AMERICAN VAMPIRE Up-Close: Old-Fashioned EURO Vamps

Source: newsarama.com

There may be bloodsuckers who thrive on sunlight in Vertigo’s American Vampire comic, but the series hasn’t abandoned the more traditional idea of vampirism.

The “European vampires,” who can only go out in the dark and can be killed by wooden stakes, are still around in American Vampire, but the vampire bloodline sometimes mutates and creates new types of vampires. So while the “Euro Vamps” may be in the greatest abundance, new species can emerge.

“The idea is that the Euro Vamps are actually a particular species of vampire that comes about at a certain point in history, in the 1300′s in Eastern Europe,” explained Scott Snyder, the series creator who launched the title earlier this year with author Stephen King. “Now that we’ve introduced them and the premise of the story, we’ll find out more about their history and why they’re the most common type of vampire.”

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A Brief (Illustrated) History Of Marvel Comics

Source: geekologie.com

This is a brief history of Marvel comics in the style of an informational graphic. It’s only appropriate that the history is illustrated because — and I don’t know if you knew this or not — but Marvel actually produces comic books. So like, there are pictures in those too. But that’s not what’s important, what’s important is that Marvel used to own the rights to the word zombie. ZOMG! Could you even imagine owning the rights to a gem like zombie?! You’d be like a gazillionaire. Unfortunately Marvel doesn’t anymore, which is why they got bought by Disney.

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Comic Book Jobs: Who’s Hiring? Marvel And Electronic Arts

Source: comics.gearlive.com

Marvel Studios is at it again. This is at least their third job listing in two weeks. Either people are leaving – which seems doubtful – or they’re growing, which given the number of movie and TV projects they have in development and production seems the more likely explanation.

Marvel Studios, the entertainment entity of Marvel Comics and part of the overall Disney Empire is looking for a Senior Accountant for their Manhattan Beach, CA office.

The successful employee will be “focusing on the corporate side of the business (as opposed to our one accountant who is dedicated to supporting productions) based in LA supporting NY based accounting efforts and LA based tracking and analytical efforts.” Whew!

You’ll need direct industry experience in financial planning and analysis and film marketing and distribution finance, but you probably figured that out on your own. The listing does contain this cryptic clause: “Working with Film Ultimates” and if you’re a fanboy accountant too, you probably know what that means as well.

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I love how transparent Marvel are with their job vacancies! It fills me with glee.

Would you ever consider working for Marvel? In what capacity?

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Will Inception star be the Riddler in Batman 3?

Source: blastr.com

I don’t think we’ll ever stop talking about Inception, but it’s definitely time to start talking about director Christopher Nolan’s next long-awaited project—Batman 3. An inside source managed to get a peek at a studio casting grid for the film, which revealed two very intriguing facts.

According to the casting grid, which is used in the industry so production companies, agencies and others can keep track of a project’s progress and what roles may be available, the Riddler is definitely down as a character for the Dark Knight sequel. So at last we know for certain (if this source can be trusted, that is) the villain we’ll get to see battling the Batman on the big screen.

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Adrien Brody May Become Ant-Man for The Avengers [Updated]

Source: screenrant.com

Has one of Marvel Studios’ surprise announcements for San Diego Comic-Con 2010 been revealed? Could Adrien Brody be playing Ant-Man in The Avengers?

Oscar winner Adrien Brody is getting a lot of attention in recent weeks, following the recent release of Splice and last weekend’s opening of Predators. In Nimród Antal’s sequel to the original Predator, Brody plays a gruff and silent killer as a bad-ass mercenary and in Splice, he moves to the other end of the spectrum to play a rebellious scientist. If that wasn’t making enough headlines for the star whose acting range knows no bounds, Brody may soon become a superhero as well.

Reports and Twitter buzz indicate that Adrien Brody may be playing Ant-Man for Marvel Studios in The Avengers and in Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man solo film. Nothing is confirmed yet on this front, but it no doubt will be this Saturday at Marvel’s Thor and Captain America panel presentation.

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EXCLUSIVE: Producer Bryan Burk Talks Schedule and ‘Bigger’ Scope Of Star Trek Sequel

Source: trekmovie.com

Last week Star Trek co-writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman told us they (and Damon Lindelof) were just starting to break the story for the sequel due June 29th, 2012. At the same event, TrekMovie also spoke to producer Bryan Burk, one of the other members of Star Trek’s five-member “Supreme Court”, who gave an update on the plans for the production, and also talked about how the team want the sequel to be even bigger than the first.

Bryan Burk Talks Star Trek Sequel

Bryan Burk is a long-time collaborator with JJ Abrams and his producing partner for pretty much everything going down at Abrams’ Bad Robot production company. Although we don’t often hear from him, Burk is the fifth member of Trek’s new Supreme Court along with JJ Abrams, Damon Lindelof, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. TrekMovie recently spoke with the producer about his plans and hopes for the Star Trek sequel.

