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Devin Strader seemed smitten with Jenn Tran from day one. But did he join the show just to win it? Bachelorette fans call his motive into question after the shocking split. Keep reading for the latest.

Jenn Tran Reveals The Real Devin Strader

Devin Strader was a standout contestant on The Bachelorette from the beginning. The 28-year-old freight company owner did everything he could to get Jenn Tran’s attention and spend more time with her. He upset the other men by butting in on their time with Jenn.

His persistence paid off. He was one of the final two contestants, along with Marcus Shoberg. Jenn sent Marcus home after realizing he wasn’t in love with her. She went on to get engaged to Devin, who wasn’t shy about professing his love.

Devin Strader/Credit: YouTube

But Jenn revealed during the After The Final Rose special that Devin...

Focus Features has acquired the worldwide rights to “The Outfit,” a crime film that will star Mark Rylance, Dylan O’Brien, Zoey Deutch and Johnny Flynn.

Graham Moore, who wrote the Oscar-nominated film “The Imitation Game,” will make his directorial debut on the drama based on a screenplay he co-wrote with “Mad Men” writer Jonathan McClain. Production is expected to begin next month in London.

The film follows Leonard (Rylance), an English tailor who used to craft suits on London’s world-famous Savile Row. But after a personal tragedy, he’s ended up in Chicago, operating a small tailor shop in a rough part of town where he makes beautiful clothes for the only people around who can afford them: a family of vicious gangsters.

Producing “The Outfit” are Scoop Wasserstein, Ben Browning and Amy Jackson. FilmNation Entertainment will finance the film and has sold rights to Focus Features to distribute the film worldwide,...

Unfortunately for studios, there’s no algorithm or tried-and-true formula for creating a great film. And though we can’t predict the future of the upcoming crime drama, “The Outfit,” the formula of adding an all-star cast and writer Graham Moore seems like a good start on the path to success.

According to Deadline, “The Imitation Game” writer Graham Moore is set to make his directorial debut with the upcoming crime feature, “The Outfit,” produced by FilmNation and Focus Features.

Continue reading ‘The Outfit’: Mark Rylance, Zoey Deutch, Dylan O’Brien & Johnny Flynn To Star In ‘Imitation Game’ Writer’s Directorial Debut at The Playlist.

Exclusive: In a hot under-the-radar package, we can reveal that Oscar-winner Mark Rylance (The Trial Of The Chicago 7), Maze Runner star Dylan O’Brien, Set It Up star Zoey Deutch and The Dig actor Johnny Flynn are set to star in Oscar-winning writer Graham Moore’s (The Imitation Game) directorial debut The Outfit.

Focus Features has struck a deal to pre-buy world rights to the crime-drama from FilmNation Entertainment with shoot set to begin in March in London.

The film follows Leonard (Rylance), an English tailor who used to craft suits on London’s world-famous Savile Row. But after a personal tragedy, he’s ended up in Chicago, operating a small tailor shop in a rough part of town where he makes beautiful clothes for the only people around who can afford them: a family of vicious gangsters.

Moore will direct from his own screenplay which is co-written with actor-writer...

Mark Rylance, Dylan O’Brien, Zoey Deutch and Johnny Flynn are set to star in Graham Moore’s crime drama The Outfit.

Focus Features has pre-bought the world rights from FilmNation Entertainment to the feature directorial debut of Moore, who earned an Oscar for best adapted screenplay for The Imitation Game. The film will see Rylance play a Savile Row suit tailor in London who, after a personal tragedy, lands in inner-city Chicago, where he makes beautiful clothes for the only people around who can afford them — a family of vicious gangsters.

FilmNation and Focus Features partnered on the Carey Mulligan-starring drama ...

Mark Rylance, Dylan O’Brien, Zoey Deutch and Johnny Flynn are set to star in Graham Moore’s crime drama The Outfit.

Focus Features has pre-bought the world rights from FilmNation Entertainment to the feature directorial debut of Moore, who earned an Oscar for best adapted screenplay for The Imitation Game. The film will see Rylance play a Savile Row suit tailor in London who, after a personal tragedy, lands in inner-city Chicago, where he makes beautiful clothes for the only people around who can afford them — a family of vicious gangsters.

FilmNation and Focus Features partnered on the Carey Mulligan-starring drama ...

FilmNation is financing Chicago-set drama due to star shooting in London in March.

Focus Features has boarded worldwide rights to the upcoming Mark Rylance drama The Outfit.

Production has been earmarked for a March start in London on the feature directorial debut of The Imitation Game writer Graham Moore.

Rylance will play a tailor who leaves London to live in Chicago where he opens a business making quality clothes for gangsters.

Rounding out the cast are Dylan O’Brien, Zoey Deutch and Johnny Flynn.

