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Friday, June 2, 2000
X-MEN MOVIE UPDATE
Wolverine will likely be bringing his trademark language to the X-Men live-action movie.
"We got the 'bub' in there," said Hugh Jackman, who plays Logan. "We kept playing with that. Bryan (Singer, X-Men director) is fantastic like that.
"Sometimes it wouldn't be in there (in the script), and at the end of this fight with Sabretooth, one of the lines is, 'I ain't finished with you yet.' And I just came into it and said, 'I ain't finished with you yet, bub.' And we cut, and he went, 'Yeah!'
"It's very hard to do self-consciously things that are so idiosyncratic in the comic, so you just chuck them in there when it feels right, and we chucked them in a few times. It'll be up to Bryan and the editor to see how many times it makes it, but I hope it does. It feels right saying it. It feels right."
It also connects with core X-Men audience.
"We want a movie that's accessible, but we also want to pay attention to the details that the core audience wants," producer Ralph Winter said. "Does Wolverine smoke a cigar? Does he say Bub? Are the claws real? There are all things we know the core audience wants, and we're very aware of those things and want to pay attention to that stuff."
Jackman, who is Australian, said he speaks more with an American accent than Canadian.
"I hope the Canadian connection aren't going to be too upset," Jackman said. "I'd like to think, in terms of characterization, that, yeah, he's living in Canada. Canada is home. But he doesn't know where he was born, let alone how old he is, for crying out loud. We didn't play it up. I don't want to make too many excuses for it, but we didn't want to confuse the wider audience. We always have to be careful with a movie like this. As well as catering to the people who know everything about it, we have a large audience out there we want to bring to X-Men. It's just one of those things that got sacrificed along the way."
In other X-Men movie news:
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FIRST LOOK - UNCANNY X-MEN #383
Uncanny X-Men #383 ships next Wednesday from Marvel Comics. The issue is written by Chris Claremont, with art by Adam Kubert and Tim Townsend and a cover by Kubert.
Here's how Marvel describes the issue:
"What's big, freezing, has its own chapter of the Thieves Guild and is very, very dangerous to the X-Men? The answer is Russia - where the Children of the Atom have traveled to help Gambit return a favor of life-and-death implications. What they find is a bizarre underworld run by a killer named Ransome Sole - and a fight that could lead them into slavery. The introduction of the most strange and grotesque group of villains readers might see this year: Bludgeon & Cudgel, Revanant and Big Casino."
Uncanny X-Men #383 will be 48 pages.
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DIXON, BEATTY TEAM ON ROBIN
Chuck Dixon told The Continuum that he will co-write DC Comics' Robin #87-90 with Scott Beatty in a story that will introduce a "mystery" new character.
"He's a Scott Beatty creation and we've been talking about him for two years now," Dixon told The Continuum. "I think this character will catch on in a big way.
"The story is a continent spanning adventure story with lots of 'James Bond' moments and a threat way above Robin's weight class. This arc opens a whole big can o'worms which will reverberate through the DCU in the coming year -- in my books anyhow. It also includes the return of a classic Robin villain who's been out of the limelight for a while."
Dixon also co-wrote the upcoming Robin: Year One with Beatty.
"Scott may be the only writer I've met who 100 percent 'gets' Tim Drake," Dixon said. "And we had such a blast doing Robin: Year One together."
Dixon said he will return as sole writer of Robin as of Robin #91.
CLERKS RATINGS
The premiere of the Clerks animated series helped ABC win the Wednesday night ratings this week.
Based on "fast affiliate ratings," Clerks earned a second-place finish in its 9:30 p.m. slot Adults 18-49 (3.5/10) and Adults 18-34 (3.7/11), behind only NBC's coverage of the NBA Conference Finals. In addition, Clerks took first place in the time slot among Teens (2.7/10).
ABC has announced synopses for the next two episodes.
The June 7 episode is "Episode Two or The Clip Show." After the convenience store is robbed, a locksmith is called in to replace all the locks. Eager to test out the new latches, Dante and Randal lock themselves into the freezer. While waiting for help, they reminisce about the good and the bad times they have share together."
The June 14 episode is "Episode Three." Randal's overactive imagination puts Leonardo on full tactical alert when he spreads hysterical rumors that the monkey in the new pet store is carrying the deadly Matoba virus.
ABC has an episode of Clerks scheduled for June 21, but has not released any details yet.
MAGE MOVIE UPDATE
Matt Wagner told The Continuum that progress continues on the Mage movie at Spyglass Entertainment.
"The final draft screenplay just went to Roger Burnbaum at Spyglass for a weekend read," Wagner said.
"We should know by Monday or Tuesday whether we have a firm green light. Everyone seems to have the opinion that the script is 'director bait.'"
The Mage script is by John Rogers and adapts the "Hero Discovered" story.
PEREZ AT CROSSGEN
George Perez talked to The Continuum about the projects he will be involved in after leaving Marvel Comics' Avengers.
"I will be penciling a series of four specials for CrossGen that will provide background stories for the regular monthly books," Perez said. "I'll be working on these for a year with the first book to be solicited sometime in the summer of 2001. The writers are CrossGen head writers Ron Marz and Barbara Kesel. Unlike most of the creators working for CrossGen, I am still a freelancer and will be working on projects elsewhere as well."
"I'm looking forward to working with George immensely," Marz told The Continuum. "It's a given that he's a master, but it's that much more exciting for me because George was one of the first artists whose work I recognized and sought out when I began reading comics. I wish I could go back and tell the 10-year-old me that I'm getting the opportunity to collaborate with George. Now I just have to come up with a story on a scale that's worthy of George's talents."
Perez will be also drawing the last of the Stan Lee/DC books, based on Crisis on Infinite Earths.
At Image, Perez continues his work on the Gorilla Comics title Crimson Plague and has drawn the cover for Spawn #100.
NOLAN ON REX MORGAN, M.D.
Graham Nolan told The Continuum that he will be the artist of King Features' syndicated Rex Morgan, M.D. comic strip beginning June 19.
"This all came about from my efforts to get Monster Island syndicated," Nolan said. "All the syndicates loved it, but they all said the same thing...'we can't sell a continuity/adventure strip to the newspapers anymore.'
"However, King Features had an opening coming up with the retirement of Tony DePretta on Rex and asked if I would be interested in it. After doing some research on the strip and learning of its long history -- it started in 1948! -- I became intrigued with the idea of working on it and after doing some samples, got the job."
According to Nolan, the strip appears in some 300 newspapers.
"I will be doing all the art and lettering as well as coloring the Sunday," Nolan said. "On June 19 my first daily will appear in papers, and my first Sunday on June 25.
"I will continue to freelance in comic books as well."
BRIEFLY
Copyright © 2000, The Comics Continuum