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Thursday, Aug. 10, 2000
GATECRASHER: THE ANIMATED SERIES
Mainframe Entertainment has entered an agreement to produce an animated series based on Gatecrasher, the Black Bull comic book created by Mark Waid, Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti.
Thirteen episodes are planned for the first season of the computer-generated show, which doesn't have a network yet, although a two-minute trailer is already being worked on.
"We're hoping and looking at fall 2001," Palmiotti said. "There already is interest in it, but until it's signed, sealed and delivered, I don't want to talk about it. The reason the two-minute trailer is being made is for these people. So it's being paid for by somebody else to see what it is."
"The reason it was done so fast is because they are very interested," Waid said.
"It's one of those things where you have your fingers crossed, but you don't hold your breath," Conner said.
The Gatecrasher creators said the series will be extremely faithful to the comic book. Waid and Palmiotti are writing the series bible, and Conner will be the art director.
"We don't make much in the way of changes at all," Waid said. "We wrote up a little two-minute script for a piece of test animation they're working on right now. The whole idea and the edict from them was to keep it as close to the comic as we possibly can. Capture the feel of all the snappy dialogue and the back and forth, and that was fun. It's not a big special effects show. It will still be a comics show with stories and art."
"They literally loved the coloring, they loved the look, they loved the style guides," Palmiotti said. "So it will be the comic book brought to life - exactly. There won't be any kind of change that you will notice."
The TV show will draw its roots specifically from the Gatecrasher mini-series which preceded the ongoing book.
"I think they're looking to keep it in the high school," Conner said. "The mini-series was all taking place in the high school, and they liked that high school aspect of it. So I think they're going to stick to it all in high school, where Mia is constantly getting frustrated with Alec."
"They're going to base it on the mini-series, but they're going to use some of the stuff from the ongoing," Palmiotti said. "Some of the stuff we're doing, like the Halloween issue, even though they're in college, it could be brought into the senior year. The 13 episodes they ordered would be like the senior year. So we keep it there, but still have the sensibilities of where Alec and the crew are now."
The book's trademark humor will be retained, the creators said.
"We have been cautioned, and I think wisely, about not doing these four- or five-part arcs in the cartoon series," Waid said. "They want it all handled in one episode, and that's fine. It's going to be a very funny show. It's going to be high adventure, but that's not what I stick around for. I stick around for the funny parts."
Mainframe has been one of the pioneers in computer animation, from Reboot to more recent shows like Beast Machines and Action Man.
"They look at every comic property there is, and they said that this is the only one they felt was light-hearted and not deep and dark," Palmiotti said. "The character didn't sulk in the rain and sit on a rooftop and be suicidal. Our characters, even though they've got problems, they work through them."
TOP COW ROUNDUP
J. Michael Straczynski said he is in the process of closing the deal for the licensed rights and screenplay for a Rising Stars feature film.
"Of course, I'm going to write it," he said.
Stracyznski was part of two Top Cow panels - including one for the Witchblade television movie -- at the Wizard World convention last weekend. Here's a roundup of some of the other news:
"It is set in contemporary America. There is one character, an LAPD officer, who loses his soul - like that's never happened before," Straczynski said. "But he has a chance to get it back, unlike most of the LAPD. It's his journey across America to find what it takes to get it back again.
"You see a side of the country that you don't normally see, the side of the country that is out of the corner of your eye: the dispossessed, the lost, the disheartened, the thrown away.
"There's an education to it on a number of levels, but it's mainly meant to be entertaining."
Straczynski added that Midnight Nation does not take place in the same world as Rising Stars.
"They've thrown out some names of some pretty hot creators," said Top Cow's David Wohl.
"I've always felt Fathom as live-action would work out pretty well," Hawkins said. "But Hollywood doesn't have a great track record with water movies."
"I'm really quite interested in detective fiction," Jenkins said. "I find it kind of intriguing that a beautiful young woman working on the New York Police Department would probably have a lot of difficulty in working - it's difficult being a detective anyway," Jenkins said. "What I'm going to do is concentrate more on police work and characterization. Have a little bit more of 'truth is stranger than fiction.' Detective work is so interesting.
