New Wolverine promo photo
Found at, of all places, Broadway World, here’s a promo photo of the main cast of the upcoming “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.” Liev Schreiber and Hugh Jackman both have extensive Broadway experience, as you can see in the link.
– Matt Price
Ed Brubaker talks Captain America and Daredevil
Writer Ed Brubaker talks about how Bucky has been accepted as the new Captain America, and the Lady Bullseye arc in Daredevil. There’s also a tease for the next “Daredevil” story arc at the end of the video.
Star Wars retold by someone who hasn’t seen it
Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.
A retelling of the “Star Wars” original trilogy, by someone who’s only seen bits and pieces of it. Pretty brilliant.
Comics vodcast: Amazing-Spider-Man 583, Prometheus, Action Comics 873, Final Crisis 6
Matt Price and Kyle Roberts discuss the return of the Justice League villain Prometheus, the end of the New Krypton arc, the possible end of Batman, and the meeting of Barack Obama and Spider-Man.
Q&A with Powerpuff Girls creator Craig McCracken
Craig McCracken created the Powerpuff Girls as a student film that later became a Cartoon Network series. The three superpowered kindergarteners went on to become a media sensation. McCracken answered questions about the Powerpuff Girls as the show celebrates its 10th anniversary with a new special and marathon, airing Jan. 19, and a DVD release on Jan. 20.
Matt Price: Did you think “Powerpuff Girls” would be a big success? At what point did you realize “Powerpuff Girls” was going to be as big a deal as it has become?
Craig McCracken: I really had no idea. It started as a student film of mine when I was an animation student at Cal Arts. And, I got an opportunity to do a short at Cartoon Network in ’94. And I just made the show because I thought it would be entertaining and fun. I had no idea it would become a phenomenon. But I think it was maybe a year or 2 after the show premiered and some of the merchandise started coming out, and I started seeing it everywhere. On kids, or people referring to it in television or media or whatever. I started thinking, ok this is becoming a lot bigger than I ever anticipated. And that’s everybody’s dream, is that actually can happen. Any cartoonist wants to have some sort of character that resonates with worldwide audiences. But you never really think that’s really going to happen. So it was kind of surprising when it did.
DVD, special celebrate Powerpuff Girls
Three super-powered kindergarteners are turning 10. The Powerpuff Girls will celebrate their 10th anniversary with a Cartoon Network marathon and special on Monday, and the release of all 78 episodes on DVD on Tuesday.
Creator Craig McCracken said those working on the show were trying to entertain themselves as well, and he thinks that added to the show’s appeal.
“Even though ‘Powerpuff’ kind of gets labeled a kids’ show or a girls’ show, it was always made for all audiences, just like ‘Bugs Bunny,’” McCracken said in a recent phone interview. “We were just making ourselves laugh and trying to come up with entertaining things. I think people pick up on that sincere creative expression of just making fun cartoons.”
Super-powered sisters Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup will return for an all-new animated special, “The Powerpuff Girls Rule!!!,” at 7 p.m. Monday. This will follow the marathon, which includes McCracken’s favorite episodes, airing from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The DVD will include all 78 episodes, and lots of extras, including the Christmas special, the special that airs Monday, and a new documentary.
After “Powerpuff Girls,” McCracken was the executive producer of another show, “Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends,” which recently wrapped production. McCracken said he’s glad to be out from the grueling deadlines for a while. He’s working with Cartoon Network on the Cartoonstitute, a program to search out new potential animation projects. He also plans to work on a graphic novel.
“There’s something about doing your own comics or graphic novels or things like that, where it’s your drawings, your words,” McCracken said. “There isn’t the whole big crew and committee and getting stuff approved by everybody. It’s more like an intimate, direct approach to cartooning. I’ve been talking to some publishers and I’ve got some ideas that I want to explore in that medium.”
- by Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman
Gates reintroduces Prometheus, kicks off “Superwoman” arc
WORD BALLOONS
Supergirl is sent after her father’s murderer in “Supergirl” No. 37, shipping Wednesday from DC Comics.
Writer Sterling Gates, a University of Oklahoma graduate, says “Supergirl” will deal with some of the fallout from the “New Krypton” story arc, which ended this week in “Action Comics.”
“Supergirl’s mother, Alura, sends her on a mission to collect the villain Reactron from Earth,” Gates said. “Reactron was responsible for the death of Supergirl’s father.”
The villain Reactron was originally a 1980s villain that the “Superman” family of writers revamped.
“Reactron has a piece of Gold Kryptonite in his chest, making him far more lethal to Kryptonians,” Gates said. As currently written, the Gold-K temporarily removes a Kryptonian’s powers.
But a mysterious character stands in the way of Supergirl’s mission. Superwoman, a masked character wearing Superman’s symbol, doesn’t want Supergirl to succeed. This first part of “Who Is Superwoman?” will provide more clues to the character’s mystery.