Moore will direct from a script he co-wrote with Johnathan McClain. Scoop Wasserstein, Ben Browning and Amy Jackson are producing.

The following contains spoilers for Fargo season 4.

The FX series Fargo begins every episode of every season with a disclaimer that the stories are true but the names are changed. This gives the show a lot of leeway in picking its stories and how to present them. Fargo season 4 is set in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1950. Two mobs in one small city make a truce, which appears to be traditional in that part of town. It’s been done for at least two generations. Loy Cannon, played by Chris Rock, boss of an African American crime family, trades his youngest son Satchel (Rodney Jones), with the youngest son of Mafia family boss Donatello Fadda (Tommaso Ragno) to keep the peace. Donatello dies shortly after, in the usual unusual circumstances. There is no evidence of this kind of underworld trade in any of the true crime books I personally own, and...

Easy Rider terrifies twenty confused studio executives because they don’t understand it. Hoping to keep their jobs, they rush to hire more longhairs to make movies ‘the kids’ will see. Ex- UCLA film student B.L. Norton parlayed his way into writing and directing on the streets of Los Angeles, with new stars Gene Hackman and Karen Black, and singer-songwriter of the year Kris Kristofferson in his first starring role as a musician forced to deal marijuana by a corrupt cop. A time travel trip back to the City of the Angels circa 1971, it’s realistic and honest, and Kristofferson turns out to have terrific camera presence.

Cisco Pike

Region B Blu-ray

Powerhouse Indicator

1972 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 95 min. / Street Date May 25, 2020 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £ 15.99

Starring: Kris Kristofferson, Karen Black, Gene Hackman, Harry Dean Stanton, Viva, Joy Bang, Roscoe Lee Browne, Severn Darden, Antonio Fargas, Doug Sahm, Allan Arbus,...

Ten Voice contestants entered Thunderdome marched into the Battles Tuesday night; only six came out still a part of the show. Did any of your favorites from the Blind Auditions get the chop? And did any of the coaches make any more of those decisions that leave you torn between saying “Huh?” and “Hmmph!”? Read on, and we’ll go over each sing-off.

Team Kelly: Alex Guthrie (Grade: C-) defeated Injoy Fountain (Grade: B) on “Home” | In rehearsal, Kelly informed us that she’d paired Injoy and Alex because they are both “soulful singers.” Which I guess is as good a reason as any?...

Brett Ridgeman (Mel Gibson) is a cop. He’s been on the force for a while, long enough to see an old partner (Don Johnson) get a fancy desk job and help get a new partner, Anthony (Vince Vaughn), busted for excessive force. The two of them were filmed interrogating a suspect — if you’d call placing your boot on the neck of a handcuffed man on his fire escape in broad daylight “interrogating.” The brass is not happy. Both men are temporarily suspended without pay. Brett is told that...

It’s the loose-censored early 1970s, and screen bandits shootin’ up the American movie landscape are no longer suffering the once-mandated automatic moral retribution. Walter Matthau launched himself into the genre with this excellent Don Siegel on-the-run epic, about an old-fashioned independent bandit who accidentally rips off the mob for a million. It’s great, wicked fun.

Charley Varrick

Region B Blu-ray

Indicator

1973 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 111 min. / Charley Varrick the Last of the Independents; Kill Charley Varrick / Street Date January 22, 2018 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £14.99

Starring: Walter Matthau, Joe Don Baker, Andrew Robinson, John Vernon, Felicia Farr, Sheree North, Jacqueline Scott, William Schallert, Norman Fell, Benson Fong, Woodrow Parfrey, Rudy Diaz, Charles Matthau, Tom Tully, Albert Popwell

Cinematography: Michael Butler

Film Editor: Frank Morriss

Original Music: Lalo Schifrin

Written by Dean Riesner, Howard Rodman from the novel The Looters by John Reese

Produced by Jennings Lang, Don Siegel

Directed by...

“All the films in this book share an air of disreputability… I have tried to avoid using the word art about the movies in this book, not just because I didn’t want to inflate my claims for them, but because the word is used far too often to shut down discussion rather than open it up. If something has been acclaimed as art, it’s not just beyond criticism but often seen as above the mere mortals for whom its presumably been made. It’s a sealed artifact that offers no way in. It is as much a lie to claim we can be moved only by what has been given the imprimatur of art as it would be to deny that there are, in these scruffy movies, the very things we expect from art: avenues into human emotion and psychology, or into the character and texture of the time the films were made,...

