So I hear the new Batman film is doing moderately well at the box office. You know, not that big. Only record breaking and a cultural phenomenon. I almost want to say as much as I loved the film, it wasn't that good. Then I think of some of the others it's beating records against and I sure would rather see Batman up there. So, as much as I find it hard to believe, we finally got a good Batman film and people like it? Wow. Despite a personally confusing time for me right now, Dark Knight was an amazing film that I saw numerous times, taking with me numerous friends and family.

Then I have to ask. So.. what now? What's next for DC? Well obviously, as many saw in the trailers for Dark Knight, it's Watchmen. As skeptical as I was and still am about making a movie out of it, that trailer was stunning. It looks to be up there with Sin City for accuracy. Now, as much as I love Sin City, it's Miller's somewhat over the top immature pulpy fantasy. Similar things can be said for 300. Watchmen is a whole other breed of book. It's Alan Moore intellectualism covering every inch of the page. As much as some people say an HBO mini series would be better, even that could only go so far. A movie simply cannot capture Watchmen.

Yet somehow I'm still buzzed to see it. Even if it captures only a small percent of Watchmen well, what gets on screen will be one of the finest DC or superhero film yet. Snyder might just catch a good deal of Watchmen and make it some of the best 3 hours of a comic book superhero film ever made, never mind just a damn good film faithful to whatever amount of the source they can fit.

Plus, no matter how good or bad the film will be, at least sales of Watchmen books have been amazing. This is from the trailer alone. DC has been cranking out amazing numbers from the printer in preparation for the film. Even Snyder pleasantly surprised me by saying that if at the end of the day they end up making a 3 hour ad for the book, he'd be happy. Despite sometimes sounding like a slick college film geek making a fan film, I think he does get a good deal.

Of course recent news over the film rights to watchmen have resurfaced putting in all in jeopardy. If they were stupid enough to sell this and this is legally legit, geez. What a mistake. No matter how good what Snyder did, the giant company that is Warners maybe made a legal and financial mistake years ago and it seems to be biting them in the ass now that someone on the creative side finally might have made good with the story. Whoo. We shall see.

Meanwhile, what other DC books are there? Variety reports and other buzz indicates that Warners is obviously looking square at DC after the titanic success of Dark Knight.

I hear news that the Green Arrow in prison film is still on track. They even want to toss in Batman and Superman's enemies it says here. I don't get this one. This doesn't sound like a Green Arrow movie at all. Why shove Ollie into a generic prison movie crossed with a super hero film? Why not just have a straightforward Green Arrow film? Plus what about Black Canary, Dinah? Is she going to be involved? Bad enough she was turned into a teen runaway on that horrible attempt at a Birds of Prey show.

Green Lantern seems to be on track finally. All that comedy crap about being vehicle for Eddie Murphy to Jack Black seems to be gone. They seem to get that this can be an epic sci fi film series unlike anything else. This can be to the sci fi epic what Lord of the Rings was to the fantasy epic. It's a human who joins a very powerful intergalactic police force. It has a rich history to draw from. The potential is amazing and things look finally lined up to possibly realize it.

A Justice Leauge film seems dead right now, but I don't mind that. That's fine by me. I'd rather see them establish the characters separately first.

Meanwhile, Superman isn't looking too good. I still say Singer and company painted themselves into a corner with the requel. A super son? Superman leaving Lois alone, pouting? How do you not make a sequel about that with the way things were left? And I thought Returns was too off from being about any recognizable Superman. Of course Mark Waid and a number of other actual Superman writers chimed in. When some of the best Superman writers in decades thinks the movie got the character wrong, I tend to agree. Not that I wasn't already, but nice to confirm suspicions with quite credible sources. Listen to the Superman writer that's such a geek that he is infamous for knowing Superman's social security comic because it appeared in a comic when he was a kid. They're right. WB needs to reboot it's other major icon. Superman Returns was a waste.

