Saturday, April 6, 2002

JUSTICE LEAGUE'S "FURY"

Part one of "Fury," a new Justice League animated series episode, will air on Sunday on Cartoon Network at 7 p.m.

"'Fury' features some villains who were first introduced in an episode called 'Injustice For All.' However, because of the vagaries of network programming this episode is airing first," Justice League producer Rich Fogel told The Continuum.

"Luckily, this shouldn't be a big problem because all our viewers need to know is that Solomon Grundy, Copperhead, Shade and Star Sapphire are the remnants of a gang that was once recruited by Lex Luthor to fight the Justice League. Now, they are following a mysterious villainess called Aresia who has her own agenda. And it's going to take the entire League to overcome them."

Julie Bowen, from NBC's Ed, plays Aresia, and Susan Sullivan returns as Wonder Woman's mother, Hippolyta.

"Stan Berkowitz and Dwayne McDuffie wrote a dark and disturbing script with lots of twists along the way," Fogel said. "Director Butch Lukic personally storyboarded the tragic flashback sequence. And Kris Carter composed another brilliant, brooding score."

SPIDER-MAN MOVIE UPDATE

Spider-Man director Sam Raimi said that he tried to make a film with characters who could serve as role models.

"I knew kids were going to see this movie, and, right or wrong, they were going to look up to Spider-Man as their hero," Raimi said Friday during a press conference in Tokyo. "So I felt a tremendous obligation in working with Tobey (Magiure) and Kirsten (Dunst) and Willem (Dafoe) - but mostly in this case Tobey and Kirsten - to make sure we were creating characters that were worthy of these children's admiration."

For a complete transcript and images from the news conference, CLICK HERE.

In other Spider-Man movie news:

* The above photo shows one of two specifically designed Dodge Vipers with a Spider-Man paint scheme. The cars are part of a sweepstakes and a promotion from Cingular Wireless.

Official sweepstakes rules are available at www.cingular.com/spidersweeps.

* Next week's Marvel comics will carry an ad for the Spider-Man PopTarts.

SMALLVILLE UPDATE

The WB has released details about "Reaper," a new episode of Smallville airing on Tuesday, April 23.

Here's how the network describes the episode:

"Clark (Tom Welling) must stop a kryptonite-infected man (guest star Reynaldo Rosales) who seeks to relieve the suffering of the elderly and sick by turning them into ashes - and Whitney's (Eric Johnson) ailing father may be his next victim. Meanwhile, Lex (Michael Rosenbaum) is furious after his father sends someone to look into LuthorCorp's financial records and this man reveals Lex's secret investigation into Clark and his family."

Terrence O'Hara directed the episode, which was written by Cameron Litvack.

Look for more Smallville news on Monday here in The Continuum.

BRIEFLY