John Flynn's The Outfit (1974), a brutally efficient bit of business based glancingly on Richard Stark’s procedurally inquisitive and poetic crime novel of the same name, is a movie that feels like it’s never heard of a rounded corner; it’s blunt like a 1970 Dodge Monaco pinning a couple of killers against a Dumpster and a brick wall. I say “glancingly” because the movie, as Glenn Kenny observed upon The Outfit’s DVD release from the Warner Archives, is based less on the chronologically unconcerned novel than an idea taken from it. On the page Stark's protagonist, the unflappable Parker, his face altered by plastic surgery to the degree that past associates often take a fatal beat too long to realize to whom it is they are speaking, assumes the detached perspective of a bruised deity, undertaking the orchestration of a series of robberies administered to Mob-run businesses...

“You learn to love the rope. That’s how you beat ’em. That’s how you beat people who torture you. You learn to love ’em. Then they don’t know you’re beatin’ ’em.”

Rolling Thunder (1977) screens Midnights next weekend (April 8th and 9th) at The Moolah Theater and Lounge (3821 Lindell Blvd, St. Louis, Mo 63108) as part of Destroy the Brain’s monthly Late Night Grindhouse film series.

Paul Schrader followed his Taxi Driver screenplay with the one for Rolling Thunder, a gritty revenge thriller directed by John Flynn in 1977. Similarities abound as both are about Vietnam vets who are ticking time bombs pushed to the brink by the violence they’ve come home to. But Rolling Thunder’s plot eventually veers from character study into a Death Wish-style vigilante thriller. Like Taxi Driver, it leads slowly toward a cathartic bloodbath finale. Rolling Thunder is highly regarded by fans and critics alike,...

Ready for more Anthony Mann? This light comedy thriller / borderline noir leans on amnesia for a plot hook and to motivate an all-night prowl on the streets of Los Angeles the Rko back lot. Tom Conway and Ann Rutherford star, but the real thrill is in the secondary female leads -- Jean Brooks from the Val Lewton movies and dreamy Jane Greer in her billed feature debut. Two O'Clock Courage DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1945 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 66 min. / Street Date June 16, 2015 / available through the WBshop / 18.49 Starring Tom Conway, Ann Rutherford, Jean Brooks, Bettejane Greer, Richard Lane, Lester Matthews, Roland Drew, Emory Parnell. Cinematography Jack Mackenzie Original Music Roy Webb Written by Robert E. Kent, Gordon Kahn from a story by Gelett Burgess Produced by Ben Stoloff Directed by Anthony Mann  

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

This disc will get immediate attention from fans of director Anthony Mann. Another...

Karen Black with (L to R) Alan Cumming and Cinema Retro's Lee Pfeiffer and David Savage under the portrait of Players club founder Edwin Booth.

By Lee Pfeiffer 

Cinema Retro is very saddened to learn the news that Karen Black has died at age 74 following a long battle with cancer that was documented on web sites by her husband Stephen Eckelberry. Black found that her insurance plans would not cover some of the experimental treatments she had hoped to try and planned to travel to Europe where they could be administered. Drained of her savings by the cost of health care treatments, Black and her husband made appeals for financial donations on the web in hopes of raising enough money to get to Europe. Sadly, she became completely incapacitated before that could happen. Eckelberry had documented the last three years of Black's life as part of a documentary about her...

Looks like Jason Statham is about to jump on the whole "generically-named movie franchise from a popular book series" bandwagon with his upcoming film Parker, based on the character created by Richard Stark (aka Donald E. Westlake). Unlike say, Jack Reacher and Jack Ryan, Parker is not a do-gooder but actually a criminal who cares about little other than his own personal code of honor. The character has previously appeared in a number of films under different names, having been played by such actors as Lee Marvin (Point Blank), Robert Duvall (The Outfit) and Mel Gibson (Payback). This time around FilmDistrict is hoping to launch a new franchise with a movie based on Flashfire, one of the more recent Parker novels (first published in 2000). After being double crossed by his crew, Parker seeks revenge with the help of a civilian (Jennifer Lopez). Directed by Taylor Hackford (Ray), it really doesn't...

Just in time for San Diego Comic-Con, Darwyn Cooke’s latest adapatation of Richard Stark’s Parker novels, The Score, hits the stands today, and you would be well-advised to hit the stands today yourself. Darwyn Cooke has blazed a trail through the comics industry since he bailed on animation back in the late ’90s, but if these adaptations do not go down in history as his greatest works, I’ll eat my hat.

It’s been a while since I’ve read the original The Score, too long a while indeed. But as usual, Cooke brings his own style to this story, the caper wherein Parker and a dozen other guys attempt to rob a town. Not the town bank or post office–the whole goddamn town. Of course, as will often happen in the Parker novels, Parker ignores his instincts to walk away from the job when he...

With the Academy Awards for the 2011 film year in the rear-view mirror, it’s time to take a look at one of the event’s most consistently fascinating categories: Best Supporting Actor. The most interesting story in the category this year isn’t who got nominated, it’s who didn’t. More specifically, Albert Brooks was completely robbed of a nomination for his performance as film producer turned lethal gangster Bernie Rose in Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive.

