Are You in the District?
District 9 isn't technically a movied based on a comic, but it warrants mention here as a kind of public service for many comics fan (never let it be said that GNR doesn't have your best interests at heart). If you attended San Diego Comic-Con last year, you couldn't have missed the signs promoting District 9. They said things like, "For humans only" or similar. And you may have been justifiably curious and wondered what they were. If so, wonder no more. The signs were promoting the new alien-invasion thriller, which, judging by the trailer, seems worth checking out. See for yourself here.
Director: Neil Blomkamp
Writer: Neil Blomkamp
Studio: Sony Pictures
Cast: William Allen Young, Jason Cope, Sharlto Copley
Release date: August 14, 2009
Astro Boy Takes Off
Astro Boy is coming October 23! Featuring the voices of Nicolas Cage, Freddie Highmore, Nathan Lane, Eugene Levy, and Kristen Bell. The story of a robot who is imbued with Superman-like p
owers, Astro Boy is about searching for what it means to be human while at the same time finding out what it means to be a hero. Based on Osamu Tezuka's popular work, Astro Boy is a CGI release. Visit the movie's website and see trailers here.
A Secret Encounter
Don't confuse it with the other The Secret, the one that Oprah pushes a lot. This is a dark, thrilling coming-of-age story about a group of
high-school students who play a prank and watch it backfire with deadly results. The comic was written by Dark Horse founder and president Mike Richardson and illustrated by Jason Alexander. Now it's been optioned by Universal Pictures, with no release date given as of yet. Richardson describes the story as, "full of scares and suprises and [it] goes places no one will expect."
A Phantom Menace?
If you're a fan of The Phantom, the comic strip starring the purple-Spandex-clad superhero, then you'll be happy to learn that you have two upcoming Phantom projects to be excited about. One is a new miniseries coming from the SyFy channel. Last month, Sci Fi announced their plans to revive the strip, with a young twentysomething named Kit Walker learning of his destiny as a superhuman and putting it to use for good.
The next is a major motion picture called The Phantom: Legacy. The film's writer, Tim Boyle, has talked about the movie on his MySpace page, calling it "strong" and promising big Hollywood stars attached to the project. The movie will have apparently have no connection to the miniseries, and both versions are reported to have completely different takes on the character. In addition, the movie is not related to the 1996 Phantom movie, which starred Billy Zane and did not perform well at the box office at all. (And although that movie is a guilty pleasure for some, it's probably for the best that this new movie is a reboot and not a sequel.) No release date has been announced yet for The Phantom: Legacy.
The Sound of Fury
Let's hear it for Samuel L. Jackson. After surprising us all (and warming the hearts of comics fans th
e world over) by appearing as Nick Fury at the very end of Iron Man, the actor has agreed to reprise the role not once, not twice, but maybe as many as nine times. That's the kind of Fury we like a lot. As Nick Fury announced in Iron Man, The Avengers Initiative is underway, and that means we'll get to see Jackson in many upcoming Marvel movies: Thor, Captain America, Iron Man 2, and The Avengers. Plus, he'll be around for sequels. That's a whole lot of Sam, and that sounds good to us.
Whiteout
Cast: Kate Beckinsale, Gabriel Macht, Alex O'Loughlin, Sean Tucker
Director: Dominic Sena
Release Date: September 11, 2009
Plot: A U.S. marshal, the only one assigned to Antarctica, must investigate a murder there before the arctic winter begins. She crosses paths with a U.N. operative also investigating the murder. Based on the 1999 graphic novel by Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber.
Surrogates
Cast: Bruce Willis, Radha Mitchell, Ving Rhames, Michael O'Toole
Director: Jonathan Mostow
Release Date: September 25, 2009
Plot: In a futuristic world where humans live in isolation and interact through surrogate robots, a cop is forced to leave his home for the first time in years in order to investigate the murders of others’ surrogates.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Cast: Michael Cera, Chris Evans, Brandon Routh, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Anna Kendrick
Director: Edgar Wright
Release Date: Sometime in 2009
Plot: Scott Pilgrim's life is so awesome. He's 23 years old, in a rock band, "between jobs," and dating a cute high school girl. Every thing's fantastic until a seriously mind-blowing, dangerously fashionable, roller blading delivery girl named Ramona Flores starts cruising through his dreams and sailing by him at parties. But the path to Ms. Flowers isn't covered in rose petals. Ramona's seven evil ex-boyfriends stand in the way between Scott and true happiness. Can Scott beat the bad guys and get the girl without turning his precious little life upside-down?
Books into DVDs
Watchmen
Cast: Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jackie Earle Haley, Patrick Wilson, and Malin Akerman.
Director: Zach Snyder
Distributor: Warner Home Video
Release date: July 21, 2009
Plot: In a world where superheroes have been outlawed, someone might be murdering former masked adventurers. Delving into the mystery is Rorschach, who never retired from crimefighting. Several of his other former teammates find themselves embroiled in the mystery too, and they all soon discover that the plot is bigger, deeper, and much broader in scope than they ever could have imagined. As the world sits on the brink of war and even nuclear annihilation, the Watchmen reunite to see if they can make sense of any of it at all.
Bonus features: The DVD and Blu-Ray releases will feature 25 minutes of extra footage, providing more detail on Rorschach and showing the death of Hollis Mason, unseen in the movie version. Other features include still images, featurettes, scene analysis, graphic novel comparisons, and more.
