Movie News: Might them find treasure?

New Treasure Island movie



The same Sherlock Holmes producer who's making a new Three Musketeers movie is also planning a Treasure Island remake. He's working hard at being my new Favorite Person in the World. [/Film]

Pirates 4 Casting Spoiler



Who is this woman playing in Pirates of the Caribbean 4? Check /Film for the answer, but be warned that there's a small spoiler in the revelation.

Avatar 2: The Oceans of Pandora



"The Oceans of Pandora" isn't the Avatar sequel's sub-title, it's just what the movie will likely be about. According to James Cameron, "Part of my focus in the second film is in creating a different environment – a different setting within Pandora. And I’m going to be focusing on the ocean on Pandora, which will be equally rich and diverse and crazy and imaginative, but it just won’t be a rain forest." He's quick to add though that "I’m not saying we won’t see what we’ve already seen; we’ll see more of that as well." [/Film]

Ka-Zar movie?



It's hard to tell which specifics in this CHUD article are based on fact and which are speculation, but while talking about Marvel's plans to follow up their blockbuster movies with a bunch of smaller-scale ones, Ka-Zar gets mentioned. For those who don't know, Ka-Zar is Marvel's take on Tarzan, only with a booty-kicking jungle wife, a pet sabretooth, mutant cavemen, and lots and lots of dinosaurs. How can this not be a movie?

CHUD doesn't mention it, but I also have to wonder if that long-rumored Shang Chi movie might finally get made now.

Demon guns, cursed cowboys, Black Widow, Oz the Great and Powerful, and Star Wars after the break.

Art Show: Every Girl Wants a Pony

Namora



Cosplayer Unknown; PhotoShopping by theblackhauke.

Bentlys Trading Post



By Robert McGinnis. [Golden Age Comic Book Stories]

Faeries, aliens, and more superheroes (some of them in fishnets) after the break.

Comics and Book News: Atlas, Avatar prequel, and Space Dock 7

Atlas



Marvel's rebooting Agents of Atlas again, calling it just Atlas now. I'm not so excited about the inclusion of 3D Man, but as long as it still has a talking gorilla, a mermaid, a spaceman, a super spy, a killer robot, and Jeff Parker's writing it, they can call it whatever they want. CBR's got an interview with Parker about the whole deal.

Avatar prequel



James Cameron's writing a prequel novel to Avatar to tide us over until the next movie. I suppose that's pretty cool, except that the plot sounds a bit over-ambitious to me. Avatar-producer Jon Landau described it as going "into much more depth about all the stories that we didn’t have time to deal with — like the schoolhouse and Sigourney [Weaver's character] teaching at the schoolhouse; Jake on Earth and his backstory and how he came here; [the death of] Tommy, Jake’s brother; and Colonel Quaritch, how he ended up there and all that."

Now, James Cameron isn't Matthew Costello, but this reminds me a lot of Costello's King Kong: Island of the Skull prequel novel to Peter Jackson's King Kong. That novel also tried to follow several different plotlines leading up to the movie (Carl Denham's, Ann Darrow's, and the guy who discovered Skull Island) and never did figure out how to merge them all together to tell a cohesive story. Which, of course, is because that was the movie's job. I'm not sure how Cameron is going to do that with Avatar either though and I'm skeptical.

Space Dock 7



I don't know anything about this except that it's coming in April and some of my favorite cartoonists are doing it (Grant Gould, Katie Cook, Otis Frampton, and Mike Maihack to be exact). I'm guessing it's a webcomic and with a name like Space Dock 7, it sounds pretty cool. The teaser page is here.

Art Show: Hot Blue Catwomen

The Little Mermaid



Artist Unknown [Animation Backgrounds]

Pirate Girls



By Richard Sala.

Cave Batman



By Andy Kubert. [The Source]

Zorro



By Francesco Francavilla.

Captain America



By Steve Epting.

Sherlock Holmes



By Francesco Francavilla.

Zatanna



By Stephane Roux.



By Ms. Mars.

John Carter



By Larry Ivie. [Golden Age Comic Book Stories]

Daughter of Pandora



By Grant Gould.

Movie News: Robin Hood, Doc Holliday, Bone, Avatar 2, and more

Robin Hood poster



The Further Adventures of Doc Holliday



No, it probably won't star Val Kilmer. The universe isn't that kind. But Paramount has bought the rights to a script that spices up the life of the old huckleberry. Incidentally, though I know exactly what they're doing (or maybe because I know exactly what they're doing), I'm really tired of hearing people say that their historical adventure movies are "in the vein of Pirates of the Caribbean."

Les Aventures Extraordinaires d'Adele Blanc-Sec trailer

Watch all the way to the end. This is going to be Awesome.



Meet your new Ian Fleming





James McAvoy has been signed to play Ian Fleming in a biopic about the James Bond creator's experiences in British Intelligence during WWII. At one point I'd heard that they were going to fictionalize some events to make them more exciting (in the vein of Pirates of the Caribbean, I guess), but I don't know if that's still the plan.

Knight and Day poster and trailer



I try. I really try. But I see stuff like the trailer for the new spy flick Knight and Day and I just can't stay mad at Tom Cruise.

Captain America and Green Lantern movie updates



/Film reports that Captain America starts filming this June (which means we should be hearing casting info soon) and Green Lantern has hired an Oscar-winning crew including the cinematographer from Memoirs of a Geisha, the production and costume designers from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the art director from Avatar. I never thought I'd say this, but Green Lantern ought to be one gorgeous movie.