As much as I’d like to say I was surprised by this, considering both the quality of performance and Brooks’ slew of nominations from other critical circles, in light of the Academy’s history of overlooking outstanding supporting performances, I simply can’t.

Following is a chronological look at a number of performances richly deserving of a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination.

In some cases, the performances are in films...

John Flynn's Rolling Thunder is finally out on DVD. He may not have made enough films, says John Patterson, but when he did, the script came first

John Flynn's Rolling Thunder (1977), available this week for the first time on DVD, takes you back to a time when Hollywood still made grown-up medium-budget thrillers like Charley Varrick, Mr Majestyk or Jackson County Jail. Flynn died in 2007 and never made enough movies; this one reminds us how good he was.

Rolling Thunder was written by Paul Schrader and – like Sydney Pollack's The Yakuza, written by Schrader and his brother Leonard – it signposts themes and imagery that would obsess Schrader in his own movies: Vietnam veterans, samurai ethics, and orgasmic explosions of cathartically violent revenge. Oh, and horribly mutilated hands. POWs Rane (William Devane) and Voden (Tommy Lee Jones) return to Texas after years of torture in a Hanoi prison.

Chris Ryall has released a teaser for Darwyn Cooke's next Parker book. Idw Publishing's chief creative officer posted a teaser image for The Score on his blog. The upcoming book will be the third volume of Cooke's acclaimed adaptations of Richard Stark's crime novels. The first two Parker volumes - The Hunter and The Outfit - were collected in a deluxe (more)...

Above: Image from Maurice Binder's title sequence for Diamonds Are Forever (1971).

Sleep Little Lush

This follow-up to the previous soundtrack mix, Hyper Sleep, is very much the same animal: a chance gathering of mesmerizing music tracks, carefully arranged to focus on the interstitial character of film music—its ability to distill into hallucinatory moments, the most sensual or emotional qualities of a film’s nature, and amplify these sensations to increase their temporal impact. With this idea of music as intoxicant in mind, the passing this year of John Barry was a loss of one of the great “perfumers” of film composing (for more on music as perfume, see Daniel Kasman’s “Herrmann’s Perfume”). The beautiful themes that Barry scored for the world of 007 that open this collection set the spell for a kaleidoscopic (largely) 60s and 70s sample of some of the best film music written by Ennio Morricone,...

Editor's Note:The Harvey Awards, named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman (1924-1993) and founded by Gary Groth, President of the publisher Fantagraphics, are given for achievement in comic books. The Harveys were created as part of a successor to the Kirby Awards which were discontinued after 1987. The Harvey Awards are nominated by an open vote among comic-book professionals. The winners are selected from the top five nominees in each category by a final round of voting. Winners are shown in Bold. Best Letterer Scott Brown, Box 13, http://www.comixology.com and Red 5 Comics Darwyn Cooke, Richard Stark’S Parker: The Outfit, Idw Dustin Harbin, Casanova, Image Comics Troy Peteri, Witchblade, Top Cow Robbie Robbins, Locke & Key: Keys To The Kingdom # 1, Idw John Workman, Thor, Marvel Comics Best Colorist Veronica Gandini, Mice Templar: Volume 10, Image Comics Laura Martin, The Stand, Marvel Comics Ed Ryzowski, Gutters, http://www.the-gutters.com Dave Stewart, Bprd,...

Roger Langridge, Darwyn Cooke and Daven Stevens' The Rocketeer: Artist's Edition led the Harvey Awards with two prizes each. The 2011 awards were presented on Saturday night in association with Baltimore Comic-Con. Langridge was named 'Best Writer' for his acclaimed Thor: The Mighty Avenger all-ages title, and also received the 'Special Award for Humour in Comics' for his work on Boom Studios' Muppet Show series. Cooke won in the 'Best Artist' and 'Best Cartoonist' categories for his work on Richard Stark's Parker: The Outfit for Idw Publishing. Idw's Rocketeer (more)...

Update 8/21: What a night. So here are the winners:

Best Letterer: John Workman, Thor, Marvel Comics

Best Colorist: Jose Villarrubia, Cuba : My Revolution, Vertigo/DC Comics

Best Syndicated Strip Or Panel: Doonesbury, Garry Trudeau, Universal Press Syndicate

Best Online Comics Work: Hark! A Vagrant, Kate Beaton, http://harkavagrant.com/ (assuming fellow nominee Scott Kurtz, http://www.pvponline.com/, ever lets her have it.)

