Wednesday, March 7, 2001

BERNIE WRIGHTSON TALKS SPIDER-MAN, GHOST RIDER MOVIES

Veteran comics artist Bernie Wrightson told The Continuum that he has contributed designs for both the Spider-Man and Ghost Rider movies.

"I worked with the costume designer, Jim Acheson, on Spider-Man," Wrightson told The Continuum. "I personally didn't have a lot to do with Spider-Man himself. But I worked a lot on the Green Goblin.

"There were like three of us working on the Goblin, and we went through a lot of permutations and different ideas about it, and it will be fun to see what they settle on."

Wrightson is working with director Stephen Norrington on Ghost Rider, and has been dealing with the title character. He said he remembered Ghost Rider as "this guy with a flaming skull on a motorcycle" but needed reference material to help jog his memory.

"Then I had a meeting with Steve Norrington and he had some very specific ideas about how he wanted the character to look," Wrightson said. "I started doing sketches based on our conversations, on what he wanted. We made some changes. The character right now is a lot more monstrous and demonic than in the comic book. I like it a lot better. It's got a lot of personality and character.

"That's where it stands now, and I don't know how much farther we're going to develop it after this. He said that the movie is pretty well green-lit, and that when they go into pre-production, he's going to call me again because he has some other things he wants me to do."

Wrightson said he's enjoyed working with Norrington, who directed Blade.

"I think he's terrific," Wrightson said. "He's a great guy and he's a hell of an illustrator, too. He started in illustration and effects work before directing. He was one of the effects guys on Aliens when it was filming in Europe.

"I loved Blade, especially after he took this very dated, kind of lame character from the 70's, who was kind of a comic-book/Shaft/vampire killer guy and really did something fun with it."

TIMOTHY BRADSTREET WORKS ON HULK MOVIE

Artist Timothy Bradstreet told The Continuum that he will be working on Universal Pictures' Hulk movie for director Ang Lee.

"Kevin Feige at Marvel Entertainment contacted me last month," Bradstreet told The Continuum. "I met him while working on Blade 2. No big news yet. I'm set to meet with director Ang Lee some time in the next four weeks. I'll know more after that."

Lee will likely make the Hulk film his follow-up to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, for which he has received an Academy Award nomination.

Hulk will be Bradstreet's second movie. He provided designs for the Blade sequel, which is being directed by Guillermo del Toro in Prague.

"About the only thing I've heard recently is that principle photography has begun in Prague and that make-up FX supervisor Steve Johnson has done an incredible job with the Reaper make-up," Bradstreet said. "I hear stuff every now and again and there is a possibility I may be going to Prague to shoot some pictures and be an extra in a scene of carnage."

Look for more on Bradstreet and his involvement with Hellblazer soon here in The Continuum.

FATAL SPIDER-MAN MOVIE ACCIDENT

A welder working on an office building set for the Spider-Man movie in Downey, Calif., was killed Tuesday in an accident involving a crane.

The victim was not immediately identified.

Said Sony in a statement: "The studio and filmmakers are deeply saddened and send condolences to all involved -- we are cooperating fully with the authorities investigating the accident."

According to reports from Fox, CNN and Reuters, a crane crashed onto the construction basket holding the victim and another worker, authorities said. The second worker escaped injury, said Robert Rowe, the deputy fire marshal for the Downey Fire Department.

The accident happened around 9 a.m. (PT) when a crane hoisting a building facade suddenly toppled. A second crane was holding the two welders in the construction basket.

"The crane struck the basket holding the two welders and one of the welders was killed instantly," Rowe said.

None of the cast was present around the accident. Construction was halted, pending investigation.

IMAGE'S THE MANHUNTER PROJECT

Brian Haberlin and Jay Anacleto are re-teaming on The Manhunter Project, a new quarterly series from Image Comics.

Haberlin told The Continuum that the book would be printed in a format similar to French graphic novels, squarebound and slightly over-sized with sequential art and illustrated text.

Here's how the book is described:

"A certain black ops agency has come up with the perfect operative.

"She can't be caught.

"And even if she is, there's now way to link her to any action because she doesn't even know she's an agent.

"How do they do it? Through the magic of genetics, of course. Our agent has a genetic trigger in her head and once that is thrown, she changes into a completely different woman, different hair color, fingerprints, shoe size, mind â¤| you name it.

"She was hailed as a success â¤| that was until the genetic trigger began to break down and each half of the woman became aware of the other. Now she is considered a threat to her own agency, and she doesn't like her other self much either."

Haberlin displayed an ashcan of the book at MegaCon last weekend. The Manhunter Project will debut at the Wizard World convention in August, with Anacleto making his first appearance in the United States.

