Damnit, There Goes Another Pair Of Pants
The Weekly Geek / Claude Weaver III
Trade News | January 26, 2009 | Comments (50)
In what has to be the most perfect storm of geekery to be seen in years, news has gotten out about Paul, the new project for Superbad and Adventureland director Greg Motolla. It’s about two geeks who stumble upon Area 51 on their way from Comic-Con. There, they befriend an alien (presumably named Paul) and try to get him home.
“So what,” you might be thinking, “is it like ET?” Yes, it is.
Except make it R-rated.
And instead of Elliot and cute Drew Barrymore, it is Simon Pegg and cute Nick Frost (fuck off, he’s adorable), who are also writing the film.
And just in case you were still unsure, Edgar Wright, while not directing, will still be involved as executive producer.
You are welcome. Now go change your pants.
….Done? Good. Moving on.
So, who watches the Watchmen? A whole lot more people now. Fox (legally in the right, but still total dicks) made a deal with Warner Bros. (dumb enough to not check the rights, but still managed to do what Fox couldn’t) to let Watchmen come out on schedule. In other words, they did exactly what anyone with a brain figured they would do. Fox now gets a percentage of the box office, plus a say in any sequels and spinoffs. Not to mention that they have to pay Fox’s legal fees and previous investment into the property. But that is not to say Fox was satisfied with that:
It was also revealed that many different proposals were made before settling here, including Fox’s initial desire to get 10 percent of the box office and the rights to distribute in some foreign markets. Another was Warner’s postponing Terminator Salvation to allow Fox’s Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian a little breathing room. Fox really wanted Steve Carrell — who’s currently attached to WB for Get Smart 2 — for a movie they’re doing called Date Night with Tina Fey, so showing a little kindness (and per Carrell’s wish to do it), Warners pushed back Get Smart 2 to 2010 to allow it. This may or may not have made things run a little more smoothly.
So WB got good and reamed. The only bright spot is that, considering the material, it is highly unlikely a spinoff/sequel would be possible, and Fox just managed to make it make even less sense for them to bother. It’s still just as unlikely that the initial film with tank though, so Fox has won this one any which way you see it.
Now for the sci-fi geeks: Issac Asimov is returning to the big screen. After a pretty big bidding war, Columbia Pictures has picked up the film rights to Asimov’s Foundation series for six figures. 10,000 BC and the recently-delayed 2012 helmer Roland Emmerich is set to direct. Go ahead and cry now.
You remember when I told you to change your pants earlier? That may have been too soon. According to Captain Hammer himself, a Dr. Horrible sequel is as good as done once schedules clear. While Whedon has his hands currently full with “Dollhouse,” and Fillion is busy with “Castle” (which, according to reports, is not his penis), all involved loved the experience and, most importantly, they all have a stake in continuing the brand:
“It’s this wonderful, new kind of idea where there are no producers involved, deciding who gets what and taking a huge chunk for themselves. We all own a piece. The contract was half a page, and it’s the sweetest contract I’ve ever signed. I finally get a piece of one of his musicals. They call them ‘Whedonverse trifectas.’ If you’ve done three projects with Joss Whedon, you’re a trifecta. Well, I was up to four, and my musical was the only one I had left. I had wanted to do that musical, and that was my chance.”
Now go change your pants. Again.
The film version of Sleeper, the Wildstorm comic series about a superhuman sleeper agent who gets trapped in the supervillain organization he is spying on, is still moving forward, with both Sam Raimi (yay!) and Tom Cruise (eh…) still attached. But Ed Brubaker, the creator of the hit book, wants to take a hands-off approach to the film. Instead, he is focusing his screenwriting powers toward the upcoming Crackle.com film Angel of Death, as well as preparing for the release of the Sleeper Special Edition reprints
Sci-Fi Wire reports:
“I’ve talked to the producers a lot, but, you know, [if] Tom Cruise is going to star in this thing, I’ve got comics to write,” Brubaker said in a group interview last week in Universal City, Calif., where he was promoting Angel of Death. “I would love it if they make it, and I want to go visit and everything. I can’t imagine on that level working with, like, Tom Cruise and Sam Raimi. I think I would actually feel daunted, and I’d prefer not to feel daunted. Plus, I know that movie’s going to cost $100 million. Even if I wrote a draft, I’ll be better off letting them hire a bunch of other writers and then send me scripts to fix.”
Cruise is set to play the undercover villain. “Having seen him in Collateral, I’m like, ‘He could totally do it,’” Brubaker said.
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There is no script as of yet, but a treatment is in the works.
In what could be a case of a Hollywood techno-thriller being anywhere near accurate, Daniel Suarez’s hit book Daemon is being adapted into a movie at Paramount. A self-published book at first, it broke out into mainstream success when Suarez contacted bloggers and tech journalists in an effort to get the word out. Soon, he had folks as big as Google and the Department of Defense reading his book, based on a software project he created that generated revenue without human interaction, according to an interview with the author. In the book, a famous video game designer creates a daemon that, upon discovery of his obituary on the web, would begin a war with mankind, which is chronicled in the novel. The freaky thing about this movie is that, unlike most movies with computers as a plot point, the technologies are very real and quite capable of doing the things claimed in the novel. Maybe a certain computer science major around here can do a Cannonball Read entry on it, that is, if he can get his lazy ass to finish …
Instead of bringing up a whole new comic this week, I am simply going to demand everyone read Watchmen and/or Sleeper. Go read them. They are full of good and awesome and sexy and essential vitamins and minerals and guns and OMFG. Seriously, do it now.
Now today’s trailer had to be changed, since my original choice was the Chocolate trailer, which I thought was quite awefulsome. Instead, I am throwing you one of the newly released Watchmen viral videos, which is a 70’s style news report on Dr. Manhattan. It looks like they went all out with it, too. Enjoy.
Claude Weaver III, aka Vermillion, needs new pants. He can be given new pants at his blog, Vermillion’s Brain Receptacle
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Comments
Posted by: Pookie at January 26, 2009 11:45 AM
Claude I know you want to impress your boss and shit, but can you not be so chatty?