DHep #206 - Conned for 4 Days. . .Again

The show after the New York Comicon and our topic will be a review of the con, and some TV, no new movies, interesting news on Superman and the Justice League movie and the horror show that is America's political commercials. Coming to you like a speeding ferret on crank 2, it another episode of The Hideout. Enjoy.

Hollywood Sci-Fi Shuffle

Robot of Iron Man Wanna-Be?

Sony has pushed the debut of Jose Padilha’s Robocop reboot back to February 7, 2014 and given the Robocop remake’s prime summer release date of August 9, 2013 to Neill Blomkamp’s science fiction film Elysium.  In 2009 Sony released Blomkamp’s first film District 9 in August and the low-budget sci-fi film turned into a worldwide $210 million hit.  Elysium, which stars Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, takes place in a future Earth where the rich inhabit a luxurious space station while the masses struggle on an ecologically-devastated and overcrowded Earth.  Look for Sony to repeat the marketing pattern that it used to great effect on District 9, which was also a science fiction thriller with strong political overtones. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the delay in the release of Robocop will allow more time for post-production: "though that wasn’t the reason for the move."  The Reporter doesn’t explain what the reason was, but part of it undoubtedly comes from Sony’s assessment that Elysium offers a better chance to create a hit.

Arrow Hits Its Target

It's Not Smallville.

Things are looking good so far for the CW's new show, Arrow  - which is an adaptation of the long running DC comic Green Arrow.  Arrow performed exceptionally well in the ratings this week as the series’ second episode matched the show’s premiere ratings in the key 18-34 and 18-49 demographics.  The second episode drew 3.5 million viewers down from the premiere’s 4.1 million, but the losses were confined to the over 50 crowd, since the show’s 18-34 rating (up to 1.2 from a 1.1 rating for the premiere).   It may be a little too early to call Arrow hit. Wednesday night was not as competitive as normal as a baseball rain delay on Fox meant that Arrow didn’t have to face a normal X-Factor.  Still the show appears to be performing well and though it trailed Survivor on CBS and The Middle and Neighbors on ABC, Arrow actually beat the NBC comedies Animal Practice and Guys With Kids.   While network promotions can get viewers to sample new series, the hard part is keeping that premiere audience around and Arrow has done a good job of that.

A League of Their Own part 02

Good Luck with this.

Warner Brothers and DC comics announced that the Justice League movie is a go and is set to be released in 2015.   With that announcement came rumors that DC plans to release their super group movie at around the time Marvel/Disney will be releasing Avengers 2 - whether this is to have honest competition or an attempt to ride the wave of the success of the Avengers is pretty much up to speculation.  What is known is that instead of attempting to release single movies featuring the lesser exposed members (such as Flash, Wonder Woman and the Atom), DC seems to be planning to work backwards in that they will most likely do the individual movies if the JLA movie succeeds.  One report that is real is that Warner Bros. and DC are banking on the success of Zack Synder's Superman:  Man of Steel - whose footage and San Diego Comic Con got a lot of favorable fan reviews.   This is pretty much a wait and see, and we'll have more news on this as it happens.

Superman: The Endless Battle

In Court Forever?

U.S. District Court Judge Otis D. Wright has ruled in favor of Warner Bros. and agreed that a 1992 agreement between then DC Comics head Paul Levitz and Jean Peavy, the sister of Superman co-creator Joe Schuster, precludes the Schuster heirs from terminating DC’s Superman rights.  This is a big victory for the studio, but the battle is by no means over.  It appears quite likely that the Schuster heirs will appeal.  Four years ago another California judge ruled that the Siegel heirs did have the right to terminate their agreement and assigned part of the Superman rights including the costume, Clark Kent and the Krypton origin story to the heirs.  In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Toberoff  said "We respectfully disagree with its factual and legal conclusions, and it is surprising given that the judge appeared to emphatically agree with our position at the summary judgment hearing."

Going Ape

Remake Done Right

The sequel to Rise of the Planet of the Apes, titled Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is about to go through it final re-writes of the script and they got Mark Bomback to do the final re-write.  According to reports Mark Bomback will be doing the final draft before shooting beings on the sequel slated to open on May 23rd, 2014.  Bomback has been involved in many script re-writes, including work on the first ape movie, and Live Free or Die Hard and the Total Recall remake.  Matt Reeves, who directed Cloverfield, is set to direct the sequel since Rupert Wyatt - who directed Rise of the Planet of the Ape - bowed out of the sequel.

DHep #205 - New TV & Comics vs Mainstream

In this Pre-Comicon episode the gang, hyped up about NYCC talks about the New seasons shows, what's old and whats new

AnL on BSG

1st Series cover

The crowd princes of the space epic (Jim Starling is still the king) is keeping the reboot that could in  comics with their own flavor of story telling.  Dynamite Entertainment has renewed it's license to do Battlestar Galatica comics and have tapped Abbnet and Lanning to write it.  AnL (as they are known in geek circles, will be writing a new series based in the BSG universe, and anyone whose read their Legion of Super-Heroes or Guardians of the Galaxy or Annihilation knows these are just the writers to do it.  Under the sci-fi masters the series will be relaunched and Dynamite’s Nick Barrucci has gone on record as saying they are the perfect writers for the series they were simply meant to write.  Can't think of anyone that would disagree.