"Hopefully, we'll keep that sexy element to the character, because I know a lot of people really enjoy that."
"The reaction to the character was pretty strong," Hawkins said. "We really want to do more with it. I'm not sure who's going to write it."
BATMAN BEYOND: RETURN OF THE JOKER UPDATE
Paul Dini, producer/writer of the upcoming Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker direct-to-video movie, said that the flashback sequence takes up "not quite a fourth of the movie."
"It's an extensive chunk, which fills in a lot of the gaps," Dini said. "It answers a lot of questions. And it brings up some other questions."
Dini previewed the film at last weekend's Wizard World convention in Rosemont, Ill., with a short trailer put together by producer Bruce Timm that ends with Batman saying, "Let's dance, Bozo."
"There's some really cool stuff. There's some humor, there's some action and there's some real tragedy in there," Dini said. "It's sort of a big turning point in Batman's life and it explains the set up for why he became the man he did in Batman Beyond.
Dini said putting the movie together wasn't overly complicated.
"Glen (Murakami), Bruce (Timm) and I wrote the story last year," Dini said. "We sat in a room for like two days. We came up with some ideas and by the end of two days, we had this really cool story and we pitched it to Alan Burnett, to get his blessing. And he liked it.
"Then I went home and spent six weeks writing it and we basically shot it. Other than a couple of notes here or there - Bruce thinking a scene is too long or to change this here or there - it's pretty much everything I wrote. I liked it an awful lot."
Dini said he was scheduled to be part of a commentary track recording this week, part of the bonuses on the DVD.
"There's going to be two scenes that were cut just prior to animation, that didn't effect the story any; they just added a fair amount of background color," Dini said. "They are going to be included on the special material. The voices had been recorded. We shot it as a lycra reel, so we shot it from the storyboard and timed it as if it went to animation. And it's going to have music behind it. So these are going to be two lost sequences."
Dini said the animation for the film is being done by TMS. "They really are the best studio we've ever worked with, and they did a phenomenal job," Dini said.
In other Batman Beyond news:
BURCHETT EXCLUSIVE WITH DC
DC Comics announced Wednesday that artist Rick Burchett has signed a one-year exclusive contract.
"I've been with DC for long time, always had a good relationship with them, and have had the chance to work on a lot of great projects," Burchett said. "There was no need to go anywhere else."
After an 8-year tenure on the Batman: The Animated Series, Batman: The Lost Years and Batman: The Gotham Adventures series, Burchett said his move to a more realistic approach has been "a challenge to step up to."
"I was becoming so associated with that style of art; I wanted editors to perceive me as having more stylistic breadth," Burchett said. "The (animated-style) drawing has to be so on target with a bare minimum of lines; any problem with the drawing shows up immediately."
Burchett is working with Greg Rucka on the Batman/Huntress: A Cry for Blood mini-series.
"Quite simply, this has been the best working relationship I've ever had," Burchett said. "It's an instant chemistry thing; a comfortable fit right from the beginning. Greg and I are both on same page; we want to use words and pictures to get at the emotional heart of the story we're telling."
"He's just great," Rucka said, "a great story-teller."
Buchett said he and Rucka are contributing an 8-age story to Vertigo's Weird Western Tales next year as well as bookend for an upcoming Batman crossover that he said "will change the face of Gotham City forever."
X-MEN MOVIE UPDATE
Appearing at the Wizard World convention last weekend, Ray Park said he would like to return for the X-Men sequel.
"Yeah, I'd play Toad again, definitely," said Park, who praised the work of director Bryan Singer and called the film a "great experience."
Park also said that he has not been asked to reprise his role of Darth Maul for the second Star Wars prequel. Nor has he been asked to play Boba Fett.
"I do have a few projects coming up, but I don't want to jinx myself," Park said. "They could be in the comic book area."
In other X-Men news:
"None of us are really Australian. We just say we are to get a job around here," Jackman joked.
Jackman went to high school with Adam Garcia, who is currently featured in Coyote Ugly.
BRIEFLY
Javier Pulido, artist of Robin: Year One, will be providing the cover. Ty Templeton is doing the cover for #2, and Joe Kubert is doing the cover for #3.
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