The Silver Surfer

The Silver Surfer is a Marvel Comics superhero. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby, he first appeared in the comic book Fantastic Four #48 (March 1966).

The Surfer was originally Norrin Radd, a young astronomer of the planet Zenn-La. He agreed to serve as herald to the god-like entity, Galactus, in order to save Zenn-La from the world devourer's insatiable hunger. Granted enormous powers (he wields a small portion of Galactus' Power Cosmic), a silvery appearance and a surfboard-like vehicle — all of which were modeled after a childhood fantasy of Radd — the Silver Surfer roamed the cosmos, searching for new planets for Galactus to consume.

In the story arc fans and historians call the "Galactus Trilogy", in Fantastic Four #48-50 (March-May 1966), the Silver Surfer encountered the Earth superhero team the Fantastic Four and betrayed Galactus, who doomed him to exile on Earth. Influenced by the counterculture of the 1960s, Lee scripted a philosophical spin-off series wherein the Surfer explored his new home planet. Another, more cosmically themed series with a freed Surfer was published from 1987 until 1998. A third series followed in 2003, lasting only a year.

The character was featured in adaptations of “The Coming of Galactus” in both the 1967 and 1994 TV adaptations of Fantastic Four. He starred in a short-lived solo animated series in 1998, which blended cel and computer animation.

A sequel to the 2005 Fantastic Four film, scheduled for 2007, will be called Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Early promotional materials indicate it will be a loose adaptation of "The Coming of Galactus" with the Surfer more of a central villain. He will be physically portrayed by Doug Jones, with Laurence Fishburne providing his voice.

A Silver Surfer mini-series entitled Requiem is slated for release on May 30, 2007 written by J. Michael Straczynski.


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`Ghost Rider' Tops Box Office With $52 M - Forbes.com

`Ghost Rider' Tops Box Office With $52 M - Forbes.com: "

Nicolas Cage's comic-book adaptation 'Ghost Rider' led a rush of new movies, debuting with $52 million over the four-day President's Day weekend."

Ghost Rider Tops Weekend Box Office, Listens To Carpenters

Ghost Rider Tops Weekend Box Office, Listens To Carpenters
February 19th, 2007 at 13:30 by Stuart Heritage

We've never been able to figure Nicolas Cage out all that much - his career path has taken him to some bloody odd places in his time, and now thanks to a stunt racer in a wig listening to The Carpenters he's at the top of the US weekend box office.

After the dismal critical or commercial failures of The Wicker Man, World Trade Centre, The Ant Bully, The Weather Man and Lord Of War, Nicolas Cage is back at the top of the US weekend box office with Ghost Rider - a loopy-looking comic book film that's had one just good review, and that was only because the guy who wrote it lived down the road from where it was filmed. It's not all bad news, though - Ghost Rider's box office success will no doubt mean that a Ghost Rider sequel is in the works, and any film that stops Nicolas Cage from making another film where he runs up a hill dressed as a bear and punches a girl in the face is just dandy with us.

http://www.hecklerspray.com/ghost-rider-tops-weekend-box-office-listens-to-carpenters/20077054.php

"‘Ghost Rider‘ lights box-office fire

Dunton Springs: "‘Ghost Rider‘ lights box-office fire
2007/2


By DAVID GERMAIN, AP Movie Writer 2 minutes ago
LOS ANGELES - Satan‘s bounty hunter has looted the wallets of movie-goers. 'Ghost Rider,' Sony‘s comic-book adaptation starring Nicolas Cage as a motorcycle stunt driver moonlighting as a collector of evil souls for the devil, debuted as the top weekend movie with $44.5 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The movies bumped off the previous weekend‘s No. 1 flick, DreamWorks‘ Eddie Murphy comedy 'Norbit,' which slipped to third place with $16.8 million, lifting its total to $58.9 million. "

X-Men: The Last Stand

X-Men: The Last Stand is the third film adaptation of the Marvel Comics' X-Men superhero comic books. It was directed by Brett Ratner and written by Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn. The previous two movies were X-Men (2000) and X2: X-Men United (2003). The movie revolves around a "mutant cure" that causes serious repercussions among mutants and humans, and on the mysterious resurrection of Jean Grey, who appeared to have died in X2. The film is based on two X-Men comic book story arcs: writer Chris Claremonts and artist John Byrne's "Dark Phoenix Saga" in The Uncanny X-Men (1980) and writer Joss Whedon's six-issue "Gifted" arc in Astonishing X-Men (2004).

