Seemingly in response to Marvel/Disney, DC Announces restructuring.
My buddy Kiel Phegley said it: “Craziest nine days in comics history much?” Oh yeah. Little bit.
Today was supposed to be a big day as there was supposed to be some kind of announcement in CBR’s Cup O’Joe column regarding the Disney/Marvel deal, but in one swift move something else came up. That something else was the announcement that DC Comics would be restructuring and renaming itself DC Entertainment, to be run by Diane Nelson, with Nelson reporting to Jeff Robinov, President of Warner Bros Picture Corp. President Paul Levitz will be stepping down, and returning to his role as a writer, picking up on titles he’s most famous for, namely Adventure Comics and Legion of Super-Heroes.
The purpose of the restructuring of the company and bringing it under the WB’s motion picture banner, according to the release, is to “strategically integrating the DC Comics business, brand and characters deeply into Warner Bros. Entertainment and all its content and distribution businesses.”
Nelson who is known for bringing the Harry Potter to the WB and optimizing the film, and video game franchises across the board with that franchise will be the creative head to the company. But what does this mean for you and me? Hard to say at this point, to be honest. It is clear that this formation is meant to shore up the big screen adaptations of DC Comics characters, and their printed counterparts. Will that change the quality of the books by making them more accessible to the movie-going audiences? Hard to say. Regardless, like Kiel said, its been quite the historic week for comics.
REMEMBER: No Comics today, kids.
Because of the holiday on Monday, there are no new comics today, but there will be tomorrow. Diamond has a list of all the books coming out tomorrow.
I’m personally looking forward to Adventure Comics #2. Francis Manapul’s art has something called heart to it, especially with the Superboy stories. Heart in the sense that it just reminds me of how much I enjoyed comics in high school, like Scott Lobdell’s run on X-Men and the Impulse series which had to be my favorite series in high school. Unfortunately, it was recently announced on DC’s The Source that Geoff Johns and Francis Manapul would be leaving Adventure Comics after issue six, but they would be moving to the new Flash series. So even though that’s unfortunate, its for something even more fun.
Buzz, buzz: the latest in GREEN HORNET News.
Principal photography began last week on Seth Rogen’s remake of the pulp hero, The Green Hornet and already set pics have started to leak out. Featuring Rogen, Cameron Diaz, Jay Chou and visionary director Michel Gondry.
Superherohype has the photos, which show Diaz and Rogen hosting a press conference where Rogen’s character, Britt Reid, is seemingly shot, but that’s not the best part: there is a great picture of Kato. We think its the stunt double. Regardless, it looks GREAT.
In other Green Hornet news, the release on Dec. 17, 2010 is going to have some company: Tron Legacy, according to Variety. Expect some box office fireworks.
Casting problems continue for the movie, with Nicolas Cage departing the movie after contract negotiations didn’t get up to his price tag. Comic Book Resources reports that none of the shooting features the character Cage was slated to play, but Columbia is apparently actively searching for a replacement, but no word yet on whether they are looking to replace Cage with another A-list actor. The production already stars the aforementioned Diaz, Rogen, Taiwanese superstar Jay Chou, but also Tom Wilkinson and Edward James Olmos.
Usually casting problems, and this movie has been rife with them, is a sign of poor product but I simply don’t see how that can be. Rogen and writing partner Evan Goldberg are, in my opinion, stellar writers having contributed to “Freaks and Geeks” when they were 16, and written episodes of “Da Ali G Show”. Even though Judd Apatow gets a lot of credit for shepherding in their writing careers, “Superbad” and “Pineapple Express” are far more entertaining than anything that Apatow has written/directed. Add visionary director Michel Gondry to this mix and I genuinely think this movie is going to be something else. What that “else” is? Well, we’ll see.
In which we talk about Superman-related actors.
Its nice to see people branch out. Especially when you see such fine people as Kristin Kreuk jump the ship that is Smallville and move to Chuck with other Superman alum Brandon Routh.
Entertainment Weekly reports that Kreuk will play Hannah a new love-interest for Chuck in a multi-episode arc where she goes to work at the Best Buy…errr, Buy More. Routh, will play the new agent in charge of the Bartowski Project. Regardless, this stunt casting has worked out for Chuck to say the least with last season seeing fan favorites Chevy Chase, Scott Bakula, and Tricia Helfer. I personally can’t wait for Chase’s new show Community with Soup host Joel McHale. Though the best thing to come out of the Chuck ‘verse was the miniseries written by show staff writers Peter Johnson and Zev Borow and drawn by Jeremy Haun. It just kind of confirmed the fact for me that the series would excel as a comic.
In other Superman actor news, MTV’s Splash Page has the first picture of Tom Welling as Neo. And I have to ask: WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?! I would really love to know the reason behind saying yes to this design, because I can’t see it making any kind of sense at all. Have a look:
Barring that, there are many good things to look forward to in Smallville this season including a Geoff Johns written episode introducing the Justice Society of America, General Zod, Metallo and, yep, the Wonder Twins! Yes way! Set DVRs to obliterate. Smallville premieres Sept. 25 with “Savior” which is written by fan-favorite Geoff Johns, according to Splash Page.
