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Friday, January 7, 2005

SUPERMAN CASTING: KEVIN SPACEY, KATE BOSWORTH

Kevin Spacey and Kate Bosworth, currently starring in Beyond the Sea, could be reunited on Bryan Singer's Superman movie.

According to the Hollywood trades, Spacey is set to place Lex Luthor and Bosworth is in negotiations to play Lois Lane inthe film, which begins production on March 3 in Australia.

Warner Bros. did not comment on the reports.

The pair are currently starring as Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee in Beyond the Sea, which Spacey directed. Spacey previously worked with Singer in The Usual Suspects.

Brandon Routh was previously cast as Clark Kent/Superman.

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FIRST LOOKS

For covers and three- and four-page previews of upcoming titles, CLICK HERE.

Titles include Seven Soldiers of Victory #0 and Blood of the Demon #1 From DC Comics and Super Manga Blast! #49 from Dark Horse Comics.

BUBBLEHEAD'S LOST IN SPACE

To commemorate the 40th annivesary of Lost in Space, Bubblehead Publishing, is set to release a 360-page, full-color graphic novel collecting and completing Bill Mumy's 12-part adventure Lost in Space: Voyage To The Bottom Of The Soul, a story originally published in serialized form by Innovation Publishing in 1992-93 but left unfinished when the publisher went out of business.

"It was a frustrating thing for me," said original series editor, George Broderick, Jr. "This was a body of work I was extremely proud to be working on... and then it just stopped when the Comics Direct Market crashed after the speculator bubble of the early 90's popped and we saw the untimely demise of many publishers, Innovation among them. I can't begin to imagine how Bill must've felt.

"This was a series that touched all the bases with the fans. It had a tense, well-plotted adventure story without all the silliness of the TV series... it had spot-on characterization by a writer who was there from the beginning and knew these characters best, and it even provided closure of a sort because the story begins with the Robinsons finally reaching Alpha Centauri... their original goal before they became Lost In Space. Bill and I shopped it around to other publishers, but the licensing rights became 'lost in space' then, especially in light of the fact that the merchandising rights to Lost In Space had just been transfered to New Line Cinema. We finally had to admit defeat and put it behind us."

That changed in 2004 when John Severin, Jr. came into the picture. Severin, along with business partner and sister Ruth Larenas, had the notion to complete the remaining six chapters of the story and, along with the original six issues, publish them under one cover.

"It started out as my wanting to publish a retrospective of my father's work," said Severin. "I'd worked in and around the publishing industry for years, but had never dealt with comic books per se, other than growing up with them as just something my father did for a living. As I was researching them, however, I happened to mention my plans to Bill Mumy, who clued me in on the history of Voyage.

"Something there resonated with me, so Bill put me in touch with Kevin Burns and Jon Jashni of Synthesis Entertainment who, in addition to being prolific film and television producers in their own right, now controlled the remake and licensing rights to Lost in Space on behalf of Space Productions and the Irwin Allen Estate. Kevin was a big fan of the comic -- having co-authored one of the earlier two-part Innovation LIS stories with Bill -- and was happy to make this a reality. When we were able to reunite both the original editor, George Broderick, Jr. and the original artist, Michal Dutkiewicz, everything clicked and away we went."

Current plans call for Bubblehead to release the graphic novel in July at San Diego's Comic-Con International, to coincide with the 40th anniversary of Lost in Space, the TV series, but advance pre-publication sales of the book will be available on the company's internet commerce site www.lisvoyage.com.

Said Mumy: "I'm working with some great people on this project. I'm so glad the original team is back to finish "Voyage to the Bottom of the Soul" properly. For over ten years fans have been asking me how this huge story ended, wanting me to print the unpublished second half of the scripts alone, but I didn't want to diminish the piece that way. Michal's artwork looks great and I'm very excited about it. I've always been proud of this story. You don't have to be a fan of the old television show to get into this book but those who are will especially enjoy it. It really advances the classic arc of Lost in Space."

ELEKTRA MOVIE UPDATE

Rob Bowman, director of the Elektra movie, said it might be a bit more introspective than other comic-book films.

"I think the difference between this film and other big comic-book movies is that we spend some time inside Elektrašs head; the true story is really inside of her," Bowman said.

"There's so much unspoken reality in her. Sure, I want audiences to experience a big action movie and give them the thrills of watching the character kick some butt. But I also wanted them to root for Elektra to triumph over her own inner darkness."

In other Elektra movie news:

* The film is expected to open in nearly 3,000 theaters on Jan. 14.

* The Elektra soundtrack album on Varese Sarabande will be available on Jan. 11.

To compliment the mystical and supernatural elements of the film, composer Christopher Beck experimented with different and unique scoring methods.

"One thing I wanted to try for a while," he said, "was to create textures and music beds and edit and manipulate them to create both strange and familiar musical elements."

Beck initially prerecorded with an orchestra and edited and tweaked the recording to produce abstract sound design. He used the contemporary sound design to highlight a more traditional score he recorded in additional sessions with a full, 83-player orchestra.

BRIEFLY

Marvel Comics has announced that X-Men: Phoenix-Endsong #1 has sold. A second limited-edition printing of the book, with a variant cover featuring Jean Grey in her green costume, will reach stands on Jan. 26, the same day as issue #2.

The five-issue series, by Greg Pak and Greg Land, details the return of the Phoenix Force, the entity that made the character Jean Grey into one of the most popular members of the X-Men ever.

"One of the greatest concepts to have come out of the Claremont-Byrne X-Men is the Phoenix," said Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada. "Now that Jean Grey is gone, the Phoenix Force has become virtually a character in its own right and really deserves its own spotlight. The two Gregs have handed in one of my most favorite mini-series here at Marvel and I'm so happy it's been this well received. Great concept, great story, great creators: win/win/win for the fans!"

The Saturday, Jan. 22 episode of Teen Titans on Kids' WB! will be "Fear Itself." For the complete Kids' WB! schedule for the week of Jan. 17, CLICK HERE.

Coming Friday: Marvel news -- and much more!!!