Wednesday, July 3, 2002

MEN IN BLACK II UPDATE

Although stars Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith and director Barry Sonnenfeld return for Men in Black II, the sequel features several new actors to the franchise.

Lara Flynn Boyle plays the villain Serleena, an evil Kylothian creature who disguises herself as a lingerie model. There is one person who knows the secret of Serleena's mission on Earth the former MIB agent Kay, who is now working at the U.S. postal service.

"When she arrives she's this root that looks like a combination of an artichoke and a jellyfish," Sonnenfeld said. "And then she turns into a beautiful lingerie model who's played by Lara Flynn Boyle - who is a delight to work with. Her performance is totally sarcastic. She's the perfect actress for me to work with."

"When I was first offered the part, I thought, 'Cool, I get to be an alien in a huge blockbuster movie,' but I didn't really know what that would mean," Boyle said. "I was a big fan of the first movie and I'd known Will (Smith) a bit over the years, through friends, and I knew he was such a nice man and he and Tommy had this amazing chemistry. What I didn't know was how much fun it was going to be working with Barry and his whole crew.

"Barry runs a very relaxed set. He cracks everyone up with his jokes, makes outrageous comments and walks around in a cowboy hat. I'm crazy about working with him."

Johnny Knoxville, from MTV's Jackass, plays Serleena's two-headed sidekick.

"Johnny plays both heads, which at the time we conceived it seemed like a brilliant idea for both Johnny and I to play with," Sonnenfeld said. "In retrospect, it was a nightmare because you can only shoot one head at a time. So, weeks after one performance, you'd have to edit it and then shoot the other head on blue screen. He's have to play off his other head but he couldn't look at the monitor because it would create a reflection back on the blue screen."

And Rosario Dawson and Patrick Warburton join the MIB franchise after other comic-book roles.

Dawson, who plays Laura, starred in Josie and the Pussycats. Warburton, who plays Agent Tee, starred in The Tick live-action television series.

Click on the thumbnails for larger images and look for more MIB news on Thursday.

NEW MUTANT X EPISODE

A new Mutant X episode, "Dancing on the Razor," will air this weekend in syndication.

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

FABLES #1 SELLS OUT, NOW ONLINE

DC Comics has announced that the first issue of the new Vertigo series, Fables, has sold at the publisher.

Readers can still read the entire first issue online at DCComics.com/Fables/index.html.

"I want as few impediments as possible towards creating lots of loyal Fables readers, so I'm happy DC is posting the complete first issue online for everyone to see, and more importantly to read," said Bill Willingham, writer/creator of Fables. "With the first issue sold out, this will encourage anyone who missed it to pick up the second issue and so on without being hopelessly left behind by the story in progress."

Fables #1, written and created by Willingham, with art by Lan Medina and Steve Leialoha and variant covers by James Jean and Alex Maleev, features fairy tale characters living in exile from their respective homelands and forced to take up secret residence in modern day New York City. When Rose Red goes missing and is presumed murdered, it's up to Deputy Mayor Snow White and Bigby Wolf, Fabletown's one-man police force, to sniff out whodunnit. Can the reluctant partners solve the mystery of Rose Red's murder without killing one another in the process? The answers lie in Fables #5, on sale Sept. 11.

With Fables #6, penciller Mark Buckingham joins Willingham, Leialoha and Jean for the 5-part story arc "Animal Farm."

After Rose Red's murder has been solved and the guilty parties have been punished, Fabletown's Deputy Mayor Snow White is left physically exhausted and spiritually drained. So she decides to personally drive one errant Colin Piggy back up to the Farm, the remote, upstate annex where the non-human Fables reside. But something wicked is brewing in upstate New York.

Fables #6 goes on sale Oct. 9.

ALTERNATIVE COMICS SIGNS WITH DIAMOND

Diamond Comic Distributors and Alternative Comics have reached an agreement naming Diamond as the exclusive U.S. and non-exclusive worldwide distributor of the publisher's English-language titles to the bookstore, library, warehouse club, mass merchandise, and specialty markets.

The deal allows Alternative Comics to continue selling its products through certain other specialty market venues.

Alternative Comics' flagship Indy Magazine began publication in 1993 as a guide to independent comic books. After six years in print, Alternative Comics moved Indy Magazine exclusively to the web in 1998 as the company focused on publishing a broad range of alternative comic book titles including work by Graham Annable, Gabrielle Bell, Nick Bertozzi, Ed Brubaker, Leela Corman, Assaf and Tomer Hanuka, Tom Hart, Dean Haspiel, Sam Henderson, James Kochalka, David Lasky, Jon Lewis, Matt Madden, Josh Neufeld, Jen Sorensen, Robert Ullman, Sara Varon and Steven Weissman.

"Alternative Comics produces some of the most original and intelligent alternative titles in the business today," said Diamond Vice President of Purchasing Bill Schanes. "Diverse, artistic, and flat-out cool, its line-up of books includes everything from Titans of Finance to Magic Whistle to the critically acclaimed 9-11: Emergency Relief."

"Over the past two years we've experienced a substantial increase in the demand for our titles," said Alternative Comics publisher Jeff Mason, "Book stores and libraries have been increasingly catering to the public interest for alternative comic books. This agreement ensures our ability to provide the widest possible audience for our artists and creative works."

FIRST LOOK: THOR #51

Thor #51 will arrive in stores on July 10 from Marvel Comics. The issue is written by Dan Jurgens, with art by Tom Raney and Scott Hanna, and a cover by Raney.

Here's how Marvel describes the issue:

"Guest-starring Spider-Man. Marvel can't tell you why the web-slinger is swinging among the spires of Asgard without giving away the climax to Thor #50. But he's on a collision course with Thor -- who's come to some Earth-shattering decisions about what the Lord of Asgard should be doing!"

Thor #51 will be 32 pages and will cost $2.25.

GIVE'EM A CLICK

BRIEFLY