology was for a sign, drawn into the protest panel at the last minute by a letterer, with the slogan, “Tea Bag the Libs Before They Tea Bag YOU!” Quesada said that the letterer filled in the sign with a slogan from an actual sign held at a protest he found on the Web. The problem was that the protest in the story wasn’t supposed to have anything to do with the Tea Party movement, according to Quesada. The mistake should have been caught by the editorial group but was not. The art has been scrubbed so that any future printings of the story will not include the sign. The story caused a reaction that Fox News described as “a chorus of critics who noticed the apparent jab at the Tea Party movement and who accused Marvel of making supervillains out of patriotic Americans.” Which goes to show small minded people with idiot ideas and racist leanings sometime read comics too.

Super-Nolan

Dark Knight writer/director Christopher Nolan is developing a Superman live action feature, according to Deadline Hollywood. Warner Bros. is hoping that Nolan can bring some Dark Knight magic to Superman, which only brought in $391 worldwide in its most recent incarnation, Brian Singer’s Superman Returns. Now that Singer is back on X-Men, the way is clear for a fresh look at the character. Nolan is unlikely to direct the Superman movie, according to the report, but will supervise the development of a new start to the Superman franchise. Adding some urgency to the schedule for Warners is the fact that a judge ruled in a case involving the Siegel heirs that if no Superman film was in production by 2011, Warners could be penalized. Also, in 2013, the copyrights on the early comic issues featuring Superman revert to the creators, requiring a licensing deal to produce a film featuring the character.

The Devil Returns

Regency is developing a new Daredevil film, according to Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood. David Scarpa, who wrote "The Day the Earth Stood Still" is writing the script, according to the report. The first Daredevil movie was released in 2003 and starred Ben Affleck in the title role with Jennifer Garner as Elektra, Colin Farrell as Bullseye and the pre-Iron Man Jon Favreau as Foggy Nelson. It did $102 million in U.S. box office.

More Green Lantern

Tim Robbins is set to join the Green Lantern feature cast as Senator Hammond, according to the Hollywood Reporter’s Heat Vision blog. The Senator is the father of villain Hector Hammond, played by Peter Sarsgaard. Other cast members include Blake Lively as Carol Ferris and Ryan Reynolds in the title role. The film is set to start shooting in March in New Orleans.