Time Warner is no longer the sole proprietor of Superman. A federal judge here on Wednesday ruled that the heirs of Jerome Siegel - who 70 years ago sold the rights to the action hero he created with Joseph Shuster to Detective Comics for $130 - were entitled to claim a share of the United States copyright to the character. The ruling left intact Time Warner's international rights to the character, which it has long owned through its DC Comics unit.

And it reserved for trial questions over how much the company may owe the Siegel heirs for use of the character since 1999, when their ownership is deemed to have been restored. Also to be resolved is whether the heirs are entitled to payments directly from Time Warner's film unit, Warner Brothers, which took in $200 million at the domestic box office with Superman Returns in 2006, or only from the DC unit's Superman profits.

Still, the ruling threatened to complicate Warner's plans to make more films featuring Superman, including another sequel and a planned movie based on the DC Comics' Justice League of America, in which he joins Batman, Wonder Woman and other superheroes to battle evildoers.

If the ruling survives a Time Warner legal challenge, it may also open the door to a similar reversion of rights to the estate of Mr. Shuster in 2013. That would give heirs of the two creators control over use of their lucrative character until at least 2033 -- and perhaps longer, if Congress once again extends copyright terms -- according to Marc Toberoff, a lawyer who represents the Siegels and the Shuster estate.

"It would be very powerful," said Mr. Toberoff, speaking by telephone on Friday. "After 2013, Time Warner couldn't exploit any new Superman-derived works without a license from the Siegels and Shusters." Time Warner lawyers declined to discuss the decision, a spokesman said. A similar ruling in 2006 allowed the Siegels to recapture their rights in the Superboy character, without determining whether Superboy was, in fact, the basis for Warner Brothers's Smallville television series. The decision was later challenged in a case that has yet to be resolved, said Mr. Toberoff, who represented the family in that action.

Permalink | Subscribe | | | Comments (View)

Sarah Michelle Gellar and Seth Green Talk Buffy and More

Most of the original Buffy cast showed up for the panel at Paley Fest 2008 and all seemed to be getting along, he said in his report. Alyson Hannigan and David Boreanez failed to show. But Sarah Michelle, Seth Green, Nicholas Brendan, Joss Whedon and Charisma Carpenter were all smiles. Michael Ausiello of TV Guide interviews Michelle Gellar and Seth Green in this video, in which they discuss many things, including Buffy's gay affair in the ongoing comic.



Posted on March 21, 2008
Permalink | Subscribe | | | Comments (View)

The Incredible Hulk Trailer is Here

The trailer for The Incredible Hulk starring Ed Norton is out and it looks great. But there's a problem: Marvel and Norton are in some kind of feud over the script. Norton was promised huge input into the film after they got him to rewrite the script. Now the fight is over how to edit the film: Marvel and Norton don't agree on the point of view. Norton is known for being prickly, but for really knowing his stuff. We'll see how it turns out. Here's the trailer in the meantime:



Posted on March 12, 2008
Permalink | Subscribe | | | Comments (View)

Leonardo Di Caprio to Star in Akira Film

Leonardo DiCaprio will produce a live action version of the anime classic Akira.

Ruairi Robinson has been hired to direct what would ideally be a two-part epic. Gary Whitta is writing the adaptation, which DiCaprio will produce via his Appian Way shingle. Andrew Lazar is also producing via his Mad Chance shingle. Jennifer Davisson, who heads up Appian, will also be involved in some producorial capacity.

"Akira" originated in 1988 as a manga and then as an animated film co-written and directed by Katsuhiro Otomo. The story was set in a neon-lit futuristic post-nuclear war "New Tokyo" in 2019 where a teen biker gang member is subjected to a government experiment which unleashes his latent powers. The gang's leader must find a way to stop the ensuing swathe of destruction.

With its mature themes and cutting-edge animation, "Akira" was a milestone movie in anime and even animation circles, and led the way for anime making inroads into Western pop culture in the 1990s.

Ain' It Cool News reports that DeCaprio will alsostar in the film as Kaneda, which is pretty cool.

Posted on February 22, 2008
Permalink | Subscribe | | | Comments (View)

Ryan Reynolds Joins Wolverine Cast

There is some interesting casting news on the new Wolverine film. Ryan Reynolds and Will.I.Am are joining Hugh Jackman in the upcoming film, X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

The 20th Century Fox project, which kicked off production this month in Australia with South African director Gavin Hood behind the camera, is currently slated for a May 1, 2009, release. The Marvel Comic-based prequel will mark the feature-film debut of Will.i.am, who until now could only be spotted in the soundtrack portion of the credits of recent hits such as Knocked Up and Blades of Glory. Reynolds, who delved into the butt-kicking mutant canon with his role as a former vampire in Blade: Trinity, is currently on the big screen in the romantic comedy Definitely, Maybe alongside Little Miss Sunshine also-ran Abigail Breslin.

