by Fred Topel
“I do think there’s a real world parallel.”
– Gavin Hood
Gavin Hood became a political filmmaker with his very first movie. In Tsotsi he attempted to redeem a fictional criminal teen in South Africa, Hood’s country of origin. He tackled American foreign policy, for better or worse, in his follow-up film, Rendition. The ensemble drama about our government’s often overlooked policy of taking terror suspects to foreign countries where torture could be conducted legally, was not a hit financially or critically, but it asked the questions Hood wanted to ask.
The X-Men series has always kept politics in the metaphorical forefront. The comic books portrayed mutants as a persecuted minority. The films featured politicians proposing policy to round up mutants, exterminate them or even try to “cure” them, raising the moral question of who decides what needs to be fixed.
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by A.J. Focht
Today’s media is overrun with rehashed tales of old myths. It is nearly impossible to come across a fantasy story that doesn’t re-use mythical beings. Vampires, werewolves, and zombies all come from traditional myths and plague our airwaves and book stores; every author is looking for a way to put their own spin on this time tested material.
Some authors are very good at taking traditional myths and adapting them, whereas others should be hanged, drawn, and quartered for their crimes against them. Most myths have grey areas that can be adapted, but they all have their canon – lists of facts and pieces of the myth that cannot be changed without altering that which is intrinsic to it. When an author starts altering these facts they upset the status quo. They weaken not only the fabric of the mythological being – but our ability to suspend our disbelief. This leaves their final product looking like a cheap bastardization of the original.
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by Damon Martin
Star Wars without George Lucas?
The Godfather without Al Pacino?
Jay and Silent Bob without Kevin Smith?
Any of those scenarios would just seem wrong wouldn’t they? Well, that brings us to Monday’s announcement from Warner Bros. that they will be reviving Buffy the Vampire Slayer in a new film that will have no direct connection with the previous movie or television show – and also no connection whatsoever with character creator and long time Buffy writer Joss Whedon.
You read that correctly: The man who created and guided the Buffy-verse will have nothing to do with the latest incarnation set to hit the big screen as soon as 2011.
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by Damon Martin
In a real world context, Benjamin Franklin may have very well been right, but those rules don’t apply when talking about the comic book universe. Like a bad soap opera where the lead character is bound to find out that his wife – whom has just made a full recovery from a terminal illness – is also his long lost sister, comic books are notorious for never letting any character stay dead for too long.
That leads us to the February 2011 Marvel Previews in which they tease us with the “Death of Spider-Man.” Sure, the sticky guy has flatlined a time or two in his day, but this will be the first major run where the character is billed as meeting his ultimate demise. While Marvel is apparently being very hush-hush about the events surrounding the eventual “death” of Spider-Man, the big goal of course is to raise sales for the Spider-Man titles before they rub him out.
Comic book deaths however are a cautionary tale because the concept is rarely very final in the land of the superhero. The genre has exploited this device for years, and many fans tire of the ubiquitous “dead hero/miraculous resurrection” storylines. With Peter Parker apparently the next hero on the chopping block, let’s look at some famous comic book deaths and how the heroes came back to life:
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by Damon Martin
After a stunning debut that drew in over 5 million viewers last week, AMC’s new series The Walking Dead has been picked up for a second season with a 13 episode run already approved by the network. Indeed, the zombie filled show, based on Robert Kirkman’s comics of the same name, has broken cable records for viewership among adults 18-49.
Now that The Walking Dead can be called a legitimate hit, television networks will likely mine the comic book world vein, looking for more material that can be turned into TV gold. Shows like NBC’s Heroes and ABC’s No Ordinary Family have drawn upon the superhero myth, but weren’t actually based on any established work. So as The Walking Dead continues on AMC, let’s take a look at five series comic book series that have the potential to make it big in TV land.
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by Damon Martin
On Sunday night, the The Walking Dead came to life on AMC bringing with it masses of the undead to stalk Sheriff Rick Grimes and his happy band of wanderers. The show, based on Robert Kirkman’s longstanding, Eisner Award-winning comic book series of the same name, was optioned for TV in late 2009 and made its television debut on Halloween night, 2010.
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by Damon Martin
It’s been announced that 300 and Dawn of the Dead director Zack Snyder will helm the latest installment of the Superman film franchise. The news has been much anticipated after producer Christopher Nolan (Memento, The Dark Knight) met with several major directors including Tony Scott and Darren Aronofsky.
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