The Countdown To SDCC 2012!

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In the beginning measle created Critical Mess.

And the internet was without form; and was void. And darkness was on the face of the forums. And the spirit of the Mess moved upon Coffee Joe and Chooch.

And then measle said "Let there be the countdown to SDCC." And there was the countdown to SDCC.

And John Moores saw the countdown to SDCC. And it was good.

What: Comic-Con International: San Diego, the largest comic book and popular arts convention in North America!

Where: San Diego Convention Center 111 W. Harbor Dr. San Diego, CA 92101

When: Thursday, July 12th through Sunday, July 15th, with Preview Night on Wednesday, July 11th.

Website: http://www.comic.con.org/cci

Why: Why?  You ask why?  Lord, what fools these mortals be!

Click on the thumbnails for bigger pics!

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

     

     

   

     

   

     

   

   

   

   

Mike
(112 Days Until SDCC 2012!)

[SDcomics]

I know that there are a few of you that enjoy these threads.  And I know that you kind of got screwed over a little bit when I decided not to do a Toy Fair countdown.  So I figured I'd start the countdown to SDCC earlier than I normally do as a way to make up for that.

Mike
(Just in case you were wondering why I'm doing this so early.) 

[SDcomics]

Joshua Jackson Says He Would Audition for Batman Again

by SuperHeroHype

March 21, 2012

"Fringe" star Joshua Jackson, who was one of a handful of candidates left for the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman in Christopher Nolan's movies, tells ComingSoon.net he would take another shot at it if given the chance. Here's the interview clip:
 
CS: You auditioned for the recent string of Batman movies. Now that Christian Bale is hanging up his cowl, are you gung-ho about trying out for the role again?
Jackson: Ahh... I'm not going to turn down an audition for Batman if they ask me . As much as nobody in their right mind would turn down that job, I don't know if you really want to be the guy after Chris Nolan and Christian Bale. Those movies are pretty fantastic.
 
CS: I haven't heard you growl “I'm Batman,” but you would certainly make a dapper Bruce Wayne.
Jackson: Well, thank you, I do my best . It would have been a different movie if I had been cast. You never want to admit you think somebody else made the right decision when they didn't hire you, but Christian Bale was pretty amazing. The marriage of Chris Nolan and Christian Bale for those Batman movies was spectacular. I would be intimidated to step into those shoes, but if they asked me to audition, I would.
 
You can check out the full interview, in which they talk about his new thriller Inescapable and the future of "Fringe," by clicking here.

[SDcomics]

Want to Smell Like The Avengers? Official Fragrances Now Available!

by SuperHeroHype

March 22, 2012

In what may be the strangest tie-in promo for Marvel's The Avengers, we bring you fragrances by JADS International:
 
After debuting at the International Toy Fair in true Super Hero fashion, JADS International, LLC, a company producing fine fragrances worldwide, is proud to announce that official Marvel's The Avengers Colognes are now available for public purchase through the company's online marketplace (www.jadsinternational.com). Anticipation and excitement for the colognes and perfume has been building as the May 4 premiere of Marvel's The Avengers draws near.
 
"Demand for our official Avengers cologne and perfume has been, pardon the pun, out of this world and we are happy to report that fans can now get their hands on our products before the film premieres," said Andrew Levine, Chief Executive Officer of JADS. "Everyone has conventional cologne and perfume at home, but we take it to another level by offering supernatural scents that will empower and bring out the Super Hero in all of us."
 
The JADS Spring 2012 Line for Marvel's The Avengers is most accessible online and includes:
 
The Avengers Cologne Set (four 60ml Eud du Toilette Vaporisateur Spray Colognes, $59.99). Set includes four heroic fragrances:
 
Patriot Cologne, Your Attack Plan: inspired by Captain America, pays homage to the confident, stand-up to bullies, hard working average Joe in everyman. The cologne features hints of green lime and white pepper with finishes of dry oak wood, sandalwood and tequila.
 
Mark VII Cologne, Armor Up: inspired by Iron Man, combines mandarin and jasmine with light patchouli to create a contemporary expression of "I don't play well with others" confidence; leaving you ready for whatever a genius, billionaire, playboy-philanthropist might encounter throughout their day.
 
