based on a comic book – Geeking Out About.com

Thor hammers the U.S. box office, but is it enough?

Posted on 9 May 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

As per the numbers from Box Office Mojo, this weekend’s release of Thor from Marvel Studios made it the number one movie in the U.S., grossing an estimated $66 million USD, beating out the two new counter-programming romantic comedy releases of Jumping the Broom and Something Borrowed (which 9is based on a chick-lit book), distributed by Columbia TriStar and Warner Bros., respectively.

The reviews are also fairly solid, ranking a 78% fresh on the Tomatometer, and with that kind of good word of mouth, I can easily foresee that it will be able to make back its $150 million USD budget, and then some.

Perhaps the best news of all is that if the story of one of Marvel’s lesser-known heroes can muster this kind of box office, then things are looking up for the rest of the non-X-Men-related superhero movies on the studio’s plate.

The gravy train will continue with Captain America: The First Avenger, out on July 22.

Trailer Watch, Pass or Fail edition: Machete versus The Social Network, plus a bonus trailer

Posted on 20 July 2010 by admin 1 Comment

Good Lord, we’re behind on our movie trailers, aren’t we? Let’s get down to it, then!

I had to watch this at the office with the sound turned off, which means that I had to completely imagine the overblown narration that probably accompanied this latest Machete trailer. Given that Grindhouse was not a box office success—$25 million total gross versus a $67 million budget—I can understand that the official studio trailer isn’t gonna have that awesome grindhouse feel which got the entire film greenlit to begin with.

Doesn’t mean it’s not a stupid trailer, though. So while the official trailer gets a fumble, me and my friends are still going to see this movie in U.S. theaters this fall on September 3.

For a movie that’s your typical “Young guys stumble into brilliant invention, but money comes between their friendship”-flick like The Social Network seems to be flogging, I can’t help but think about other movies like Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988) or even Pirates of Silicon Valley and wonder exactly what is going to make this film stand-out from the pack.

If the only thing it has going for it is Aaron Sorkin putting words into Mark Zuckerberg’s mouth, then I think I’m going to give this one a pass. Directed by David Fincher, The Social Network is out in U.S. theaters on October 1.

Finally, props and kudos to Rick Marshall at MTV’s Splash Page blog for posting this exclusive 30 second teaser from the animated adaptation of comics creator Eric Powell’s The Goon, part of a longer section of film that will be shown this coming Friday—which will also be exclusively shown at the MTV blog directly after the panel ends at 7:00 pm EST.

Featuring the voice of Paul Giamatti as Frankie and directed by David Fincher, hopefully we’ll learn if and when the movie will get a release date at the panel.

Trisha’s Video of the Day: The Swingin’ Spider-Man

Posted on 7 July 2010 by admin 2 Comments

While I am not a total dance geek or nerd, I loved watching the ballroom dance competitions on my local PBS affiliate as a kid; Strictly Ballroom is one of my favorite movies as a result of this childhood fascination as well.

The best part of watching the ballroom dance competitions were the exhibition dances where notable pros and amateurs got to “go wild” and show off their more fun routines, flips, spins, and aerial lifts. And just like in competitive ice skating, if there are costumes, it’s even better.

Well, I believe I’ve found one video that not only exemplifies the fun of watching ballroom dance, but also adds in an additional geeky flair, courtesy of dancers Orion Hall and Colleen Vernon:

Marvel Studios starts looking at Dr. Strange

Posted on 22 June 2010 by admin 1 Comment

According to Mike Fleming in an exclusive for the New York branch of Deadline.com, screenwriters Thomas Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer have been tapped to write the script adaptation of the Marvel comic Dr. Strange.

This isn’t the first geek-oriented property that Donnelly and Oppenheimer have been involved with. The duo, which was credited along with two other writers for 2005’s Sahara, had also been hired by Columbia Pictures to work on the script for the adaptation of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and have also worked on the upcoming remake of Conan.

Fleming opined that the property would be the first superhero property that would be made into a movie under the studio’s new arrangement with the Walt Disney Company, something which geeks everywhere will be watching with a wary eye.

Quick Cuts: Paul Rudd is an Idiot Brother, and other stories

Posted on 2 June 2010 by admin Leave a Comment

Paul Rudd has just signed a deal to be the star of the Jesse Peretz-directed comedy called My Idiot Brother, about a sunshine-spewing optimist who brightens up the lives of his three sisters and overbearing mother. Written by Peretz’ real-life sister Evgenia and her writing partner David Schisgall, the film will start production in New York in July, even if the sisters haven’t been cast yet. (Source: The Hollywood Reporter)
Dustin Lance Black (Milk) is turning his writer’s and director’s eye towards comics; he will be doing both for the live-action adaptation of 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man. Originally a graphic novel from Dark Horse by Matt Kindt, the plot will concern the relationship between a daughter and her father–who just happens to be suffering from a strange medical condition where he can’t stop growing. Warner Bros. will be producing/financing. (Source: The Hollywood Reporter)
James McAvoy (Wanted) has been signed to star in X-Men: First Class as Professor Xavier; still no word who will be his star-crossed Magneto. (Source: Entertainment Weekly)
“Community” star Donald Glover has started a grass-roots campaign to get himself an audition to be in the Spider-Man 4 movie and all I can think of is that scene from the very first episode of “Boston Legal” where the Reverend Al Sharpton gave Alan Shore his rabbit by giving a speech in the courtroom which featured this line: “Give us an African-American Spider Man!” Glover, if you’re reading this, your people totally need to talk to Sharpton’s people (and the “Boston Legal” writing team). (Source: Donald Glover’s personal blog)

Marvel responds to Jack Kirby heirs copyright claims

Posted on 11 January 2010 by admin 8 Comments

Q: What do Superman and Spider-Man have in common?