Bone movie won't try to cover entire story



Sounds like the people behind the CGI Bone movie have the right idea. They won't be trying to squeeze the entire epic into one film. According to producer Dan Lin, they're currently trying to figure out how many volumes of the series to try to fit into what they hope will be the first of a series of films. Lin mentions three or four.

Minor spoilers follow if you haven't read the series

Three would end with the Bones still in Barrelhaven, before things really start to turn bad for them there and the story takes a darker turn, so thematically that makes sense. If they included Volume 4, that would end with the Bones having to leave Barrelhaven which seems like a natural breaking point from a geographical standpoint. I guess my preference would be for ending it after Volume 3. Not only did Jeff Smith tend to think of the series in terms of trilogies, but it would also give the filmmakers room to include more stuff from the books.

Lin also reveals the the movie will be made by the folks who did Happy Feet.

Avatar 2



As if there was any doubt, there will be an Avatar sequel. It could explore unseen parts of Pandora (like the oceans or underworld) or it could take us to some of the other moons around that gas giant Pandora's orbiting.

Avatar

I'm going to keep this short and not spoil anything. Partly because I try not to post spoilers anyway, but also because I believe that a large part of my enjoyment of Avatar came from my avoiding all the pre-release hype about it. I watched the trailers, but ran away from all the interviews and extended clips and whatnot. So, if you've managed that too and still haven't seen it yet, I wouldn't want to ruin that for you.

Yes, the plot is predictable. You've seen it before in a billion different movies. But it's not about the plot. Or rather, the plot isn't what makes it great. As you know, there are a limited number of plots in the world anyway. What makes them suck or works of genius is execution. And James Cameron executes the hell out of this thing.

I was totally sucked into the world of Pandora. It's a real place, as far as I'm concerned, and it is wonderful. I never for a second thought about the special effects or what the filmmakers must have done behind-the-scenes to create it.

I also loved all the characters I was supposed to love and hated all the characters I was supposed to hate. In spite of knowing what was going to happen to them, I became deeply invested in the good guys. In fact, knowing what was going to happen to them kept me going on occasion when things looked especially dark.

I guess it's a lot like Titanic that way. My wife Diane is currently watching her way through Kate Winslet's filmography and I'm along for the ride. We just finished Titanic and in spite of my reluctance to see it again, I remembered by the end that I really, truly enjoy that movie. It has its flaws (Winslet certainly did not deserve a Best Actress nomination for it), but even though you know the main story before the opening credits begin, Cameron keeps it interesting and totally sells the ending. He does exactly the same thing with Avatar.

Stephen Spielberg's been quoted as saying about Avatar, "The last time I came out of a movie feeling that way it was the first time I saw Star Wars." I think I agree with him. I want more. I want to go back to Pandora. If nothing else, I at least want a field guide about the place.

Five out of five Amazon cat-women.

Adventureblog Gallery: Purple Cape, Purple Cape

I only want 2 see U in your purple cape



By Cliff Chiang.

Your 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Picture of the Day



By Alphonse de Neuville.

The Gift of Gab



By Frank Kelly Freas.

Your Marvel Classics Comics Cover of the Day



By Pablo Marcos (maybe).

The Forgotten Planet



By Ed Valigursky.

The 13th Immortal



By Ed Valigursky.

Giant Robot Matacho



By David Ñañez.

Samson Slays the Iron Monster



By Lou Fine.

Future Clothes

I hear quite a bit of complaining about what skimpy clothes women and girls today are wearing. It just hit me though that we really should've known this was coming. Haven't we always known that future female fashions were going to be skimpy?



Princess Leia



By Michelle Gorski.

Avatar

Maybe it was because I was trying to avoid being confused with that other movie with the same name (although I guess that's no longer a problem). Maybe it was due to residual backlash against Titanic. Maybe it was my natural skepticism towards all the hype about how it's going to change the future of movie-making. Whatever the reason, I've been less than enthusiastic about James Cameron's Avatar.

Until now.

Nations all over the damn world

Action Girl Pulp of the Day



By Arnold Kohn.

Lost Women

Season Five cast photos have been released. You can see the guys too over at Grant Gould's LJ.






Oops!

Kalinara picked up on something I totally missed when I mentioned the casting for the live-action Avatar movie. The Avatar heroes aren't white.

The Evolution of Women in Fantasy Movies



AMC has a brief survey of the role of women as they've appeared in fantasy films, starting with Jason and the Argonauts and moving towards Stardust. It's not a deep article, but their choices of representative films are interesting.

Whiteout

CBR has a couple of new stills from Kate Beckinsale's Antarctic murder mystery, Whiteout. You gotta scroll past the Watchmen ones to get to them though.

Fighters and Waterbenders

Action Girl Pulp of the Day



By Robert Gibson Jones.

Fighter

I don't talk a lot about it here, but in addition to booty-kicking women, I also love human drama and gorgeous, arthouse cinema (no, that's not a joke; shut up). Now there's a movie that combines all three.



Meet your new Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender

/Film has a look at the cast from the upcoming live-action Avatar movie. I caught a few episodes with my nephew when he was younger and liked them, but didn't stick with the show. I've been meaning to rent the DVDs and I'm certainly interested in checking out the film.

All of the main characters have been cast, but the pertinent one to this blog is Nicola Peltz (Deck the Halls) as the Waterbender Katara.