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5 Most Maniacal Movie Villains Ever

Source: www.wnem.com

There are so many factors that go into great movie villains. Perhaps it is their speech, their actions, or their generally sinister intent.

After all, an evil villain often needs a devious strategy so that the hero of the film can do their best to thwart that plan.

Of course, it may just be the outfit, because there can’t be a truly evil villain without the proper wardrobe.

When all these factors are combined, some characters stand out as being downright nasty. For whatever reasons, there are some villains that the audience almost ends up rooting for, and there are others that cause people to shiver and cringe.

With that in mind, here are a few of the most evil movie villains of all time.

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Never been a fan of the Riddler as a Bats Villain. However, Joseph Gordon Levitt could be a good choice -although I haven’t seen him in Inception yet (I am dying to), What do you think of today’s movie news?

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Being Human Lands Smallville Star

Source: ign.com

EW is reporting that Smallville villain Sam Witwer has just been cast as one of the leads in Being Human, a Syfy remake of the BBC horror dramedy. Witwer is best known for playing Doomsday in Season 8 of Smallville, but you may also recognize him as the voice of Vader’s apprentice, Starkiller in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

Being Human tells the story of three roommates in their twenties who do their best to live a normal life, despite the fact that each is a supernatural being. The characters are Annie Sawyer as an insecure ghost, Tom Mitchell as an uber cool vampire, and George Sands as a socially awkward werewolf.

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Are you ready for the Marvel Comics version of Smallville?

Source: io9.com

Yesterday we reported that ex-Lost and Smallville writer Jeph Loeb will oversee Marvel’s newly created TV division. Marvel hasn’t made a live-action show in years, but we may see one, given Loeb’s credentials. However, it will be an uphill battle.

Marvel has plenty of animated programming for kids lined up, but there’s nary a live-action show on their docket. Of course, this probably has to do with the fact that A.) Marvel’s realized that the real money lies at the cineplex (and they’re not going to trade their A-listers to the farm team networks); and B.) there hasn’t been a lucrative, adult-oriented Marvel show in eons.

Let’s recap what Marvel ran with for the last two decades. There was the are-they-or-aren’t-they-the-X-Men series Mutant X, that one season of Blade on Spike, and who could forget the Generation X TV movie? And we must acknowledge the apex of civilization, i.e. 1998′s Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. pilot that starred none other than the goddamn Hoff.

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Hoff as Nick Fury? Huh. The pic looks okay, I guess …

What do you think of today’s tv news? Will you watch the US version of Being Human?

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Simon Pegg Replaces Bill Nighy as the Voice of Reepicheep

Source: narniaweb

NarniaWeb has learned from a production source that Bill Nighy has been dropped from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and has been replaced by British actor Simon Pegg. Best known for his role as Scotty in the 2009 Star Trek film, Pegg has also appeared in Band of Brothers, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, and How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.

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What Hollywood can learn from “Jonah Hex”

Source: reuters.com

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – When comic books are turned into movies, they can become huge hits, like “Iron Man,” or resounding flops, a la “The Spirit.”

Put “Jonah Hex,” which hit theaters Friday, in the latter category. The Warner Bros. release of the DC Comics adaptation about an avenging Civil War veteran barely brought in $5.3 million during the weekend, one of the worst studio showings of the box office summer.

So what went wrong? And how should Hollywood proceed as it continues to develop the dozens of comic book and graphic novel adaptations in its pipelines?

In several respects, “Hex’s” problems can be chalked up to its singular and troubled production history.

Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor wrote the initial script for the Warners/Legendary co-production, based on writer John Albano and artist Tony DeZuniga’s Western bounty hunter, who first appeared in DC Comics’ “All-Star Western #10″ in 1972. Five years later, the character earned his own self-titled series, which ran for 92 issues. However, though Hex appeared in other series through the years, he never became a major player in the DC universe.

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Q&A: Justin Cronin says every generation reinvents the vampire narrative

Source: Canadian press

Justin Cronin is having a moment.

His new vampire thriller, “The Passage,” published earlier this month, is a bestseller. The unfinished manuscript sold in a bidding war to Fox 2000 for $1.75 million. And Stephen King called during Cronin’s interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” to tell him that he’s a fan.

The story takes place not far into the future, where a U.S. government experiment goes wrong, causing the end of civilization as we know it. The test subjects escape and are now vampires — on a killing spree. The one person who can help save the world is a young girl named Amy, who has mysterious powers.

Cronin talked about vampires, his inspiration for “The Passage” and readers’ reaction to his book in a recent interview.

AP: How is your daughter responsible for the book?