GIVE'EM A CLICK

MORE ON JLA/AVENGERS

Writer Kurt Busiek and artist George Perez both said they will have ample time to work on the JLA/Avengers crossover.

During a panel at MegaCon where the crossover was announced, both detailed how the project - which, at four 48-page issues figures to be time-consuming - fits into their schedules.

"It won't affect my work on Avengers," Busiek said. "Astro City is affected by my health more than anything else. It's not that I don't have time to do Astro City, but I have a sinus and ear infection right now that makes it difficult to get stuff like that written.

"At this very moment, I probably have the lightest workload I've had in years. And it's going to take a long time for this to get done. The work that I have to do on it is going to be spread out to fit George's schedule. I will be able to do that without difficulty."

For JLA/Avengers Perez, is using a clause in his exclusive contract with CrossGen Comics for a leave of absence.

"I wanted to be on staff, but I now I have this conflict, but they found a way of doing it," he said. "In terms of my schedule, I will be going to JLA/Avengers once the plot is ready. I will be doing that in addition to my CrossGen book. I have two more issues of CrossGen Chronicles. Then I will get a full year leave of absence from CrossGen Chronicles, thanks to Mark Alessi, who made special arrangements, which freed me totally to work on JLA/Avengers for a year - with nothing else. That means nobody call me up for work."

Perez also noted that his Gorilla Comics title, Crimson Plague, has been canceled and he will not be part of the Stan Lee project at DC Comics.

Look for more on JLA/Avengers on Thursday here in The Continuum.

BLACK TIDE COMING FROM TIDALWAVE STUDIOS

TidalWave Studios announced Tuesday the launch of the Black Tide, a new bi-monthly comic to be published by Image Comics.

The book is written and created by newcomer Bishop, with art by Mike S. Miller, inks by Armando Durruthy and colors by James Rochelle. Black Tide will be story edited by Marv Wolfman.

The series is about three modern-day heroes who banished from their homeland and are forced together to fight evil, overcome their fears and right the wrongs they left behind.

"I want Black Tide to blow the doors of the comic stores," Bishop said. "It is based on mysteries and legends of Atlantis. There will be a lot of historical and scientific facts about our planet in the comic. I want to educate as well as entertain the readers. There will be a page dedicated to facts and myths that I have researched.

"Working with Mike S. Miller on this project will be great. His talent level is the perfect match for what I have envisioned this to be".

TidalWave editor-in-chief Darren G. Davis said, "This book ads to the success of TidalWave Studios. I think it will add another dimension to the TidalWave world. The characters in Black Tide will show up in the other books that we do such as the 10th Muse and Dollz. I was so amazed in reading Bishop's script and how much research was done on this, that I said yes right away. I have always been fond of Mike S. Miller's work and wanted to work on a project with him. He is the fastest artist I have ever dealt with and have a lot of confidence in him."

A six-page preview of Black Tide will be inserted in the Diamond Dialogue in August. The preview will also be available for sale at San Diego Comic Con and Wizard World. After that fans can pick up the preview online at tidalwavestudios.com.

NOCTURNALS UPDATE

Oni Press announced on Tuesday that two projects from Dan Brereton's Nocturnals, The Gunwitch: Outskirts of Doom, right, and The Nocturnals: The Dark Forever, below left, will respectively begin in June and July.

The Gunwitch mini-series will run bi-monthly for three black-and-white issues. Brereton is re-teaming with artist Ted Naifeh.

Here's how Oni describes the series:

"Outskirts of Doom follows the undead gunslinger as he faces off against vampires and other creatures of the night in a cross between Hong Kong action flicks, spaghetti westerns, and drive-in horror pictures."

"Gunwitch has always been a favorite of Nocturnals fans," Brereton said. "And when the opportunity arose to do a second Nocturnals project this summer, I knew it had to be the Gunwitch in the spotlight."

"After seeing his interpretation of Dan's characters in the Troll Bridge special, we knew Ted would be the perfect fit for this Nocturnals spin-off," said Oni Press editor-in-chief Jamie S. Rich. "His moody and eye-catching artwork captures the fearsome nature of Dan's story perfectly, and his fluid line makes the action really pop off the page. They share the same sensibilities when it comes to blending different genres into one detailed setting. It's a perfect team."

In addition to the black-and-white Gunwitch series, Brereton also promises a fully painted follow-up to his first Nocturnals series, Black Planet.

"Nocturnals: The Dark Forever reunites Doc Horror, Starfish, Polychrome, Raccoon and the rest of the gang several years after the events of Black Planet," Brereton said. "As a newly surfacing evil threatens to engulf Pacific City, the group must once again prevent disaster. I'm very excited about how The Dark Forever is coming together. It's a story I've wanted to tell for some time and so far, it's been like a homecoming for me being able to tap into their world once again."

BRIEFLY