Friday, January 4, 2002

ELEKTRA CAST?/MARVEL MOVIE UPDATE

The role of Elektra for the Daredevil movie has been cast and could be announced as early as Friday, E! News Daily reported Thursday.

When contacted by The Continuum on Thursday night, representatives of Marvel Studios could not confirm the report or elaborate. Look for more developments on this story soon.

E! visited the offices of Marvel Studios in Los Angeles on Thursday afternoon, interviewing CEO Avi Arad, and also included interviews from the set of Blade 2, as well as comments from Eric Bana, who will star in the Hulk movie.

Here's a rundown of the highlights:

The Hulk: Arad said the Hulk will be computer-generated.

"If the Hulk was human, in make-up or prosthetics, oh man, I wouldn't want to be there," Arad said. "The opportunities are greater than that. You wouldn't want to do Jurassic Park with hand puppets."

Spider-Man: "This movie works on a human level first," Arad said. "Obviously, the effects and what Sony Pictures and Sony Effects, what they put together, have never been done before. It's all just mind-boggling."

The camera revealed boxes of Spider-Man cereal and Spider-Man Pop Tarts in the offices.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Dr Pepper, Hardee's restaurants and Hershey's have also been lined up as promotional sponsors.

Blade 2: Arad said the success of the first Blade movie helped jump-start Marvel's movie opportunities.

"It was far more successful than people anticipated," Arad said. "And tt sort of gave the courage and encouragement to the studios to recognize what this universe brings."

E! showed more from its visit to the Blade 2 set in Prague, including comments from stars Wesley Snipes (Blade), Tcheky Karyo (Damaskinos), Ron Perlman (Reinhardt) and Leonor Varela (Nyssa).

"If you can imagine your worst enemy coming to," Snipes said, "and saying, 'Hey, join forces with me for a little while and then we'll go catch this other bad guy.' If you can imagine that, that's what the movie is about."

"Visually it's going to be much more exciting," Karyo said.

"When he walks on the set, it's formidable. Your attention - even me, I'm drawn to look at him," Perlman said.

Click below for images from the spot.

TOM DEFALCO TALKS SPIDER-GIRL

Writer Tom DeFalco told The Continuum that the Scarlet Spider will be appearing in an upcoming issue of Spider-Girl.

DeFalco gave a rundown of his plans for the title, which was given a reprieve after being canceled last year, and is on course for #50.

"In issues #42-43 -- which both come out in the same month and read more like a 44 page story than a single issue -- we resolve the current gang war story storyline -- in a very Spider-Girl way -- and Mayday makes a big mistake, one that will continue to haunt her for the next few months," DeFalco said.

"In #44, Peter finally has the talk with his daughter, and he tells her all about his origin, some of his mistakes and she finally learns about her Uncle Ben (Reilly). Also, as a result of this tale, Peter makes a long-anticipated and much-demanded decision.

"In #45, Mayday discovers that someone in Midtown High has uncovered her secret identity. In #46, Mayday gets a partner -- the Scarlet Spider! In #47, she faces her greatest challenge--a cosmically power super-foe who has come to destory the Fantastic Five! And then things get really interesting as we count down toward Issue #50."

DeFalco also wrote for the X-Men: Evolution Dot-Comics in the current Burger King promotion.

"I was hired to write two of the stories -- Toad and Quicksilver -- and I had a blast with them," DeFalco said.

X-MEN: EVOLUTION UPDATE

The title of the all-girls episode of X-Men: Evolution will be "Walk on the Wild Side."

The episode is No. 23 in the production order of the show. "Operation: Rebirth," the episode featuring Captain America, is No. 24.

Kids' WB! has not released air dates for either episode yet. The furthest scheduled episode is a repeat of "Bada Bing, Bada Boom" on Saturday, Jan. 19.

In other X-Men: Evolution news, Magneto is now available through the Burger King Big Kids Meal promotion.

HUMBERTO RAMOS DRAWS PETER PARKER

Humberto Ramos, who has been drawing covers for Peter Parker: Spider-Man, will also be drawing the interiors for four issues.

"Humberto's going to be working on a special four-issue story that appears from #44 to #47," Peter Parker writer Paul Jenkins told The Continuum. "Actually, he's already at work on the first part."

The story will involve the Green Goblin.

"I'm really excited about this because I know people have wanted to see him draw Spidey for a long time and he and I have wanted to work together for ages," Jenkins said of Ramos.

ONI, AAA POP TEAM UP

Oni Press and AAA Pop will start their series of one-shot collaborations between Mike Allred and other artists - and featuring Allred's Atomics characters - in April with an It Girl one-shot, illustrated by Chynna Clugston-Major.

This will be the first solo book starring one of the Atomics team members.

"When Jamie Rich suggested we do an It Girl comic with Chynna on art, I could instantly see how cool it would be," Allred said. "Chynna is a unique new talent in the comics world, and I hope to capture a little of the fresh point of view she brings to her own work. She has the right kind of spastic energy to capture that 'it' that makes It Girl."

"Mike is one of my favorite creators," Clugston-Major said. "He's got that whacky '60s style, like Carnaby Street in technicolor. I jumped at the chance to do something with him."

It Girl, 24 full-color pages, will arrive in stores on April 26 and will cost $2.95. The cover will be by Allred, Clugstron-Major and Laura Allred, with Clugston-Major also drawing the back cover. Interior colors will be by Han Allred.

Oni and AAA Pop will follow It Girl in July with Spaceman, a collaboration between Allred and painter/animator Lawrence Marvit.

ATOMIC CITY TALES RE-RELEASED

Oni Press announced on Thursday the re-release of the first volume of Jay Stephens' Atomic City Tales will be in April.

Atomic City Tales: Go Power was originally published by Kitchen Sink.

"The comics community has a pretty good sense of history, but sometimes we forget about recent history," said Oni Press editor-in-chief Jamie S. Rich. "There's a lot of clamor for the four-color slugfests that inspire those wistful tears of nostalgia, but what about the comics that laid the foundation for Oni Press and all the current crop of independents and creator-owners? Where is the weeping for Atomic City Tales?"

Here's how Oni describes the book:

"Atomic City Tales: Go Power is a whimsical look at what happens when a rockabilly-styled hipster gets superpowers, and how it changes the face of superheroics and supercrime in a futuristic metropolis. Big Bang joins the likes of the Quirk and the Green Torpedo in socking it to Doc Phantom and his gang of loonies, and along the way he kicks down the fourth wall by bringing Jay Stephens in to be his own personal cartoonist and set his adventures down on the comic book page."

"I look forward to seeing my early work come back into print," Stephens said, "and getting my books under one publishing umbrella. There are a lot of new readers who have seen Jetcat Clubhouse, who have seen where I ended up, but don't yet know where I came from. This is their chance to make things right."

Atomic City Tales: Go Power is scheduled to ship on April 19. It is a standard comics-sized book with 160 pages of black-and-white story and art, and retails for $12.95. The second Atomic City Tales, Doc Phantom, is set for Dec. 2, and price and length are to be determined.

BRIEFLY