And of course then there's Wonder Woman. Even her invisible jet doesn't seem to get pass the glass ceiling. No one's figured out how to give Warners a Wonder Woman film. Well, except for Bruce Timm's team and current scribe Gail Simone with a new direct to DVD animated film. That looks pretty fantastic for the direct to DVD resources they have. Like New Frontier before it, I wish they got more backing and got this stuff a proper theatrical release. Someone get these people helping to make a full theatrical live action Wonder Woman movie, please.

Can someone tell me why Warners never lets creators that know the character and have written some of their acclaimed books actually help with the films? We got Goyer on Batman Begins thankfully. Yet from Batman & Robin to Catwoman to Superman Returns, were there any creators from DC to correct the very big mistakes made with those films?

Now DC can't do what Marvel did forming their own studio as they're owned by Warners. Though Warners would be smart to give a little more control over DC properties to DC itself. Enough of this hading over DC characters to random Hollywood yahoos who think Superman's cape is 'too faggy'. (And this coming from Barbra Streisand's hairdresser who became a Hollywood big shot behind Superman and Batman films?) I welcome greater control from actual DC creators. Warners would be wise to get on board.

Aside from a number of drafts on the back burner, I have a couple follow up ideas to this post. One being where Batman films can go. The other being gems that Warners need to find in DC comics and properly polish for the big screen.

Someone is tearing apart Sapphire City’s mob bosses with a savage vengeance. Writer Rob Worley talks to CBR about his and Keith Giffen & Shanon Eric Denton's “The Revenant,” a new pulp-noir graphic novel.

Read it!

Myspace Comic Books has posted a 15 page preview of THE REVENANT, the all-new graphic novel from Desperado Publishing, written by Rob M. Worley.

READ IT!

Then ask your local retailer for it: JUL08 3913!

After watching the X-men Origins: Wolverine trailer, I wondered if Marvel was planning to use this Origins title for some of the other X-men. I certainly wouldn't be opposed to a Cyclops or Storm origin movie. Xavier would be a good movie too, except that I've heard rumblings of a Magneto spin-off so I'm sure the Professor's story could be pretty well told in that movie. I don't know how many X-men sequels they had planned or if there is even going to be another one(I hope there is), but the "Origins" movies could be a franchise in itself to tie-in with the other movies, plus tell a lot of backstory and introduce new characters. How cool would a Cyclops movie be that introduced Mister Sinister, only to have him be revealed as the behind-the-scenes villian in the next X-men movie. Or something like that. I just see a lot of potential here for Marvel to strike while the iron is hot.

As far as the Wolverine trailer itself, it looks pretty good. Nice to see the Cajun making an appearance, as well as Leiv Schreiber as Creed. I wasn't too sure about the casting here until I saw him on screen. Definetely impressed. There was even a scene of a young James Howlett so it was a relief to see that they seem to be going ALL the way back to Logan's beginnings and not just pre-Weapon X, even though I kind if miss the old mysterious I-don't-know-how-or-why-I just am Wolverine. I liked the random appearances Logan made over the last hundred years or so where you just didn't know why he was even there in the first place.

Now I know that hindsight is 20/20, as the saying goes, but wouldn't it have been cool if Marvel had put their studio in place first before the comic book movies got so hot and kept the rights to all of their characters? Franchises, tie-ins, spin-offs, cameos, just like they're doing now. Iron Man spun-off two movies(Captain America and Avengers) and if the Origin movies play out like they should, you could have numerous spin-offs with those. How cool would it be for Tony to have some battle in the middle of New York in Iron Man II and have Peter Parker taking pictures of it? Or Spidey fights a villian in his next movie who turns out to be a mutant so he takes him to Xaviers' school? Endless possibilities. Too bad nobody thought of it sooner.

Yeah, I know... another lame "play on words" title. Hopefully the rest will be better.

I was reading some of the news from the San Diego Comic Con over on Comic Book Resources and it seems that Larry Hama will once again be scripting a comic book series for everyone's favorite Real American Heroes, and this one will be a complete reboot of the series. I think it's a great idea.