The film was released May 26, 2006 in the United States and Canada, and one or two days earlier in approximately 22 other countries. Despite mixed reviews from critics and fans of the comic book series, the film has done extremely well at the box office. Its opening-day gross of $45.5 million is the third-highest on record while its opening weekend gross of $103 million is the fifth highest ever. Currently it holds the record for highest grossing movie during Memorial Day weekend totaling nearly $122.9 million in its first four days.

The film is sometimes colloquially referred to as X3 or X-Men 3.

Bryan Singer, the director of the first two X-Men films, left the project during preproduction in order to direct the film Superman Returns. He was joined by X2 screenwriters Dan Harris and Michael Dougherty and composer / editor John Ottman. Though Singer, Harris and Dougherty had yet to complete a script, the director has revealed that at the time of his departure they had partially completed a story treatment for the film which would have focused exclusively on Jean Grey's resurrection with the new villain Emma Frost, a role intended for Sigourney Weaver.

Simon Kinberg was hired as writer soon after Singer's departure, and speculation arose to Joss Whedon directing the film. Rob Bowman and Alex Proyas were also rumoured, though the latter personally turned it down. Despite the controversy over Singer's departure, the cast and producers were still clearly keen to return.

Matthew Vaughn was hired as the new director for the project. He cast Kelsey Grammer as Beast and Vinnie Jones as Juggernaut, but family issues reportedly led him to withdraw before shooting began. Vaughn was replaced by Singer's friend Brett Ratner, who was among those originally considered to direct the first film — and coincidentally was considered by Warner Brothers to direct the 2006 Superman project before it evolved into Superman Returns.

On June 13, 2005, a review of an incomplete early draft[13] of the screenplay posted by Drew McWeeny from Ain't It Cool News sparked controversy from fans, due to certain main characters' storylines; however, that draft was the very first of over two-dozen drafts the film went through and has had numerous changes happen to the storylines. Most notably the Golden Gate Bridge was originally in the middle of the film, but Ratner decided it would create a more dramatic climax if moved to the end, whereas it was originally to take place at Washington D.C.

Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen were made to look 20 years younger through "digital skin grafting".X-Men: The Last Stand began shooting in August 2005 and ended in January 2006. Much of X-Men: The Last Stand was filmed in Vancouver, Canada. According to associate producer Dave Gordon, "This is the biggest production ever filmed in Canada. It used to be X2, now it's X3."

Senior actors Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen had their faces completely "de-aged" by complex keyframing, in which no CGI elements were used. A technique called "digital skin-grafting" was employed to make them look 20 years younger in the first-scene flashback.

The film has extensive wirework, where many of the actors performed some of their own stunts. The whirlwind wire-stunt performed by Halle Berry during one fight scene reportedly caused Berry to become so nauseated that she vomited. The crew actually had to bring in buckets for her before shooting her scenes. Angel's wings were initially too heavy for Ben Foster, and were remade from foam.[18] Despite his fear of heights, Foster performed a single second unit stunt where he escapes Worthington's facility.

Wonder Woman The Movie

Wonder Woman is an announced superhero film based on the fictional DC Comics character Wonder Woman. The film was originally intended to be written and directed by Joss Whedon and produced by Joel Silver, but Whedon left the project due to script differences. A new director and writer has yet to be determined for Wonder Woman.

n January 2001, producer Joel Silver approached Todd Alcott to write the Wonder Woman screenplay with Silver Pictures backing the project. Early gossip included actresses such as Mariah Carey, Sandra Bullock, and Catherine Zeta-Jones for the role of Wonder Woman. Sandra Bullock was a strong candidate for the project, according to producer Leonard Goldberg in a May 2001 interview. The project did not take off for the time being, but instead went through various screenplay drafts written by Alcott, Jon Cohen, Becky Johnston, and Philip Levens. By August 2003, Levens was replaced by screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis.

In March 2005, Warner Bros. and Silver Pictures announced that Joss Whedon would write and direct the film adaptation of Wonder Woman. Since Whedon was busy directing Serenity at the time, and still had to research Wonder Woman's background, the director did not begin writing the screenplay until late 2005. According to Joel Silver, the script would involve the origin of Wonder Woman and have the presence of the character Steve Trevor, explaining, "Trevor crashes on the island and they go back to Man's World." Silver expressed interest in having Wonder Woman filmed in Australia once the script was completed.

Full article here:
http://www.studentnewspaper.org/?q=node/301

Watchmen

Watchmen is a film adaptation of Alan Moore's twelve-issue Hugo Award-winning comic book Watchmen. The adaptation is directed by Zack Snyder, who helmed 300.

On June 23, 2006, Warner Bros. announced that Zack Snyder would direct Watchmen with Alex Tse attached to write the script. The director previously filmed 300, a Warner Bros. adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel 300.