*****

While there's no word yet on which characters the production newcomers will be sinking their claws into, the roles of Sabretooth and William Stryker are already taken by Liev Schreiber and Danny Huston, respectively.

Schreiber was originally rumored to be in talks to play Stryker, the would-be mutant eliminator, but producers apparently preferred him as the even more supervillainous Sabretooth, Wolverine's comparably enhanced rival. Lynn Collins (The Number 23, The Lake House) has also stepped up to play Wolverine's number-one love interest, Silver Fox.

Liev Schreiber as Sabretooth? That works for us. Should be an interesting film.

Posted on February 20, 2008
Permalink | Subscribe | | | Comments (View)

Dark Knight's Heath Ledger is Dead at 28

Actor Heath Ledger who is playing the Joker in the upcoming Batman film was found dead today in his New York apartment, apparently from an overdose of both prescription and nonprescription sleeping pills. Various media reports say he has battled substance abuse for some time.

In this interview from The New York Times two months ago, there are some clues as to his mental state. He is discussing his roles in the Bob Dylan biopic and in The Dark Knight and the stress the roles caused him.

It all tied him in knots. "I stressed out a little too much," Mr. Ledger said.

He tends to do that. He is here in London filming the latest episode of the Batman franchise, The Dark Knight. (Mr. Bale, as it happens, plays Batman; Mr. Ledger plays the Joker.) It is a physically and mentally draining role - his Joker is a "psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy" he said cheerfully - and, as often happens when he throws himself into a part, he is not sleeping much.

"Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night," he said. "I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going." One night he took an Ambien, which failed to work. He took a second one and fell into a stupor, only to wake up an hour later, his mind still racing.

Even as he spoke, Mr. Ledger was hard-pressed to keep still. He got up and poured more coffee. He stepped outside into the courtyard and smoked a cigarette. He shook his hair out from under its hood, put a rubber band around it, took out the rubber band, put on a hat, took off the hat, put the hood back up. He went outside and had another cigarette. Polite and charming, he nonetheless gave off the sense that the last thing he wanted to do was delve deep into himself for public consumption. "It can be a little distressing to have to overintellectualize yourself," is how he put it, a little apologetically.

Conducting a tour of the house, which he is renting for a few months, he made wry remarks about the art. One painting depicts a crowd of creatures who appear to be in hell, but who seem determined to extract as much sexual pleasure as they can from their eternity of free time; Mr. Ledger has turned another one around and hung it upside down, to no apparent ill advantage.

Heath was only 28 years old; he has a two year-old little girl named Matilda. Matilda's mother is actress Michelle Williams, with whom Heath was involved with for three years. The couple broke up in September, 2007. What a terrible tragedy for his family.

Posted on January 22, 2008
Permalink | Subscribe | | | Comments (View)

The New Batman Trailer

Here's the trailer for Batman The Dark Knight, which is set for a July 18, 2008 release.



Posted on December 28, 2007
Permalink | Subscribe | | | Comments (View)

The Green Lantern Heads to the Silver Screen

The Green Lantern is heading to the silver screen. A live action film has been greenlit by Warner Bros. Greg Berlanti, the creator of Everwood, will co-write and direct.

While several incarnations of the character have existed since his creation in 1940, the Warner Bros. movie will focus on the Lantern embodied by Hal Jordan, a test pilot who finds a downed alien spacecraft. A dying alien passes his ring to Jordan, introducing the man to a wider world that includes an interstellar police force known as the Green Lantern Corps and its overseers, the Guardians of the Universe, who live on the planet Oa.

Like any superhero, the Lantern has a weakness, the color yellow, and was known for reciting an oath when charging his ring. "To me, this was on the last great comic book movie that hasn't been made," said Berlanti, who grew up reading comics in the 1980s. "It was a comic book with a real mythology that you would see in a lot of the space operas and the sci-fi books. The best part about it, anybody can be become one of the Green Lanterns because anyone can end up with that ring."

*****

The biggest challenge in setting up "Lantern" was waiting for the technology to become available to create fantastical worlds as well as overcoming the prejudice of a ring-bearing hero. "The danger and the fear from a lot of people is that it would be silly," said Berlanti. "In these post-'Harry Potter' and 'Lord of the Rings' days, it's not any more fantastical than that. It's taken movies like that to make it feel as if a Green Lantern film is possible."

The fact that he has a ring doesn't make it silly -- what a stupid comment. The mythology of a magical ring has been around since stories were first told. And The Green Lantern has nothing to do with Lord of the Rings. Now, that we've set that to rest, let the casting speculation begin.

Posted on October 29, 2007
Permalink | Subscribe | | | Comments (View)

Jessica Biel Turns Down Justice League of America

Jessica Biel has passed on the opportunity to play Wonder Woman in the new Justice League of America movie.