Best American Edition Of Foreign Material: Blacksad, Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido, Dark Horse Comics

Best Inker: Mark Morales, Thor, Marvel Comics

Best New Series: American Vampire, Scott Snyder, Stephen King and Rafael Albuquerque, Vertigo/DC Comics

Most Promising New Talent: Chris Samnee, Thor: The Mighty Avenger, Marvel Comics

Special Award For Humor In Comics: Roger Langridge, The Muppet Show, Boom! Studios

Best Original Graphic Publication For Younger Readers: Tiny Titans, Art Baltazar and Franco Aureliani, DC Comics

Best Graphic Album Previously Published:...

Let's see. We've got one movie about young men preparing for a post-apocalyptic future, one about a couple's last hurrah before they adopt a new family member, one about a man forced to pose as a body double, one about a man forced to rob a bank, one about Mississippi women in the 1960s, and one about the benefits of Auto-Tune.

We've also got lots of special screenings in Austin. Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar will show Fantastic Fest 2010 selection Cold Fish late-night Monday through Thursday. Kyle Newman will be in town for a screening of his film Fanboys, written by Austinite Ernie Cline, on Thursday night at Blue Starlite Drive-In. And Weird Wednesday at Alamo Ritz has an especially good selection this week: The Outfit, an excellent film from 1973, adapted from a Donald Westlake novel and starring Robert Duvall and Joe Don Baker. (I'm already going to be down...

Donald E. Westlake is the creative genius behind the Parker series of novels, a hard-boiled character who has been portrayed on the screen by Lee Marvin, Robert Duvall, and Mel Gibson, among others. Westlake, who wrote the Parker books under the pseudonym Richard Stark, was a prolific writer with a gift for spinning yarns filled with colorful cops 'n' criminals, the type of people who are never as bright as they think they are (except for Parker). His books began to be adapted into movies with Jean-Luc Godard's Made in U.S.A. in 1966, followed by The Busy Body, Point Blank, Pillaged, The Split, The Hot Rock, Cops and Robbers, The Outfit and Bank Shot, all within a period of 8 years. As a young reader,...

The 2011 Eisner Award winners were announced during a ceremony on Friday evening at Comic-Con International in San Diego. John Layman and Rob Guillory's off-beat comedy Chew won 'Best Continuing Series' for Image Comics. Idw landed two prestigious awards as Joe Hill was named 'Best Writer' for his metaseries Locke & Key, and both Darwyn Cooke and Richard Stark were presented with the 'Best Writer/Artist' award for The Outfit. On the DC Comics front, critically-acclaimed Vertigo series American Vampire, by Scott Snyder, Stephen King and Rafael Albuquerque, won 'Best New Series', Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá's Daytripper landed the award for 'Best Limited Series', and Art Baltazar and Franco's Tiny Titans scored 'Best Publication for Kids'. Marvel Comics' (more)...

2:40: And that’s the way to end the show! Enjoy the after parties, everybody!

2:35: Best Graphic Album-New: Tie! Return of the Dapper Men, by Jim McCann and Janet Lee (Archaia); Wilson, by Daniel Clowes (Drawn & Quarterly)

2:31: Best Graphic Album-Reprint: Wednesday Comics, edited by Mark Chiarello (DC)

2:28: Best Adaptation from Another Work: The Marvelous Land of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, adapted by Eric Shanower and Skottie Young (Marvel)

2:18: Best Continuing Series: Chew, by John Layman and Rob Guillory (Image)

2:13: Best Limited Series: Daytripper, by Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá (Vertigo/DC)

2:11: That King fella on American Vampire has talent. Of course, he’s no Joe Hill…

2:08: Best New Series: American Vampire, by Scott Snyder, Stephen King, and Rafael Albuquerque (Vertigo/DC)

2:06: Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award: Nate Simpson for...

But why cover comic book awards, you ask? Well, because comic books (aka Graphic Novels) are awesome. Because the award ceremony will be here in Baltimore during the Baltimore Comic Con. And because there are so many movies being made from online and print comics nowadays. So, herewith:

Best Letterer

____ Scott Brown, Box 13, http://www.comixology.com and Red 5 Comics

____ Darwyn Cooke, Richard Stark’S Parker: The Outfit, Idw

____ Dustin Harbin, Casanova, Icon Comics

____ Troy Peteri, Witchblade, Top Cow

____ Robbie Robbins, Locke & Key: Keys To The Kingdom # 1, Idw

____ John Workman, Thor, Marvel Comics

Best Colorist

____ Veronica Gandini, Mice Templar: Volume 10, Image Comics

____ Laura Martin, The Stand, Marvel Comics

____ Ed Ryzowski, Gutters, http://www.the-gutters.com

____ Dave Stewart, Bprd, Dark Horse Comics

____ Jose Villarrubia, Cuba : My Revolution, Vertigo/DC Comics

Best Syndicated Strip Or Panel

____ Cul De Sac, Richard Thompson, Universal Press Syndicate

____ Doonesbury, Garry Trudeau, Universal Press Syndicate

____ Mutts,...

Well, we know who we’re voting for and ComicMix will be on hand, covering events and news happening at next month’s Baltimore Comic-Con.

