Former Witchblade star set to ‘Kick Ass’
RICHARDSON, Texas – Yancy Butler, who starred as NYPD detective Sara Pezzini on the TNT drama “Witchblade,” will take on another comic-book role, in an upcoming film based on a comic book by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.
Butler appeared at the Dallas Comic-Con in Richardson, Texas, last weekend, and appeared on a panel hosted by Devin Pike of redcarpetcrash.com. She talked about her career and current projects with the gathered fans.
NewsOK comics vodcast: X-Men Legacy 213, Superman 677, Marvel 1985 2, Final Crisis 2
Top Cow publisher talks “Wanted” origins
From Friday’s The Oklahoman:
By Matthew Price
WORD BALLOONS
James MacAvoy plays Wesley Gibson, a downtrodden loser recruited into a secret cadre of assassins in “Wanted,” out today in movie theaters. The film is based on the comic-book series by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones. “Wanted” was published by Top Cow as a comic-book series and is now available from Top Cow in graphic novel format.
“It’s basically about a young guy, Wesley Gibson, that is kind of an everyday schlub, works in a cubicle farm and doesn’t really do much with his life,” Top Cow publisher Filip Sablik said.
“One day he is approached by this mysterious woman named the Fox, who tells him that his father was one of the great assassins — probably the greatest assassin in the world. And that he and a group of other super villains secretly ruled the world behind kind of a veil of normalcy, and that he’s basically inherited his spot in the secret fraternity of super villains. From there, the proverbial crap hits the fan and Wesley has to go from being a zero to — I don’t know that I’d call it a hero, but definitely a guy who takes charge of his life.”
The comic-book “Wanted” has costumed super villains and alternate realities, while the film, for all its over-the-top elements, is somewhat more grounded in the real world.
“It was one of those rare instances that there was such a buzz on the property as it was being developed that we actually sold it around the time the second issue was getting put together,” Sablik said. “Which is one of the reasons that the movie kind of diverges from the comic book a little bit. Because at the time Universal picked up the property, the comic was still being finished. So the screenwriters had to take the inspiration and the beginnings and what they knew about the story and develop it from there.”
Sablik said “Wanted” was a good fit for Top Cow’s line.
“We tend to do kind of dark books, things with either with a dark sense of humor, or a horror or supernatural bent to it. It seemed like a good fit for us.”
Two of Top Cow’s other major properties are also making waves in other media. “Darkness,” about a young mobster who inherits a primal power, was a platinum-selling video game in 2007. And “Witchblade,” featuring a New York police detective with a supernatural gauntlet, is being developed for a 2009 film.
Movie review: Wanted
From Friday’s The Oklahoman:
“Wanted,” directed by Timur Bekmambetov of the “Night Watch” films, is a visually arresting, over-the-top, paean to violence. Based on the graphic novel by Mark Millar and JG Jones, the film takes a different slant than does the source material — but manages to improve on it.
Wesley Gibson (James MacAvoy) is a down-on-his luck loser in a dead-end job. He knows his girlfriend is cheating on him with his best friend, but he can’t motivate himself to do anything about it. Wesley is sleepwalking through his life, until he meets the Fox (Angelina Jolie).
She tells Wesley that his father, whom he never knew, was one of the world’s greatest assassins. And another of those assassins is after Wesley.
This begins the slam-bang action portion of “Wanted,” as Wesley finds himself introduced to the Fraternity, a group of assassins who call themselves weavers of fate.
Led by Sloan (Morgan Freeman), these weavers follow mysterious assassination directives, aimed at making the world a better place. “Kill one, save a thousand,” explains the Fox.
The storyline has twists and turns and double-crosses, but the visuals are what makes “Wanted.” Bekmambetov channels Tarantino by way of John Woo, but adds dozens of his own touches. The only off-note is the dialogue.
Some is lifted directly from the comics, but other scenes are just f-bombs dropped on anyone who might be nearby.
Still, this is what an adrenaline-filled action movie should be — a darkly comic vision whose flaws are obscured by the film’s unyielding pace.
Matthew Price
MOVIE REVIEW
“Wanted”
R 1:48 3 stars
Starring: James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie
(For strong bloody violence throughout, pervasive language and some sexuality.)
Review: Marvel 1985 issue 1
I like Mark Millar. I liked his work on the The Ultimates. I liked his work on Wanted. I like his new book, Marvel 1985.
It’s easy to like those books, because they’re all kind of the same. What if superheroes and villains lived in the real world? That’s what Millar writes and he does a good job at it. It’s no Watchmen, which took a less personal and more geopolitical look at the same idea, but it’s good.
Marvel 1985 and Wanted are particularly similar in the idea that the villains are winners. In Wanted, analogues of DC and Marvel bad guys have already won. In Marvel 1985, the Marvel villains come to our Earth (though, not actually our Earth, since I kind of remember 1985 without Dr. Doom and Red Skull) to take over.
It’s all shown through the eyes of Toby, a teen-age protagonist who is drawn a lot younger, and it gives the story an air of “is-it-really-happening?” that, frankly, kind of annoys me. Maybe I’ve seen too many stories devolve into dreams or imagined tales that I’d like to see something more solid.
Regardless of my nitpicking, Marvel 1985 is a good book and full of funny moments and hidden treats. (Hey, kids! Find Ultron’s head!) This wasn’t on my list to pick up before, but I was won over by the first issue and I’ll be sure to collect the rest.