Worthy Cologne, Posses the Power: inspired by Thor, is a woody citrus cologne with a combination of bergamot, frozen ginger and wheatgrass blended with a hint of fresh natural grapefruit and layered with cypress; creating a deep dry masculine almost "God-like" musk.
 
SMASH!, Be Angry: inspired by Hulk, is a clean scent with clear top notes of water lily and nutmeg, which carries on an intense woody dry down, enriched with Indian sandalwood, dry musk and warm cedar. Complimentary to full range emotions, it wears well at work, in the lab, or an evening out on the town.
 
Additional Scents:
 
Black Widow Perfume (50ml Vaporisateur Eau de Parfum, $29.99) – Russian spy, trained assassin, world-class ballerina, girl from legal department. This perfume has a clear shot of citrus slowly giving way to sensual caramel and honey. The scent dries down with a blend of bitter chocolate, clear patchouli and praline.
 
Infinity Formula Cologne (100ml Eud du Toilette Vaporisateur Spray Cologne, $29.99) – Inspired by Nick Fury, CIC of S.H.I.E.L.D., this cologne is a seductive fragrance for not just any man; but only for those who will risk everything to keep the dream of freedom alive. And sure, you could describe it as a citron cocktail smoothed over with a couple of stiff shots of tonka bean and guaiac wood; or you could just put it on and know it makes you smell good.
 
Mischief Cologne (100ml Eud du Toilette Vaporisateur Spray Cologne, $29.99) – Inspired by Thor's bad brother, Loki, this unisex fragrance combines a base of green tea and amber with bergamot and cardamom in a dangerous-sexy, yet playful way that wears well on anyone; day or night.
 
All fragrances are made in the U.S., never tested on animals and are cruelty free.
 
More information and additional comic inspired cologne and perfume lines are available on www.jadsinternational.com. The website also supplies a list of comic retailers selling the products.

 

[SDcomics]

The New Trailer for The Three Stooges Hits

Source: Yahoo! Movies

March 21, 2012

Twentieth Century Fox has debuted this full new trailer for Bobby and Peter Farrelly's The Three Stooges movie, hitting theaters on April 13. The comedy stars Chris Diamantopoulos, Will Sasso, Sean Hayes, Jane Lynch, Larry David, Stephen Collins, Sofia Vergara and Jennifer Hudson.

In the film, Larry, Curly and Moe grow up finger-poking, nyuk-nyuking and woo-woo-wooing their way to uncharted levels of knuckleheaded misadventure. Out to save their childhood home, only The Three Stooges could become embroiled in an oddball murder plot... while also stumbling into starring in a phenomenally successful TV reality show.

The Three Stooges - Official Trailer #2 (HD)	powered by Aeva

[SDcomics]

Production Blog Started for Ender's Game Movie

Source: ComingSoon

March 21, 2012

Summit Entertainment has begun filming Ender's Game in New Orleans and producer Roberto Orci has started a production blog on the feature based on the best-selling, award-winning novel by Orson Scott Card. You can check it out at EndersGameBlog.Tumblr.com.

Ender's Game is an epic adventure about a brilliant young strategist named Ender Wiggin who is drafted by the International Fleet to save the human race.

Directed by Gavin Hood, the film stars Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Viola Davis, Abigail Breslin and Hailee Steinfeld.

The movie is scheduled to hit theaters on March 15, 2013.

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Prometheus Viral Reveals New Wallpaper Image

Source: ComingSoon

March 21, 2012

The viral campaign for Ridley Scott's Prometheus continues to expand. It kicked off with the viral clip featuring Guy Pearce as Peter Weyland, which led fans to WeylandIndustries.com. Then, ProjectPrometheus.com was discovered. To gain access to the site, users figured out that you can add 'Eridu' to the URL, so ProjectPrometheus.com/Eridu, and then for the password you can use ' tell abu shahrain'. Doing so will get you to the wallpaper you can also check out below!