Baltimore, MD (July 5, 2011) — The 2011 Harvey Awards Nominees have been announced with the release of the final ballot, presented by the Executive Committees of the Harvey Awards and the Baltimore Comic-Con. Named in honor of the late Harvey Kurtzman, one of the industry’s most innovative talents, the Harvey Awards recognize outstanding work in comics and sequential art. They will be presented August 20, 2011 in Baltimore, MD, in conjunction with the Baltimore Comic-Con.

Nominations for the Harvey Awards are selected exclusively by creators – those who write, draw, ink, letter, color, design, edit or are otherwise involved in a creative capacity in the comics field. They are the only industry awards both nominated and selected by the full body of comic book professionals. Thank you to all that...

Jason Statham (Transporter, Crank) fans will have something to be excited about this week as FilmDistrict is sealing a deal to to distribute a film adaptation of Donald Westlake’s novel series, starring Parker, a criminal who lives by strict moral code and is not afraid to kill for it. Westlake wrote 24 Parker novels in all under the pen name Richard Stark. Taylor Hackford (Ray, The Devil’s Advocate) has been chosen to direct and John J. McLaughlin (Black Swan)will write the screenplay. Production is slated to begin in early August. Deadline broke the news on Monday afternoon.

I’m a little apprehensive about Statham playing the role, but he shouldn’t have to work too hard. He certainly has the physical build, although I would have liked his face to look a little rough around the edges as opposed to the dapper Statham.

This is not the first...

BookExpo America, the largest industry convention for publishers, booksellers, librarians, and other folks in the industry, runs at the Javits Center in New York this week. It’s often used as a stalking ground for movie and TV studios to snap up properties for adaptations, so one wonders– what books should be adapted into comics form, and by who?

There have been a number of interesting translations over the years. The biggest success story of the past few years have included Darwyn Cooke’s adaptations of Richard Stark’s The Hunter and The Outfit and Marvel’s adaptations of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower by Peter David and Jae Lee, but there have been many others, from the recent adaptations of Ayn Rand’s Anthem, Marvel’s Wizard of Oz and Ender’s Game, Dynamite’s adaptations of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel Of Time, Boom!’s Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep,...

Here's an interesting bit of news. One of my favorite literary characters has always been Parker, the star of a series of novels by Donald Westlake (under the alias Richard Stark). The character is a fascinating blank slate, a man with no first name, almost no history, and few scruples. In Westlake's novels, Parker is a career criminal, working for and around (and sometimes against) The Outfit, a sprawling organized crime cartel. He uses a crew of similarly anonymous, dedicated criminals to take down a variety of scores. He's not inherently violent, but he certainly doesn't shy away from violence. He's almost completely emotionless, a hardened, dedicated operator whose most distinguishing traits are a ruthless efficiency and an uncanny ability to calculate the odds.

The first novel in the series (of which there are 24, only about a third of which I've read), The Hunter, has been made into a film twice already.

Jason Statham isn’t just an action star; he’s an action star with such a specific style, and whose films have adhered to such a coherent aesthetic, that I think of him as having a genre completely unto himself. Jason Statham is the star of Jason Statham movies, and it looks like he’s signing on to be in at least one more. He is under negotiations to star in Parker, which is under the direction of Taylor Hackford (Proof of Life, Ray) and coming from an adapted screenplay by John J. McLoughlin (Black Swan). What that screenplay is adapted from is the work of writer Richard Stark, or as he was known when he wasn’t being all pen-namey, Donald Westlake. The man wrote 28 novels over the course of his career, and 24 of them were featuring the character of Parker, a single word named, cold-blooded criminal type who engages in ruthless behavior but lives by...

We've long claimed that the only thing holding back Jason Statham are the lousy scripts he's often given to work with. So, we couldn't be more excited that the actor might move out of the cheap-o action flick ghetto with a role in Taylor Hackford's upcoming crime thriller, Parker.

The film is based upon the series of novels written by Donald Westlake under the penname Richard Stark. Like Point Blank, Full Contact and Payback before it, the script for the new film is based upon the first Parker novel, The Hunter, and was written by John C. McLaughlin, one of the co-writers of Black Swan. We dug that movie in a pretty serious way, but we're really hoping that McLaughlin manages to work this scene into the new film:

All joking aside, this is an exciting development, as Statham has made a career out of playing the type of rough,...