A: The heirs to the comics creators’ estates are suing to regain control of the copyright, which may put the production of any movies into doubt.

Similar to how earlier in 2009, the heirs to the estates of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster sued to regain some part of the millions that were earned from Superman Returns‘s worldwide box office receipts, the heirs to Jack Kirby’s estate are seeking to terminate the hold that several companies have on the copyright to Spider-Man, the X-Men, and several other character that were created by Kirby during the Silver Age of comics.

Among the companies that were told that the rights would soon be reverting to the estate are Walt Disney Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, and Sony Pictures, each of whom have a great interest in making sure that they only have to pay Marvel Comics for the use of the characters in their big screen adventures.

Marvel responded last Friday by filing a lawsuit against the Kirby heirs stating that because Kirby’s work on the characters was under a “for hire” contract, his claim to the characters is invalid, according to many sources (but I’m using Digital Spy.com and Newser.com‘s accounts).

Marvel attorney John Turitzin commented on the Kirby heirs actions, stating that the heirs were trying “to rewrite the history of Kirby’s relationship with Marvel” and that “Everything about Kirby’s relationship with Marvel shows that his contributions were works made for hire and that all the copyright interests in them belong to Marvel.”

Marc Toberoff, also the attorney for the Siegel and Shuster heirs, responded:

The truth is that Jack Kirby was his own man. Like so many artists in the fledgling comic book industry of the late 1950s/early 1960s, Kirby worked with Marvel out of his own house as a freelancer with no employment contract, no financial or other security, nor any other indicia of employment.

Kirby’s wonderful creations, which leapt from the page, were not Marvel’s ‘assignments’, but were instead authored by Kirby under his own steam and then published by Marvel. It was not until 1972 that Kirby by contract granted Marvel the copyrights to his works. It is to this grant that the Kirby family’s statutory notices of termination apply.

What some are saying prompted the Kirby heirs to action was a recent change to the copyright laws which allows more avenues towards people regaining the rights to their work, but I have not been successful in seeking out the exact verbiage of the changes. If that’s true, then I really hope that they are able to get some control back.

However, unlike Siegel and Shuster’s situation, Stan Lee was also very much a part of the Silver Age character creation due to his employ of what became known as “the Marvel method” and since Lee has yet to make an official statement about the events, fan perception of how this all goes down could be split.

We’ll be bringing more news to you, as it happens.

Superman heirs have their day in court… and lose

Posted on 9 July 2009 by admin 9 Comments

supermanreturns Yesterday, Variety reported on the outcome of the ongoing legal troubles between Warner Bros., DC Comics, and the heirs of Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster and it doesn’t look good for them.

U.S. District Court judge Stephen G. Larson found that the licensing fees paid by the studio to the comics company for the rights in order to make Superman Returns were indeed of a fair market value and not indicative of a “sweetheart” deal. As thus, Joanne Siegel and Laura Siegel Larson are only entitled to their share of the $13.6 million that DC earned from the sale of the rights rather than any portion of the $391 million that the studio grossed worldwide for the film.

The companies released a joint statement, quoted in the article:

“DC Comics and Warner Bros. Entertainment are very gratified by the court’s thorough and well-reasoned decision in this matter,” the companies said in a joint statement. “The decision validates what DC and Warner Bros. have maintained from the beginning, which is that when they do business with each other, they always strive for—and achieve—fair market value in their transactions. We are very pleased that the court found there was no merit to plaintiffs’ position that the Superman deals were unfair to DC Comics and, by extension, the plaintiffs.”

However, there’s a second component to the case which will take place on December 1, when Larson will take a stab at figuring out exactly how much in profits the women will get from an earlier ruling which gave them half the copyright to the character, as well as an additional part will actually have an impact on when another Superman movie will be made.

According to Marc Toberoff, the attorney for Siegel and Siegel Larson, by 2013 they and the heirs of Joe Shuster will own the entire copyright to the character, which means that if a movie doesn’t get made or start production before then, Warner Bros. will have to deal with them in order to do it and not their sister company DC Comics.

Toberoff also asserted the the court

found that Warner Bros. should have paid three to four times the amount actually paid for the Superman film rights and that [it] had found it ‘inequitable’ that DC transferred the Superman film rights to Warner Bros. without the standard term providing for reversion for lack of ongoing exploitation.

As a result, the court ruled that (according to Toberoff) “if Warner Bros. does not start production on another Superman film by 2011, the Siegels will be able to sue to recover their damages.” Warner Bros. chairman Alan Horn testified during the trial that the property wasn’t currently under development and that the earliest another picture could possibly be released would be 2012.

Tag: based on a comic book