One "Happy" RZA

R Z A ain't nothing to @$%& with. . .

The buzz on the upcoming Man With the Iron Fist is so strong RZA is already tapped to work on his next movie.  Teaming with Reginald Hudlin, Wu-Tang Clan member and now director RZA will be bringing Grant Morrison's Happy to the big screen.  Happy is about a corrupt cop turned hit man who starts looking to change his life when he begins seeing Happy, a blue horse who has more optimism and cheer then a clown on a laughing gas bender.  Grant Morrison will be writing the script.  The project is described by all concerned as It's a Wonderful Life meets Sin City.  No date has been set for the movie yet, but if the buzz of RZA directorial debut pays off, it won't be that long.

The Secret Life of Mary Jane

Since Amazing Spider-Man did $700 million at the box office, it's no surprise that the sequel is on it's way.  They've already announced a new Mary Jane.  Shaulene Woodley from Secret Life of an American Teenager and the recent George Clooney dramady Decendants will be taking the role that Kirsten Dunst made infamous with upside down kisses and perky. . . masses of land.  Mark Webb will be directing the sequel and Andrew Garfield will be reprising his role as Spider-Man.

Generation Brown - 3D

It's 3-D Charlie Brown

The Peanuts are coming to the 21st Century, and in computer animated format.  That's right blockhead and Red Baron hater lovers, 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios have reached an agreement with the estate of Charles M. Shultz to produce an all new computer generated Peanuts feature.  (In other words the truck full of money was heard backing up all the way in Sarah Palin country though not as loud as the ARRRRGH! from the fans.)   It doesn't have a title yet, but will debut on November 25th 2015, which coincides with the 65th anniversary of the first Peanuts comic strip as well as the 50th anniversary of the classic A Charlie Brown Christmas.   More on this as the news comes.

Dynamite Diggle

Andy Diggle, who has penned the pages of such books as Swamp Thing, Thunderbolts, Hellblazer, Six Guns and, of course, the Losers has signed with Dynamite Entertainment to write a new crime line for the company in 2013.  Diggle just got off an exclusive contract with Marvel as is now moving to Dynamite for the project which no details have been put out about yet.

DHep 204 - Falling Into Previews

In this episode the boys discuss the upcoming fall season. what to look foward to and what not to feel so good about.

Robocop Has No House

Hugh Lurie, who made a semi-big TV splash playing the grouchy doctor with OCD and an odd resemblance to Lionel Luther from Smallville, House, was in talks to play the evil head of the corporation that turn a cop into a Robocop has bowed out of the project. Some rumors are saying he turned down the role because of the bed reviews to the script which was given pretty bad reviews by the usual internet suspects. No word on where this puts the remake project.

"Snikking" Biel

Jessica Biel, who was in talk with 20th Century Fox to play Viper in the upcoming Wolverine sequel (call The Wolverine) reported that contract talks have broken down and she is walking away from the project. 20th Century Fox is reported to “be in talks with other actresses.” Viper is villain who heads the evil faux-Nazi organization call Hydra in Marvel Comics and is a villain with benefits to James (Logan) Hudson – aka Wolverine. “The Wolverine” is expected to get underway in a month’s time – shooting occurring in both Australia and Japan – so expect the replacement to be named fairly quickly.

What a Night-Bitch

The contentiously cute Lindy Booth is in talks to join the cast of Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall as Night Bitch, according to Hollywood Reporter. Booth has some racked up her own set geek creds, including multiple appearances in series The 4400 and Eerie, Indiana, and a role in Dawn of the Dead. Kick-Ass 2 will premiere June 28th, 2013

Another Black Actor in Thor (Damn that Obamacare)

Racists, line up for your meaningless protests now, because Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, who made a huge splash playing Mr. Echo in LOST, will play the dual roles of Algrim the Strong and Kurse in Thor: The Dark World. Akinnuoye-Agbaje had a recurring role on Lost that was cut short due to family problems and made an appearance in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.

Fan-Fiction Porn Comes True

Looks like DC has decided to make the dirty wet dreams of dozens of fan fiction writers (and probably a porn pardoy) come true as everyone is talking about the Superman/Wonder Woman hook-up coming to the pages of their respective comics. Lois Lane might be a spunky reporter but she just can’t compete with a leggy big-boobed Amazon who walks around in a skin-tight one piece and hooker boots. (To be fair, could anyone compete with that.)

Big Screen Blakes-7

Blake's 7, the cult British sci-fi hit from the late 70s and early 80s, is in development as a new series at Syfy, according to Deadline. The new version will be directed by Martin Campbell, who directed Green Lantern, two Zorro films, and two James Bond films, among many others. Joe Pokaski, who wrote ten episodes of Heroes and was supervising producer of 22 episodes, is writing. The series will go into production for a 13-episode series if Syfy likes the script.