What does it all mean? According to Wikipedia, "Eridu is an ancient Sumerian city in what is now Tell Abu Shahrain, Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq. Eridu was considered the earliest city in southern Mesopotamia, and is one of the oldest cities in the world. Located 12 km southwest of Ur, Eridu was the southernmost of a conglomeration of Sumerian cities that grew about temples, almost in sight of one another. In Sumerian mythology, Eridu was originally the home of Enki, who was considered to have founded the city, later known by the Akkadians as Ea. His temple was called E-Abzu, as Enki was believed to live in Abzu ("Deep Ocean"), an aquifer from which all life was believed to stem."

What do you think the city of Eridu has to do with the movie? Might our cast of Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Logan Marshall-Green and Charlize Theron discover something there?

Click the image for a bigger version!

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Downton Abbey's Jessica Brown Findlay to Star in Winter's Tale

Source: ComingSoon

March 21, 2012

Deadline reports that "Downton Abbey" star Jessica Brown Findlay has landed the female lead role in director Akiva Goldsman's Winter's Tale, an adaptation of the 1983 Mark Helprin novel at Warner Bros. Pictures. The project will mark Goldsman's directorial debut. The book is described as follows:

Set in New York at the beginning and the end of the twentieth century, Winter's Tale unfolds with such great narrative force and beauty that a reader can feel that its world is more real than his own. Standing alone on the page before the book begins are the words, I have been to another world, and come back. Listen to me. In that world, both winter and the city of New York (old and new) have the strength and character of protagonists, and the protagonists themselves move as if in a vivid dream. Though immensely complicated, the story is centered upon Peter Lake, a turn-of-the-century Irish burglar, and Beverly Penn, a young heiress whom he encounters in robbing her house, and who eventually will die young and in his arms. His love for her, and a gift of grace, will allow him after the most extraordinary and painful explorations and discoveries to stop time and bring back the dead. To follow him, his predecessors, his inheritors, and his companions is to experience one of the great stories of American literature.

Findlay will play Beverly Penn, while the frontrunners to play the Peter Lake are Aaron Johnson and Garrett Hedlund.

The site adds that Russell Crowe is in final negotiations to play half a demon named Pearly Soames, and Will Smith is rumored to be attached as well. Both those roles will be fairly small. Goldsman worked with Crowe on A Beautiful Mind and with Smith on I Am Legend.

Shooting for Winter's Tale is set to begin on October 15 in New York.

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Four More Join Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho

Source: ComingSoon

March 21, 2012

Toni Collette, Danny Huston, Michael Stuhlbarg and Michael Wincott are in negotiations to join Fox Searchlight Pictures' Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho, reports Variety.

The film, based on Stephen Rebello's 1998 non-fiction book, tells the true story of Hitchcock's (Anthony Hopkins) attempts to finance his now-classic 1960 horror film Psycho. Adapted by John McLaughlin, who co-wrote Black Swan, the story is centered on the relationship between Hitchcock and his wife Alma Reville (Helen Mirren).

According to the trade, Collette will play Peggy Robertson, Hitchcock's longtime assistant who was fiercely protective of her boss. Huston is in talks to play Whitfield Cook, Alma's friend and collaborater who co-wrote Hitchcock's Stage Fright with her. Stuhlbarg will play Lew Wasserman, Hitchcock's charismatic agent and Hollywood-savvy friend. Wincott will play Ed Gein, the Wisconsin-based serial killer whom the Psycho book and movie are based on.

James D'Arcy, Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Biel play Psycho stars Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh and Vera Miles.

Sacha Gervasi (Anvil! The Story of Anvil) is directing the film.

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Paramount Reinventing Mark Twain's Huck and Tom

Source: ComingSoon

March 21, 2012

Two of Mark Twain's beloved fictional characters introduced way back in 1876 are getting a 21st Century makeover at Paramount Pictures, which has picked up Andrew Burg's spec script Huck and Tom with Peter Chernin and Dylan Clark (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) and Matt Lopez producing, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Not much is known about the story, although Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, the two boys introduced in Twain's "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," who grew popular through their mischievous adventures in four books, multiple films and television shows, will be portrayed as adults and there will be a supernatural element to the film.

Huck and Tom joins Burg's other Paramount project, Hellified, a supernatural action flick that Lorenzo di Bonaventura is producing.