Also written by Gates, is “Faces of Evil: Prometheus,” released on Wednesday. This story aims to revamp the villain Prometheus into a top-line DC antagonist.
“Prometheus isn’t your typical DC villain,” Gates said. “He’s intense, and dark, and terrible. He finds himself incredibly funny, even though to us, he’s sadistic. Because of how dreadful a personality he is, I found him incredibly difficult to write. Too dark a guy for me to write all the time.”
Gates recently signed an exclusive contract with DC Comics, meaning for the foreseeable future, all of Gates’ comic-book writing will be done for that publisher.
“I’m pretty wrapped up in Supergirl stuff right now,” Gates said. “We’ve got some giant plans for the character, as well as for the Superman Universe in general, and they keep getting bigger and bigger.”
- by Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman
DVD review: Samson and the 7 Miracles
Feast on action and cheese in a new sword-and-sandal DVD release, featuring two 1960s Italian films.
“Samson and the 7 Miracles of the World” stars Gordon Scott, a former Tarzan. Filmed in Italy, the movie was originally titled “Maciste at the Court of the Grand Khan.” Maciste was a Hercules-like character in Italian cinema. He usually appeared in a Greek or Roman setting, but “Court of the Grand Khan” employed a 13th Century China set – since the sets and extras from “Marco Polo” were available.
The movie was imported to America as “Samson” – confusingly, as the Hebrew hero was many centuries earlier.
Samson (Scott) is on hand to help out the oppressed Chinese. The jumpily edited film’s a bit hard to follow, but viewers will see Samson causing an earthquake with his bare hands.
Included as a bonus is “Ali Baba and the 7 Saracens,” another Italian import. Ali Baba was Sinbad in the Italian release, but they’re at least both from “Arabian Nights.” This one’s worth noting for the bad guy, Omar, played by Gordon Mitchell. Mitchell was an early bodybuilder who appeared in more than 200 films, mostly Italian.
- Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman
Movie review – Paul Blart: Mall Cop
Kevin James stars as the titular “Paul Blart: Mall Cop,” a PG-rated comedy from Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison production company.
James plays an overweight, hypoglycemic “security officer” who takes his self-imposed oath to protect the mall very seriously. He’s a single father who lives with his mother and daughter, and has failed the state trooper entrance exam eight times. Naturally, the hottest woman in the mall finds him attractive.
Amy (Jayma Mays, “Ugly Betty”) sells hair extensions, and notices Paul when he crashes his Segway into a minivan.
She invites him out with a group of mall employees, where he accidentally gets drunk and makes a fool of himself.
The film looks as if it will be a boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl-back romantic comedy. But on Black Friday, the mall is taken over by a gang of robbers. “Mall Cop” then moves into full-on “Die Hard” parody.
The group of robbers, going by Santa’s reindeer code-names, skateboard and parkour and bicycle through the mall. They plan to appropriate the day’s credit card payments. They clear the mall (except for some hostages, including Amy). But they don’t realize Paul Blart is still in the mall.
Steve Carr, the director of “Daddy Day Care,” isn’t able to give the action scenes the sense of excitement and suspense they need. And the editing is at times confusing. Furthermore, the screenplay (co-written by James) also doesn’t make much sense. Trying to figure everybody’s motives and reasoning once the secrets are revealed is largely impossible. But the film does limit the number of times it goes for a cheap laugh, which is appreciated.
- Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman
MOVIE REVIEW
Paul Blart: Mall Cop
PG, 1:27, 2 stars
Starring: Kevin James, Jayma Mays, Keir O’Donnell, Bobby Cannavale.
(Some violence, mild crude and suggestive humor, and language)
Naked Brothers game doesn’t rock
THE NEXT LEVEL
Preteens can get their rock ‘n’ roll on with “Rock University Presents: The Naked Brothers Band, the Videogame.” For those not familiar with the Naked Brothers, they are, in fact, not naked. The poppy, Monkees-like band stars on a Nickelodeon show aimed at the 5-to-12 set. (And only two of the six are brothers.)
The graphics in “Naked Brothers” are below par, but a decent effort has been made to transfer the music. If you aren’t a fan of very bubblegum pop, however, that won’t be enough.
The gamer can play the drums, guitar, keyboards, cello, bass guitar or sing. The singing is done via the microphone, the controller is responsible for the other instruments. Unlike “Rock Band” or “Guitar Hero,” the game fails to vault the player into the performance.
The story mode begins with the Naked Brothers on a world tour, seeking to unlock new venues. The gamer will be forced to master each of the instruments, which is tedious, since none of them play like actual instruments.
The game only has multiplayer for 2, which means a large group can’t play together – however, unless you know a lot of very young gamers, you won’t be able to find a large group who want to play this game.
– By Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman
