As it turns out, the rumors were true — Paramount is in fact getting antsy about The Watchmen, and as a result the production will likely be moving out of London’s Pinewood Studios in order to save a few bucks. C’mon, y’all…think Sin City, not LXG.
Category: DC
Bats in the Belfry.
Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s…a swarming horde of bats? Two new 30-sec Batman Begins TV spots offer up Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon, the Scarecrow’s ride, more action sequences, and lots of squeaky, flying critters.
Squashed like a bug.
What the? I haven’t been keeping up with comics very well for the past decade or so, but I do have a fanboy’s protective fondness for my own Golden Age, which dates to the mid-to-late ’80’s…right around John Romita Jr. on X-Men, John Byrne’s FF and Alpha Flight, Squadron Supreme, and Secret Wars on the Marvel side and to the heyday of the Teen Titans, Crisis on Infinite Earths, and Alan Moore on Swamp Thing on the DC end. So it is with some dismay that I received the news from my brother yesterday that, in a fit of Chris Claremont-like revisionism, the new, best-selling, and apparently very dark Countdown to Infinite Crisis (another one?), DC’s follow-up to last year’s gritty Identity Crisis, not only turned relatively congenial corporate shark and JLI head Maxwell Lord (of the classic Giffen-DeMatteis-Maguire run) into an long-simmering evil genius, they had him off the Blue Beetle!
What’s that about? For one, they’re screwing with my childhood here, and that’s not cool. For another, they took out a character with a 60-year history (although admittedly we’re talking about two different Beetles, Dan Garret and Ted Kord.) I mean, they could’ve waxed Booster Gold (who apparently doesn’t fare very well in this issue either) and nobody would’ve batted an eye. Or, if they really wanted to up the body count, DC could have set pretty much all of Justice League Detroit and Batman’s Outsiders on fire, and it’d have been no harm, no foul. But the Blue Beetle? That’s just not kosher. Grr…when the “culture-of-life” protestors come-a-knockin’ in force, DC, you’ll know who sent ’em.
Trials of a Comedian.
Uh-oh. It’s mostly fanboy speculation at the moment…still, word from the AICN crew is Paramount may be getting squeamish about The Watchmen. That’s too bad — the recent interviews with Paul Greengrass suggested this project was in sound hands.
Fanboy Cornucopia.
Thanks to ShoWest and otherwise, there’s been quite a bit of fanboy news to come down the pike in the past few days…
Everybody’s a Comedian.
“It’s interesting the kind of issues that first raise their head, really. How do you deliver the Citizen Kane of comic books to screen? That is basically the problem. It’s a bit intimidating to be honest.” Director Paul Greengrass talks with CHUD on preproduction of — and transformations to — The Watchmen. Update: Here’s Parts 2 and 3.
Look, up in the air!
Speaking of Bryan Singer, he’s apparently decided to take a page from Peter Jackson and offer a series of online production updates for Superman. Not much to see so far, but keep your eyes skyward.
Last Father of Krypton.
Looking for name actor to play Jor-El in the next Superman, Bryan Singer et al have cast Marlon Brando in the Brando role. (No CGI – Apparently, there’s a lot of unused footage from Superman II lying around.)
If he only had a brain.
With the thoughts he’d be thinkin’, he could be another Lincoln…but, no, he’s turned to super-villainy. The first quality shots of Cillian Murphy’s Scarecrow from Batman Begins pop up online. Word is he’ll look slightly more twisted to those under the influence.
The Bombing Game.
Stephen Rea joins the Wachowskis’ take on V for Vendetta (with James Purefoy and Natalie Portman.) Unfortunately, according to Newsarama‘s Rich Johnston, the movie’s taking a few detours away from Alan Moore’s series. Given the terrorist protagonist, I’m dismayed, but not surprised. (2nd link via Ed Rants.)