Thursday, April 25, 2002

MARVEL MOVIE ROUNDUP

Cable network TechTV will take a first look at The Hulk movie on Thursday.

The film will be featured on Tech Live, which is a half-hour program that airs at 8:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. (ET).

According to promos for the spot, director Ang Lee and Jennifer Connelly, who stars as Betty Ross, will be interviewed.

In other Marvel movie news:

SPIDER-MAN

* Marvel Comics has provided The Continuum with two photographs of how the Spider-Man movie is being promoted in Hong Kong.

* Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee was featured on E! News Live on Wednesday. Lee recounted how he created the character, sang a little bit of the theme song and talked about he used to dress up as the character for his wife.

The spot also plugged the Spider-Man movie adaptation Lee wrote, his autobiography and his upcoming appearance on The Simpsons. "I hope they don't make me look too much like Brad Pitt," Lee quipped.

* Spider-Man stars Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst are featured on a spot currently airing on the TV Guide Channel. They both said that Peter Parker's everyman quality was a key to the film.

"He's a guy that we can all relate to," Maguire said. "I think he's a real genuine person."

"This super-hero you can really relate to and I think he's the most humanistic of all super-heroes," Dunst said. "You really go on this journey with him."

* Maguire will be a guest on NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Monday, May 6.

* Dunst will be a guest on NBC's Late Night with Conan on Conan O'Brien on Thursday, May 9.

DAREDEVIL

* Fox recently released a photo of Jennifer Garner, who plays Elektra, blowing out the candles on her 30th birthday cake. The cake featured an image of Elektra.

* Joe Pantoliano, who plays Ben Urich, will be a guest at the Motor City Comic Con on May 17-19 in Novi, Mich.

MARVEL PRESS CONFERENCE

In case you missed Wednesday's update on the Marvel Comics press conference, CLICK HERE.

WITCHBLADE UPDATE

Witchblade executive producer Ralph Hemecker told The Continuum that the events of the first-season ender will have a profound impact on the second season.

"Where the second season picks up is at the end of the first season, which is actually back at the beginning," Hemecker told The Continuum. "She (Sara) rewound time, so we're actually going to start the season a little bit before Sara has the Witchblade, take her through the point where she gets it and then go to the point where she's about to go into the Rialto Theater with Danny Woo and decides not to. At that point everything changes.

"Like Kenneth Irons says in one scene, 'Man cannot touch the petal of the nearest flower without altering the course of the furthest star.' So by the mere act of deciding not to go into the Rialto Theater because she's has this moment of premonition and/or déjà vu, everything else changes. Danny Woo stays alive and the entire ripple effect changes everything that happens after that."

Look for the second season of Witchblade - which premieres on TNT on Sunday, June 16 -- to have the same visual punch as the first season.

We're R-and-Ding some new effects for this year," Hemecker said. "We'll pull a bunch of stuff that we did last year, but we'll evolve it throughout this year, playing around with some of the stuff."

In other Witchblade news, TNT has released a cast photo for the second season, as well as photos of David Chokachi as Jake and Eric Etebari as Ian Nottingham.

DC COMICS FIRST LOOKS

For covers and four-page previews of DC Comics titles arriving in stores on Wednesday, CLICK HERE.

Titles include 100 Bullets #35, DC First: Superman/Lobo, Doom Patrol #8, Hawkman #3, High Roads #2, Superman #182, Tom Strong's Terrific Tales #3 and Young Justice #45.

CROSSGEN FIRST LOOKS

For covers and three-page previews of CrossGen Comics titles arriving in stores on May 8, CLICK HERE.

Titles include Mystic #24 and Way of the Rat #1.

NEW MUTANT X EPISODE

A new episode of Mutant X, "Ex Marks the Spot," is scheduled to air in syndication this week.

For a complete synopsis, with photos and spoilers, CLICK HERE.

NEW ANGEL EPISODE

A new episode of Angel, "A New World," is scheduled to air on Monday, May 6 on The WB.

Here's how the network describes the episode:

"Angel's (David Boreanaz) son Connor (guest star Vincent Kartheiser) is brought back from the Hell dimension a feral teenage warrior, and is hellbent on vengeance against his father for his evil past."

Tim Minear directed the episode, which was written by Jeffrey Bell.

Click on the thumbnails below for larger images from the episode.

X-MEN: EVOLUTION UPDATE

Look for a big push from Kids' WB! for the season finales of X-Men: Evolution.

Both parts of "Day of Reckoning" will be shown on Saturday, May 11, beginning at 11 a.m.

The network this week is sending out more than 100 tapes of the episode to the media.

Promotional images - like the one accompanying this story - have also been released, although they aren't actually from the episode.

Plotlines and new characters in "Day of Reckoning" are being kept secret, and the show's creators are promising many surprises.

BRIEFLY