Like a lot of G.I. Joe fans, I grew up on and worshipped that comic series. To me, the cartoon was "the kids version" of G.I. Joe and the comic was the real story. I was always wishing for more. Devil's Due had a good run on G.I. Joe in the 90's, but it was one of those things that never really took hold with me. Not that those series' were bad, mind you... but it's sort of like a Star Trek novel. If it isn't a movie or tv show, it never felt like it was really Star Trek. It's just "authorized fanfic". (No offense to anyone who might've been involved with or enjoyed any of these stories - Hey, I enjoyed them too - but you know what I mean)

To me, if Hama isn't writing it, it just isn't G.I. Joe. But the problem that comes up is that the 80's series was so connected to the Vietnam War. It was an intrinsic part of the mythos. If you want to continue with that continuity then you have to set the story in "real time" and the core group of characters (Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow, Cobra Commander) are getting a bit too old for field combat. There was a reboot a few years back, but again: if it isn't Hama...

A reboot with Hama in control should make both sides happy - we'll get a new G.I. Joe that's relevent, but it'll have the guy who gave it to us the first time in charge. Of course, there's always The Prequel Argument (see: Star Wars Episodes I-III), but I don't think we need to worry about that. Hama didn't take 20 years off from writing comics when G.I. Joe ended. Granted, his style has probably changed a bit, but he's still an active writer. I'm not worried about that.

The only downfall is that we have to wait until 2009 to read it.

In related news, I've been doing some more thinking about the upcoming Joe movie. I was one of the many people who jumped the gun and tore this movie a new asshole based solely on a few pictures that turned up on the internet. I was letting my love of G.I. Joe get in the way. I still think those all-black uniforms are crap, but that doesn't mean the movie will be.

Okay, it probably will be. But we're talking about a movie based on a toy line from 20 years ago. A lot of folks didn't grow up on the comics the way I did - they only know Joe from the cartoon. Have you watched that cartoon since you grew up? It's terrible! I haven't heard one line of dialogue from the upcoming flick, and it's already better than the cartoon.

Did you see the Transformers movie? It was pretty crappy all the way until the Transformers starting kicking all kinds of ass: then it instantly became awesome! I'm hoping for something along those lines. Hey, this movie doesn't have to be Platoon, it just has to be entertaining. If you've got a silent ninja in black and an evil (but conflicted) ninja in white along with a dude in a blue mask and a guy with a steel head - you're set. Now just throw in some army guys with high-tech weapons and blow a bunch of shit up and don't swear too much (so it can get a PG-13 rating). BAM! You've got a hit.

In conclusion, I certainly don't have any expectations for the Joe movie, but I have some hope. Not high hopes... but some hope.

And rounding out the Joe news, it seems that Warren Ellis wrote a new animated G.I. Joe something-or-other that will be divided up into webisodes (stupid) and will probably end up on DVD (sweet!). I'm all for it. Can't wait to see it. Since there's not really any news about it, I can't really write much about it.

So uh... yeah, that's it.

CONAN: The Musical

Start Spreading the news –

They're in the money!

Despite miles of protests from hard-core fans, the first week's showing of “Conan: The Musical” went off without a hitch, and raked in a metric ton of dough!

Audiences were thrilled, apparently, to hear the all-singing, all-dancing, all-weight-lifting cast, putting their voices to such soon-to-be-classic hits as...

“What's Best In Life” (Sung to the tune of The Lennon Sisters' “My Favorite Things”)

"Who Dies First?" (Sung to Run-DMC's “Run's House”)

"The Riddle of Steel," (Sung to Tracy Chapman's “Fast Car”)

and

"There's nothing in the universe cold steel won't cut," (Sung to The Beatles' “Come Together”)

“I really didn't expect to get so much blood on me,” one pleased theater-goer exclaimed upon exit, “but it says right there on the ticket – 'First three rows will get wet!'”

Conan: The Musical is to run for a 73-week engagement.

Mark Millar sells movie script based on unwritten comic based on dream.