Cronin: It was her dare. In the fall of 2005 my daughter was 8. I was kind of wondering what to do next and she came to me and she said she thought I should write a book — in her words — “about a girl that saves the world and that it should be interesting.” I think every interesting thing a man does in his life, he probably does to impress a girl, and so I wrote this book to impress my daughter.

AP: Why vampires?

Cronin: Vampires were really sort of the vehicle for what I wanted to do but I always liked vampire stories. I grew up on a steady diet of vampires. There’s a sense that vampires are the monsters of the moment. There’s a lot of vampire novels, television shows, movies, but the truth is they’ve never gone away and every generation reinvents the vampire narrative to suit its anxieties and tastes.

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Cronenberg Heads Back To Science Fiction Territory With An Adaptation Of Jonathan Lethem’s As She Climbed Across The Table

Source: criterioncast.com

With two films already on his plate, it looks like David Cronenberg (Videodrome, Naked Lunch, Dead Ringers), one to never take much of a break, is looking to fill his schedule out for a while.

According to Pajiba, the filmmaker is set to not only return to sci-fi, but also the romance genre, with an adaptation of the 1997 hit Jonathan Lethem novel, As She Climbed Across The Table.

The story follows a scientist whose relationship with a fellow physicist falls apart after he, Phillip, becomes infatuated with a vacuum of nothingness known as Lack. The film sounds completely and utterly Cronenbergian, not only in its sci-fi tones, but as seen with films like Crash, director Cronenberg seems to have a dark view of romance.

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Dr. Strange To Be First Marvel Movie For The Magic Kingdom

Source: examiner.com

Yes everyone’s favorite Sorcerer Supreme, Dr. Strange is being developed as a live-action flick by Disney/Marvel. The team of Thomas Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer has been tapped for the script chore—these are the same guys who wrote the script for the new Conan movie.

Dr. Strange first appeared in Strange Tales #110 (1963), and was created by Amazing Spider-Man creators, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. As reported on Wikipedia, historian Bradford W. Wright describes Ditko’s work in his book Comic Book Nation: Transformation of a Youth Culture; “He [Ditko] contributed some of his most surrealistic work to the comic book and gave it a disorienting, hallucinogenic quality. Dr. Strange’s adventures take place in bizarre worlds and twisting dimensions that resembled Salvador Dali paintings. … Inspired by the pulp-fiction magicians of Stan Lee’s childhood as well as by contemporary Beat culture. Dr. Strange remarkably predicted the youth counterculture’s fascination with Eastern mysticism and psychedelia. Never among Marvel’s more popular or accessible characters, Dr. Strange still found a niche among an audience seeking a challenging alternative to more conventional superhero fare.”

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Concept Art for Marvel’s ‘Thor’

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Full Synopsis for ‘Green Lantern’ Revealed

Bringing the enduringly popular superhero to the big screen for the first time, “Green Lantern” stars Ryan Reynolds (“X-Men Origins: Wolverine”) in the title role, under the direction of Martin Campbell (“Casino Royale”).

In a universe as vast as it is mysterious, a small but powerful force has existed for centuries. Protectors of peace and justice, they are called the Green Lantern Corps. A brotherhood of warriors sworn to keep intergalactic order, each Green Lantern wears a ring that grants him superpowers.

But when a new enemy called Parallax threatens to destroy the balance of power in the Universe, their fate and the fate of Earth lie in the hands of their newest recruit, the first human ever selected: Hal Jordan.

Hal is a gifted and cocky test pilot, but the Green Lanterns have little respect for humans, who have never harnessed the infinite powers of the ring before. But Hal is clearly the missing piece to the puzzle, and along with his determination and willpower, he has one thing no member of the Corps has ever had: humanity.

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Resident Evil Afterlife 2010 Official New Movie Poster Released

Resident Evil Afterlife 2010 is an upcoming 3D science fiction action horror film written and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, and starring Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Kim Coates, Spencer Locke, Wentworth Miller, Boris Kodjoe and Shawn Roberts. It is the fourth installment in a series of film adaptations based on Capcom’s survival horror video game series Resident Evil.

It is also the first film in the series to be released in 3D, using Avatar’s Fusion Camera System. Resident Evil: Afterlife is scheduled to be released on September 10, 2010.

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Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book Movie Adaptation

Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book, the story about a boy named Nobody Owens who, after his family is killed by a mysterious man, is adopted and raised by the occupants of a graveyard.

Gaiman had the idea for the story in 1985 after seeing his then two year-old son Mike “pedaling his tricycle around a graveyard.” Recalling how at home his son looked there, Gaiman thought he “could write something a lot like The Jungle Book but set it in a graveyard.”

This fantasy novel is described as “the story of Nobody Owens (called “Bod” for short). At the start of the story, Bod is a toddler who witnesses the murder of his family by a mysterious man known as “Jack”.

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Thor looks bad ass, what do you think?

Do you like the synopsis for Green Lantern? Why or why not?

Are you excited that Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book will be made into a movie?