Entertainment Weekly reported that Jessica Biel has decided to pass on playing Wonder Woman in Warner Brothers' upcoming live-action adaptation of Justice League of America. Biel's casting was reported in Variety last week.

Biel (The Illusionist, Next) had been in early talks to play the Amazonian princess. She's currently shooting the drama Powder Blue with Forest Whitaker.

Mania, meanwhile, reported a rumor that Transformers star Tyrese Gibson is in the running to play the Green Lantern in the movie, which is based on the venerable DC Comics franchise.

So, why did she pass on the part? It's a good film to introduce the character before doing a stand alone movie. It's a mystery.

Posted on October 3, 2007
Permalink | Subscribe | | | Comments (View)

Gavin Hood Talks Wolverine Film

Gavin Hood confirms to IESB.net that the Wolverine spin-off film will indeed hit theaters in Summer, 2008. While on a junket for his new film Rendition, Gavin -- with a little prodding -- did answer a few questions about Wolverine, which he is slated to direct.

I'll tell you why I love Wolverine. I love Wolverine partly because it will pay my college fund. But partly because, I'm doing it because, that's the cynical answer, but the truth is, I didn't. At first, when Wolverine was offered to me, I went, "Well, I'm the wrong guy for this." And then I spoke with Hugh Jackman and the truth is that what's great about the Wolverine character, he's really a character who suffers from a great deal of existential angst. So you want to know why Gavin Hood is interested as somebody who loves actors and emotions, is because looking at it more closely, and I was raised on Greek mythology not comics...

*****

Get away, give me a chance! Let me finish this answer. [laughter] I don't know anything about the details about the movie. But what I do love about the Wolverine character is that there is, within that character, a great deal of disconnection from who he really is and what it means to be human. And so what we're really getting a chance to do is do opera. We're taking human emotion, and in the way that you would have Zeus throwing thunderbolts, it's writ larger. I happen to be a big fan of the X-Men movies...especially what Bryan Singer did. Those are movies about prejudice, they're a movie about absence of prejudice. And they happen to be done in a very accessible and commercial way. And so I think there's a great deal of themes and ideas to explore in Wolverine beyond just three claws. And I'm not going to say anything more about the movie because we're hear to talk about Rendition.

*****

So we start shooting the film in December, we start shooting the film in December, possibly January, we are very involved in the process and now and we'll be casting over the next couple of months.....

He also confirmed that the film will be rated PG-13 and that the shoot will last 3-4 months. IMDB lists the film as having a release date in 2009, which seems more likely. But that's what the director said: Summer, 2008.

Posted on October 1, 2007
Permalink | Subscribe | | | Comments (View)

Jessica Biel Might Be Wonder Woman

Not to worry, Jessica Biel is not getting ready to star in another installment of Catwoman. In fact, she's in talks right now to play Wonder Woman in the upcoming Justice League film.

Jessica Biel is in talks to play Wonder Woman in Warner Bros.' upcoming Justice League of America, with the superhero all-star flick possibly serving to launch Biel's own comic-book movie franchise, according to Variety. The live-action film aims to bring together several of DC Comics biggest stars: Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman, Aquaman and the Flash.

A studio rep declined to comment on Tuesday, saying Warners would rather make one big announcement regarding the ensemble. So far, Biel is the first big-name actor linked to the highly anticipated-at least among fanboys-project. (London's Guardian newspaper has reported that producers have also done a screen test with up-and-coming Australian actress Victoria Hill.) If Biel ends up being cast in as Diana, the busty Amazonian princess warrior turned American icon, the 25-year-old actress would also be in line to star in a series of Wonder Woman feature-film spinoffs. Warners is reportedly envisioning JLA as a means to kick start both Wonder Woman and Flash stand-alone features.

A Wonder Woman flick has long been a passion of the studio. At one point, Buffy the Vampire Slayer mastermind Joss Whedon was on board to write and direct, but he pulled out last February, criting creative differences and leaving the project in limbo. Whedon and the studio had apparently clashed over the casting the lead role. And although former Buffy stars Sarah Michelle Gellar and Charisma Carpenter were among those rumored to be in contention to don the tiara, Whedon said he had not settled on his dream Wonder Woman.

Of course, we were all set for a Joss Whedon Wonder Woman stand-alone film starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, but our hopes were cruelly dashed when Joss left the project, for mysterious reasons. Will the Justice League movie be up to snuff? Or will it have too many characters to work in a feature film? It's just way too early to tell.

Posted on September 25, 2007
Permalink | Subscribe | | | Comments (View)

Iron Man Trailer

Here is the trailer for the Iron Man film starring Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark and Iron Man. The film will be released on May 2, 2008. More details available here on IMDB.com. A trailer can also be seen on the Iron Man website. Cinematical has a few details as well. They are correct that Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" was very appropriate for this film.


Direct video link

Posted on September 12, 2007
Permalink | Subscribe | | | Comments (View)