Scottish shock-rock performance artist Mark Millar has announced that he has several “big time hollywood directors” lined up to film an as of yet unnamed and unwritten comic. Based on a dream the writer intends to have several nights after this interview, Mark Millar had this to say about his latest comic to movie transition:

“Life's boring and futile. We start oaf wi high hopes, then we bottle it. We realize that we're aw gaunnae die, withoot really findin oot the big answers. We develop aw they long-winded ideas which jist interpret the reality ay oor lives in different weys, withoot really extending oor body ay worthwhile knowledge, about the big things, the real things. Basically, we live a short, disappointing life; and then we die.”

When asked about his feeling towards adapting the hit movie “Wanted” into a graphic novel, the hit writer commented, “It unnerves us tae the extent that ah feel ma ain genitals through ma troosers tae see if they're still thair.”

Though the comic is still over a year away from being written or drawn, Wizard Magazine has already awarded it “best book of the year” for 2009, 2010, and “possibly even 2011.”

Peter David to write novel adaptation of the cinematic adaptation of a comic. As always.

At an announcement meeting for The Watchmen: The Movie: The Novel, Peter David struck and badly injured a young man who happened to be carrying a large chocolate cake through the convention hall. When pressed for comment, David was quoted as saying “Nom Nom Nom,” as he used both hands to push the cake down his throat.

At a later publicity meeting, David attempted to explain that he had not even been at the earlier meeting, and that the assailant had in fact been Cannonball Run's Dom DeLuise.

Police continued to investigate the bizarre case until forced to admit that they “couldn't tell the difference between the two guys.” At which point they all went home.

Saw the Dark Knight Friday and I have to say that a new benchmark has been set regarding comic book movies. I felt this way when I saw Iron Man earlier this summer and DK has surpassed IM in every way. Records have been broken for movie openings, something like 60 million plus on the first day.

I'm not posting this as a review since we are still in opening weekend but I want to express how amped up I was when I left the theater Friday evening. This film completly blows away the hype that we've experienced for the last six months plus. From the viral campaign to the television ads and trailers, everyone on the planet has been exposed to this movie, as well they should have been. This movie is the total package. Now, being that I'm a HUGE Batman fan anyway, I could be considered a little biased. But I will state this: Dark Knight is one of the best movies I've seen...ever. Bold statement, I know, but that's how I feel.

On that note, I know there's been talk lately about giving Heath Ledger a post-humous Oscar nod. Well, I realize that the last person to receive this was an actor named Peter Finch in 1979 or so but Ledger's performance of the Joker was mind-blowing. Humourous yet terrifying at the same time. His portrayal made Jack Nicholson's Joker look like Ceasar Romero's Joker in the original series. Not to take anything away from either actor, Ledger was just so completely driven by the original characterization of the Joker that it reached an entirely new level. If they can't give the guy an Oscar for this, then make up a new award and give him that instead.

Even with a running time of 2 1/2 hrs, the movie moves at a fairly brisk pace and kept things moving, right up to the end. The rest of the cast was great and replacing Katie Holmes with Maggie Gyllenhaal brought new life into Rachel Dawes, especially since the character had such a bigger role in this film than she did in the first one. The ONLY real complaint I could level at this film was with Christian Bale's Batman voice. A little too much growl going on. There were a few times that I couldn't understand what he was saying because of this. But that's very minor and is pretty much all I've got.

I'll probably post an actual review soon so as to give more people time to get to the theater and see this awesome movie. Hell, I'm going again tomorrow.

Black Machismo

The Watchmen Trailer is set to a remix of a song from Joel Schumacher's “Batman & Robin.”

Seriously, is this a joke? Some sort of nefarious plot or scheme? The work of dark magics? Are there strange new drugs involved? What the hell is going on?

I was originally going to post a big thing about how awesome Alan Moore is, and just not bring up the “W” word at all, but then I found that out, and... I'm sort of shocked. It's just...

There's like, what? A billion songs in the world? And of every song in existence, they picked a remix of a song from Batman & Robin? Is there a message in there? Is there something larger I'm supposed to understand? Was it just sheer weird random chance?

You know, sometimes I think we didn't actually survive that plane crash.

...

Anyway, as I attempt to heal up my conspiracy centers, here's one of my favorite interviews with one of my favorite comic book writers.