Monthly Archives: October 2018
Who Are the Mysterious Supermen in DC’s New Animated Film?
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment gave fans a first look at new footage from their next DC Universe movie at New York Comic-Con today: Reign of the Supermen.
A sequel to last summer's The Death of Superman, Reign explores what happens when the world has no Superman... and then has too many! On hand were executive producer James Tucker, producer/director Sam Liu, screenwriters Jim Krieg and Tim Sheridan, character designer Phil Bourassa, and actors Patrick Fabian (voice of Cyborg Superman/Hank Henshaw), Toks Olagundoye (voice of Cat Grant) and Nyambi Nyambi (voice of Martian Manhunter).
Things kicked off with a screening of the first few minutes of the film, as Cat Grant and G. Gordon Godfrey debated what the departure of Superman means for Metropolis, and what the arrival of several “Mystery Supermen” could also mean. While they argue, we see some of those Superman in action across the city, including Superboy taking on some criminals in an alley, and Steel saving Jimmy Olsen from being run over by a truck. The world needs a Superman, but Jimmy Olsen really needs one too.
Venom Co-Creator Would Have Made the Movie Scarier
IGN caught up with Venom co-creator Todd McFarlane at New York Comic Con on Saturday during which time he shared his thoughts on the new Venom movie with us.
When we asked how McFarlane -- who is gearing up to direct and produce a reboot of his comics character Spawn -- how he would've made the Venom movie -- which he saw at its L.A. premiere Monday -- differently, McFarlane responded with a chuckle: "Every movie I'd make R, what do you talking about? So, yeah, Venom, I would've made it a scary movie too right but then again, Mary Poppins I'd probably make a lot scarier than most people would make. ... I just have that bent in my head."
McFarlane Wants His Spawn Movie to Make Children Cry
Todd McFarlane wants Hollywood to get it through their heads that his Spawn reboot is a hard R scary film and not a superhero movie. "If you think about it as a horror
it makes complete sense. if you think about it as Captain America it falls apart," McFarlane told IGN during an interview Saturday at New York Comic Con.
McFarlane is writing, producing and directing Spawn, which also has Get Out and Halloween's Jason Blum aboard as a producer and The Walking Dead's Greg Nicotero designing the creature costume for the title character. The film has cast Oscar winner Jamie Foxx in the title role opposite Jeremy Renner. McFarlane vented his frustration with Hollywood execs who he claims have had trouble getting what his Spawn script is going for.
Star Trek: Discovery’s New Spock and Debut Date Announced, New Trailer Revealed
The cast and producers of Star Trek: Discovery beamed in (ahem) to New York Comic-Con today to tease the upcoming Season 2, the arrival of Captain Pike and Mr. Spock, and much more.
Stars Sonequa Martin-Green, Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, Mary Chieffo, Doug Jones, Shazad Latif, Anthony Rapp, Wilson Cruz, Michelle Yeoh and Mary Wiseman and producers Alex Kurtzman and Heather Kadin were all on hand. And the panel was moderated by Rebecca Romijn, who is playing Number One this season on Captain Pike’s Enterprise!
First the news out of the panel! We got our first look at the new Spock – with a beard! – as well as at Number One, plus we learned about the mysterious black ops part of Starfleet known as Section 31’s newest recruit -- Philippa Georgiou! -- a release date was revealed (January 17, 2019), and a new trailer dropped.
McFarlane Toys Bringing Back Movie Maniacs, Tortured Souls
Todd McFarlane informed IGN during an interview at New York Comic Con that McFarlane Toys plans to revive two of its past toy lines, Movie Maniacs and Clive Barker's Tortured Souls.
While hyping up the licenses and plans in store next year for McFarlane Toys, the comic book icon and toy industry fixture revealed that his company plans to go back to basics while also selling directly to the consumer, a result of many of the retailers they used to do business with having gone under in the ensuing years.
