Superhero compendiums

-
In case you didn't know, work is underway at Warner Brothers on a live-action Justice League movie - based on the decades-long DC Comics series, in which the world's greatest superheroes unite as a team to fight the greatest threats to Earth.


Details are still pretty sketchy regarding the Justice League movie, but there are a handful of definites amongst the many, many rumours. The following bits and pieces of information were plucked from SuperheroHype and Ain't It Cool News:

- George (Mad Max, Happy Feet) Miller will be directing.
- The film will include Justice League icons: Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash (apparently both Barry Allen and Wally West), Green Lantern, Aquaman and the Martian Manhunter.
- Christian Bale and Brandon Routh WILL NOT be playing Bats and Supes in the movie. Miller is intent on casting young unknowns to "grow into the roles", and frantic auditioning is underway.
- At this point the plan is to start filming in February 2008, with a 2009 release date in mind.
- You can read some (supposedly) spoiler-ish stuff here and here.

On the topic of superhero compendiums, work on Watchmen - the film adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons's graphic novel, probably the greatest superhero-focused text EVER written - is cruising ahead. There's a director's blog up on the official Watchmen site, and you can see director Zack (300, Dawn of the Dead) Synder hard at work with the creative team in the Watchmen production's "War Room".

Watchmen is set for worldwide release in June 2009. Let's hope that when that happens audiences will realise that it was superhero TV series Heroes that stole wholesale from Watchmen (written in the mid-1980s), and not vice versa.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is the rebooted Lara Croft gay? Evidence for and against...

-
Image
As some of you know, I’ve been fangirling hard over the new Tomb Raider , the first entry in the video game series since 2008, and ostensibly a reboot for the entire franchise . Taking the form of an origin story, Tomb Raider 2013 depicts the events that transformed a beautiful, if bookish, archaeology graduate into a pistol-packing adventurer with a devil-may-care attitude. We meet Lara Croft as a pretty, fairly ordinary 21 year old, brooding over her work notes, listening to her mp3 player and very much confined to the shadow of her male mentors. By the end of the game, however, she’s taken charge – she’s had to! – and, battered, bruised and bloody, she’s both a survivor and hero, right down to rescuing the princess and carrying her away in her arms. Yeah, this is probably the best point to mention that there will be some Tomb Raider 2013 spoilers in this post, so read ahead with caution. Anyway, I loved the game. Technically it’s near faultless, it looks beautiful, the ov
Read more

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Queer Icon (Part 4)

-
Image
Part 4: The mystery of Lara Croft’s sexuality “Now what’s a man gotta do to get that kind of attention from ya?” – Larson Conway (Tomb Raider, 1996) Despite being an icon for many queer pop culture consumers, Lara Croft’s own sexual orientation remains ambiguous. Outside of the Top Cow comics and live-action films – where Lara is blatantly heterosexual, with a fondness for slightly scruffy bad boys (who keep betraying and hurting her) – the character comes across as primarily asexual. Kurtis Trent is the only male figure who even comes close to being a love interest in the game series. Lara's apparent sexual disinterest is despite the adventurer appearing very sexually attractive herself; a figure of desire with bee-stung lips, voluptuous breasts, toned stomach and impossibly long, athlete’s legs. Yet Lara is never dominated by sexual yearnings or romantic affections. She is very much in control of herself at all times. It’s worth noting, however, that over time th
Read more

Ladies I Love: Part 2 - Rhona Mitra

-
Image
Following on from the first post in this series , you may realise that I have a very definite type. Anyway, today we profile model-turned-actress Rhona Mitra . This 36 year old Briton is of English, Irish and Indian descent. You'll have seen her pop up on the big and small screen multiple over the past decade and a half, although Mitra's claim to fame is that she was the second ever model (some say first if you rule out "unofficial"  Nathalie Cook ) to play iconic video game character Lara Croft . From 1997-1998, Mitra could be found in PR material, as well as at trade shows, events and conventions as a flesh-and-blood embodiment of Tomb Raider 's kick-ass archeologist lead. There have been many official Lara Croft models over the years , but as far as I'm concerned Mitra remains the best. In my mind, of all of them, she most closely resembles the video game character in terms of facial features. Plus she comes from money and had a rebellious boarding
Read more