The nominations for the Eisner Awards were announced yesterday at Wondercon, and publisher DC Comics cleaned house recieving 14 nominations — the most of any publisher. Here is the complete list of nominations. If you’ve been away from comics for a while, or want to try a new addiction, then these are (some of) the best of the best out there right now:

Best Short Story

“Bart on the Fourth of July,” by Peter Kuper, in Bart Simpson #54 (Bongo) “Batman, in Trick for the Scarecrow,” by Billy Tucci, in Dcu Halloween Special 2010 (DC) “Cinderella,” by Nick Spencer and Rodin Esquejo, in Fractured Fables(Silverline Books/Image) “Hamburgers for One,” by Frank Stockton, in Popgun vol. 4 (Image) “Little Red Riding Hood,” by Bryan Talbot and Camilla d’Errico, inFractured Fables (Silverline Books/Image) “Post Mortem,” by Greg Rucka and Michael Lark, in I Am an Avenger#2 (Marvel)

Best Single Issue (or One-Shot)

The Cape,...

The 2011 Eisner Award nominations have just been announced.

Heading the 2011 nominees with five nominations is Return of the Dapper Men, a fantasy hardcover by writer Jim McCann and artist Janet Lee and published by Archaia, with nominations for Best Publication for Teens, Best Graphic Album–New, Best Writer, Best Artist, and Best Publication Design. Two comics series have four nominations: Morning Glories by Nick Spencer and Joe Eisma (published by Shadowline/Image) and Locke & Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez (published by Idw). A variety of titles have received three nominations, including the manga Wilson (Drawn & Quarterly), and Mike Mignola’s Hellboy titles (Dark Horse).

The creator with the most nominations is Mignola with five (including cover artist), followed by Spencer and Hill, each with four. Several creators received three nominations: McCann & Lee, Rodriquez, Urasawa, and Clowes, plus writer Ian Boothy (for Comic Book Guy: The Comic Book and...

Idw Publishing has announced a prestige format hardcover of its acclaimed Parker series. Richard Stark's Parker - The Martini Edition will collect the first two graphic novel adaptations by Darwyn Cooke - The Hunter and The Outfit - reports Comic Book Resources. "It's called the Parker Martini Edition because we wanted something that got the feel of the book," said editor Scott Dunbier at WonderCon. "Fans really reacted very well to the Man with the Getaway Face preview comic we did last year, which was 8x12 inches. "We are actually doing the Martini Edition a little bit larger than that, it will be 9x13 inches, it will have a slipcase, it will be (more)...

Idw has been taking advantage of the attention at WonderCon this year, as noted earlier with the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series and much more comics news, so you know that we would be getting some news about the high profile Richard Stark's Parker series of graphic novels adapted by Darwin Cooke, and we are. It's not the news of a new Parker book is being released, but it's still awesome.

In July of this year, Idw will be re-releasing Parker: The Hunter and Parker: The Outfit in a brand new, without a doubt beautiful collected slipcase edition entitled Parker: The Martini Edition. The Martini Edition will feature some brand new bonus content including an art gallery, and an 8-page Parker short story, written and drawn by Darwin Cooke that will be exclusive to this collection [...]...

Recorded January 26, 2011.

Our January Doom Of The Month will be Darwyn Cooke’s adaptation of Richard Stark's Parker: The Outfit! If you want to read along with us, head on over to Instocktrades.com or DCBService.com to pick up Parker: The Hunter for a super price! Be sure to check back at the end of January for our special review episode.

Check out Episode 41 of Comics of Doom, the official comics podcast of Geeks of Doom. Click Here to open the podcast player in a new window.

Podcast player is here below, along with an Episode Guide.

Listen now!

E-mail us at comicsofdoom [at] gmail.com

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Recorded January 4, 2010.

Our January Doom Of The Month will be Darwin Cooke’s adaptation of Richard Stark’s The Outfit! If you want to read along with us, head on over to Instocktrades.com or DCBService.com to pick up Richard Stark’s The Outfit for a super price! Be sure to check back at the end of January for our special review episode.

Check out Episode 38 of Comics of Doom, the official comics podcast of Geeks of Doom. Click Here to open the podcast player in a new window.

Podcast player is here below, along with an Episode Guide.

Listen now!

E-mail us at comicsofdoom [at] gmail.com

Follow us on Twitter - @ComicsOfDoom

Subscribe to the Podcast: RSS | iTunes | Zune [...]...

Cinema Retro spoke and Warner Brothers listened! In one of our previous "We Want Our DVD!" columns, we called for the release of this obscure 1974 crime film on DVD. Lo and behold, it has just been released by Warner Archives.  What follows is our original review.