Alex Tse wrote a new script that drew the best elements from two of David Hayter's previous drafts in the new script. The script did not keep the contemporary atmosphere that Hayter created, but instead returned to the original Cold War setting of the Watchmen comic. Snyder said that Warner Bros. was agreeable to the 1980's script that had been turned in. In the script, the director had also added a title montage sequence to introduce the events of alternate history United States in that time period to the audience. "The Black Freighter", a comic within the Watchmen comic, was included in the script, but the director said that he did not know if the potential narrative device for the story would make it into the film.

Snyder said of his plans for filming Watchmen: "There are so many easter eggs in the frames (of the comic) so you want that level of detail in the movie itself." The director said that he planned to use a combination of sets and green screens. The scenes that take place on Mars, Antarctica, and in "The Black Freighter" would require green screens, while the rest of the film would take place on sets. Snyder said that he hoped to speak to Watchmen author Alan Moore before filming, though Moore had sworn off involvement with film or television productions after his disagreement with the V for Vendetta film adaptation.

In November 2006, Zack Snyder said that he planned to begin working on Watchmen right after completing 300. Snyder explained that the "The Black Freighter" was written into the script in a way that the story could be left out if necessary and not affect the rest of the film. The director hoped to include scenes of "The Black Freighter" on the Watchmen DVD release if the studio decided to leave out the story due to time constraints. "I'm totally fine with that, but I feel like that's a battle I haven't lost yet, so I'm not going to concede to it yet," Snyder said. Snyder hopes to begin production in spring 2007.

In December 2006, comic book artists Adam Hughes and John Cassaday were confirmed to work on character and costume design for Watchmen.

In an interview with Variety's Danny Graydon, Watchmen writer Alan Moore adamantly opposed a film adaptation of his comic book, arguing, "You get people saying, 'Oh, yes, Watchmen is very cinematic, when actually it's not. It's almost the exact opposite of cinematic." Moore said that Terry Gilliam, preparing to direct Watchmen for Warner Bros. at the time, had asked Moore how the writer would film it. Moore told Graydon about his response, "I had to tell him that, frankly, I didn't think it was filmable. I didn't design it to show off the similarities between cinema and comics, which are there, but in my opinion are fairly unremarkable. It was designed to show off the things that comics could do that cinema and literature couldn't."

Moore also told Entertainment Weekly in December 2001, "With a comic, you can take as much time as you want in absorbing that background detail, noticing little things that we might have planted there. You can also flip back a few pages relatively easily to see where a certain image connects with a line of dialogue from a few pages ago. But in a film, by the nature of the medium, you're being dragged through it at 24 frames per second." Moore had opposed the adaptation of Watchmen from the beginning, intending to give any resulting film royalties to Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons. According to Moore, Hayter's script "was as close as [he] could imagine anyone getting to Watchmen". However, Moore added, "I shan't be going to see it. My book is a comic book. Not a movie, not a novel. A comic book. It's been made in a certain way, and designed to be read a certain way: in an armchair, nice and cozy next to a fire, with a steaming cup of coffee."

In an early interview with Entertainment Weekly's Ken Tucker, Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons said that he thought the time had passed to make a Watchmen movie. At the time, Darren Aronofsky was expressing interest in directing the film under Paramount Pictures. Nevertheless, Gibbons said, "It was most likely to happen when Batman was a big success, but then that window was lost." Gibbons also told Neon, "In a way, I'm glad because it wouldn't have been up to the book."

Wanted (set to be released 2008)

Now this looks really interesting.....
Wanted is a creator-owned comic book miniseries, consisting of six issues written by Mark Millar with art by J. G. Jones and published by Top Cow. It features an amoral protagonist who discovers he is the heir to a career as a super-villainous assassin in a world where such villains have secretly taken control of the planet.

The series is very adult in nature, similar to more grown-up 'super-hero' titles such as The Authority. Like the Authority or The Squadron Supreme, several characters are based on DC Comics super-villains. Rumour states that the series was originally supposed to be a revamp of the Secret Society of Super-Villains. The series bears a resemblance to Fight Club as it is about a despondent man in an unfulfilling white-collar job who finds a new lease on life but becomes extremely violent and marked as outside of 'normal' society. There is also a parallel between Wanted and The Matrix, particularly in the concept of a world secretly run by powerful, superhuman villains as well as the balletic gun battles between leather-clad fighters.

The Sunday Times dubbed the title "the Watchmen for super-villains."

Timur Bekmambetov will direct a film adaptation starring James McAvoy.