"We live in a brave new world now where you can go literally from production to the consumer, right? You can cut out all the middle men and we're seeing that with Kickstarters and people doing direct, you know, dot com," McFarlane said. "So what we're gonna do is, when we started McFarlane Toys twenty-plus years ago, we were built on the detailed stuff, doing all these cool monsters and all this sort of wicked stuff. Unfortunately, the stores we were selling to at that point, like Tower Records and Suncoast and Babbage's and KB Toys, and all these other ones, they've all fallen to the wayside."
David Harbour’s Hellboy Reboot Is a Horror Film More Than a Superhero Film
Hellboy is back, and the red-skinned, horn-headed hero hit New York Comic-Con today to show off a trailer for the upcoming reboot of the character. Stars David Harbour, Sasha Lane and Daniel Dae Kim were joined by creator Mike Mignola to discuss the film, which reimagines Hellboy for a potential new series of films as he battles an ancient sorceress who is out for revenge.
Lionsgate won't be releasing this footage just yet, so for now we'll have to tide you over with our description of the trailer that was screened, which you can find below or in the video above.
As things kicked off, Mignola talked about how he created Hellboy in the first place; it was mainly because while working at Marvel and DC he just wanted to draw monsters, and he figured the best way to do that was to create his own!
Into the Spider-Verse New Footage Impressions
Sony Pictures Entertainment debuted the first 35 minutes of footage from the upcoming animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse today at New York Comic Con. To make a long story short, it looks awesome.
Warning: Spoilers for the first 35 minutes of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse below!
Some parts of the footage screened were unfinished -- co-executive producer Chris Miller accurately described them as looking like a '90s video game -- but the vast majority showed off the same gorgeous animation glimpsed in the trailers so far. It's a unique blend of fluid motion with little stylized static beats sprinkled here and there to evoke both old school cartoons and the stationary nature of comic books panels.
Daredevil Trailer Reveals Bullseye Is a Villain in Season 3
Netflix and Marvel finally confirmed that Bullseye will be one of the major villains for Daredevil Season 3 at New York Comic Con, releasing a new trailer that teased the reveal.
"I think it’s safe to say that - and it may be the worst kept secret in the history of Marvel - this season we would be telling an origin story for one of the more iconic characters," Marvel TV boss Jeph Loeb teased, allowing actor Wilson Bethel to be the first to say the villain's name.
"Honestly it was one of the most incredible experiences of my life to be able to tell the story of how Benjamin Poindexter will ultimately become Bullseye," Bethel said, before star Charlie Cox got up from his seat and ran over to draw a bullseye on Bethel's forehead in Sharpie.
Fortnite’s First Action Figure Revealed!
It was recently announced that McFarlane Toys would be producing collectibles based on Fortnite, including action figures and role-play items, and we just got our first look!
Here at New York Comic Con, Todd McFarlane himself revealed the very first action figure prototype of Cuddle Team Leader!
There's no price point or specific street date yet, but McFarlane is hard at work getting these out before the end of the year.
If you're interested in some other toys based on beloved Fortnite skins, these dark, brooding John Wick collectibles we also saw at NYCC might be of interest.
In Defense of Venom
Ruben Fleischer's Venom opened Friday, and the reaction has been, well, less than glowing. As of this writing, the film's Rotten Tomatoes approval rating is at a not-so-impressive 30%, with critics citing its chaotic storytelling, middling special effects, and weird campy/comic tone.
Rafer Guzman of Newsday compared Venom to midnight movie classics like The Rocky Horror Picture Show (which would be a positive in my book, but which Guzman meant to be a criticism), while NPR's Chris Kilmek compared it unfavorably to the '80s sitcom ALF. Stephanie Zacharek of TIME gave Venom a 3.5 out of 10, and even IGN's own Laura Prudom gave it a 4.0 out of 10, employing one of the film's more notorious lines of dialogue as a descriptor: “A turd in the wind.”