By Lee Pfeiffer

Although Robert Duvall had been playing supporting roles in major films since To Kill a Mockingbird, it was his Oscar-nominated turn as Tom Hagen in The Godfather that elevated him to leading man status. Before long, Duvall was being courted for numerous other gritty crime thrillers. One of the best is one of the least-heralded, The Outfit, a 1974 production from MGM. Written and directed by John Flynn, the film is expertly-made and enacted on all levels. Duvall plays a small-time crook doing time for a bank robbery. As soon as he is released from jail, he finds he's been marked for...

I hate writing Top 10s about things, it’s like having to choose your favourite child, they’re all your favourites… except the ginger one (which we’ll cover more in Top 10 Dropped Comics of 2010). I’m choosing from the graphic novels and trades released in 2010, that I’ve purchased so far, so I won’t be waxing lyrical about books I’ve not personally read. On with the show…

1: Richard Stark’s Parker: Book 2 – The Outfit | Idw | W&A: Darwyn Cooke

I’ve always liked noir tales, the sort of story where the “”hero” is a bit of a bastard, and by the close of the final act no one has what they really want, and no one ends up particularly happy with the outcome… except the audience. Stark’s Parker novels are just that sort of story, and Cooke has again proven himself the perfect man to adapt them.

There are only a few weeks left until 2010 is behind us, so it's time to look back on the year and recall our favorite comics, comic book movies, toys, games, and other items that made the year so memorable.

Over the next three days, we'll roll out our Best Of 2010 selections, starting with today's list of the best comic books, webcomics, graphic novels, and story arcs of 2010. Keep it locked to Splash Page throughout the rest of the year for more of our Best Of 2010 lists, as well as everything else that carved out a place for itself on our bookshelves, display cases, office desks, and news cycle throughout the year.

Best Of 2010: Comics

Best New Series

"Morning Glories" by Nick Spencer and Joe Eisma (Image Comics)

School is hard enough without brutally murdered parents, ruthless faculty members and stunning betrayals, but we can't thank Nick Spencer and Joe...

With Black Friday nearly upon us, the urge for many a movie buff's friend or significant other will be to grab that $5 Blu-ray of Angels and Demons off the shelf and call it a day. (Oh, we're only kidding with Angels and Demons. Titles like Kick-Ass and The Wrestler will be nearly as cheap.) But for those who are willing to be a little more adventurous or just looking to impress, many of the major studios have started to open up their archives to make DVDs to order for films that may not be popular enough to have warranted a major pressing in the past, but certainly have their fans and have long been unavailable on any format.

Warner Brothers, in particular, has pioneered this type of mail order program with Warner Archives, which has made available over 700 films since originating last year while similar services from MGM (Limited Edition...

Right now I’m listening to Spank Rock. He is a rapper who has some quite, um, “risqué” lyrics — for example, “Coke on the tip will make a bitch go numb” — but he is, in reality a very shy guy. A friend of a friend actually went on a blind date with him once and he was apparently very nice and quiet.

Which makes me wonder: how many rappers are serious when they rap about downright heinous sexual stuff are just goofing around in the studio? When my friends and I say stuff like that we’re intentionally trying to come up with the most ridiculous stuff.

Or maybe they just have more interesting sex lives than I do.

Welcome to This Week in Comics, where every day is a comic book and — aw f*@k, I can’t redo the Casanova gag from last week with Scott Pilgrim this week,...

So, if you go to Wonder-Con in San Francisco you have a chance to pay $2.00 to get The Man with the Getaway Face, an over-sized prelude of the new Parker book by Darwyn Cooke, The Outfit. Wonder-Con is, of course, April 2-4, 2010 at the Moscone Center. Don’t worry, if you can’t make it to Wonder-Con you can buy The Man with the Getaway Face at comic shops in July. Like I plan on doing.

First of all, how great is that title? The Man with the Getaway Face. Pulps have the best titles, don’t they?

Then we have Darwyn Cooke. Hell of a guy. Created the great miniseries DC: The New Frontier which recasts the DC Universe of the 1950s with a healthy Cold War paranoia and other contemporaneous concerns. Wrote and drew 11 of the first 12 issues of the new Spirit series and managed to keep Ebony...

Many movies unavailable on DVD are difficult to find, but if you beat the bushes with hard work and patience (online traders, DVD-Rs at collectibles shows, long out-of-print VHS tapes), most “rare” movies can eventually be tracked down. Then there are movies like The Farmer. I saw the violent revenge thriller The Farmer at the I-44 Drive-In movie theatre in Valley Park, Missouri in 1977 on a double-bill with John Flynn’s The Outfit. It’s a vivid memory and I recall my friends and I loving it and talking about it for months after. I began collecting movies in the early 80’s and just assumed The Farmer would one day find it’s way into my collection. But I’ve searched far and wide and here it is 2009 and, after years of it topping my want list, a return visit to The Farmer has eluded me. When I mention the title to fellow movie collectors,...