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Abigail Breslin Joins The Hive

Source: ComingSoon

March 21, 2012

Abigail Breslin has joined the cast of Brad Anderson's The Hive, Variety reports. She'll star opposite Halle Berry in the thriller.

The project, from Exit Wounds and Thir13en Ghosts screenwriter Rich D'Ovidio, is said to focus on a female emergency line operator (Berry) who, in trying to help a young girl (Breslin), comes up against a killer from her own past.

Breslin appeared alongside Berry in last year's New Year's Eve. She's currently shooting Gavin Hood's Ender's Game, set for release March 15, 2013.

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Imagine Entertainment Plans Nineteen Eighty-Four Remake

Source: ComingSoon

March 21, 2012

While audiences prepare for this weekend's release of the The Hunger Games and it's own adaptation of a literary dystopia, Imagine Entertainment has plans to bring back to the screen one of the most famous totalitarian science fiction tales of all time. The Hollywood Reporter has word that the studio is planning a big screen remake of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Released in 1948, the novel tells of a future world called Oceania wherein individuality and privacy are outlawed and citizens live in service to an all-seeing entity called "Big Brother."

In pursuit of the rights, Imagine teamed with street artist Shepard Fairey (best known for the now-iconic Barack Obama "Hope" campaign poster) and Fairey may now serve as producer bringing the novel back to the screen.

Nineteen Eighty-Four was previously made into a film, directed by Michael Radford in the year 1984 with John Hurt starring as the lead, Winston Smith.

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From IGN:

Expendables 2 Will Be Rated R

Sly eliminates the PG-13 rumor.

March 20, 2012

Quashing the previous rumors that The Expendables 2 would be aiming for a more family friendly PG-13, Sylvester Stallone has confirmed that the film will be getting an R rating after all.

The news comes from Total Film (via The Stallone Zone), which provides the concise quote from Stallone: "After taking in all the odd rumors and hearsay, Expendables 2 is an R."

The call for a PG-13 rating was originally due to co-star Chuck Norris. According to the actor's agreement, there would be no swearing as long as he was appearing in the film. Sly himself even confirmed this back in January.

It's possible that the film will still adhere to Norris's "no swearing" rule. Instead, the rating could have something to do with the film's no doubt excessive violence. Only time will tell if this ends up being the case.

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From IGN:

Tom Hardy Wants to be Nolan's Bond

Bane would love to reunite with TDKR helmer for 007.

March 20, 2012

In one of the many interviews that actors do while promoting their new movies, during which they are often asked trivial or utterly speculative questions, actor Tom Hardy let it slip that he wouldn't mind one day playing 007, provided that his Inception and The Dark Knight Rises director helms it.

"I'd love to play Bond with Chris Nolan (as a) director or something, it would be awesome," the Bane actor told Verity Geere on the Magic 105.4 Breakfast Show according to the UK site Metro (via Movieweb).

That's it. There's no deal, no offer. Just a dream, but think about it for a second. Christopher Nolan is a lifelong Bond fan whose love of that series has influenced his Batman films as well as Inception. Indeed, Hardy's snowbound action antics in the latter film were definitely Bond-esque. (He also recently played a secret agent in This Means War.)

So sleep on that, Bond fans. As Hardy's character Eames said in Inception, you mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.

[SDcomics]

Akira Storyboards Reveal a Movie You Probably Won't See

by SuperHeroHype

March 22, 2012

The live-action version of Akira is currently on hold, shelved for now over budgetary issues at Warner Bros. In January, director Jaume Collet-Serra was well into pre-production up in Vancouver until development came to a halt.

Today, io9 landed some storyboards ("Do Not Distribute" - they say) from the film that reveal elements that scream - yes, this is indeed "Akira." You've got motorcycles, the military and a big bubble-shaped explosion. It appears they were on the right track.

Garrett Hedlund of TRON: Legacy was the only confirmed cast member and he was likely playing the blond fella you see in the art below. Helena Bonham Carter, Ken Wattanabe and Kristen Stewart were reportedly circling roles.

Sylvain Despretz (Gladiator) is responsible for the art.

Click the images for bigger versions!

 

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