Tuesday, August 5, 2003
PUNISHER MOVIE PRESS CONFERENCE
Thomas Jane, who is starring in The Punisher, said the movie is "not a routine revenge story."
"It's much more character driven," Jane said during a press conference for the movie in Tampa, Fla., on Monday. "I feel like I'm playing a real guy. I feel the responsibility to this character as much as I felt the responsibility of bringing Mickey Mantle to life in 61*, as much as I felt bringing South African Andre Stander to life, as much as I felt bringing beatnik Neal Cassidy to life.
"It's a beautiful story about a guy in a unique position. His family is murdered, and he sees only one choice available to him: that's to go after the people who killed his family. He can't lose, because if he gets them, he has avenged, in some small part, the death of his family. If they get him, then he is punished for not being able to save them. That's a beautiful story about atonement and punishment."
Director/writer Jonathan Hensleigh said he wants to bring a gritty tone to the film.
"We're attempting to make a full blown, huge action picture with all of the Hollywood trappings for probably less money than a picture like this has ever been executed for," he said. "That's a bold claim, but I'll stand by it.
"It will all be live-action, no computer-generated characters or stunts. We want to re-create the tone of classic action movies from the '60s and '70s."
Look for a complete transcription of the press conference and much more Punisher news very soon here in The Continuum.
In other Punisher news:
* Artisan Entertainment announced that supporting cast members for the film will include Roy Scheider, Samantha Mathis, Laura Harring, Will Patton, Ben Foster, James Carpinello, Mark Collie, Eddie Jemison, Russell Andrews and John Pinette.
* Conrad W. Hall is serving as the cinematographer, with Michael Hanan as the production designer and Lisa Tomczeszyn as the costume designer.
NEW JUSTICE LEAGUE, TEEN TITANS EPISODES
Cartoon Network has supplied The Continuum with information about the return of Justice League and new Teen Titans episodes.
Justice League returns with new episodes on with the two-part "Tabula Rosa" on Saturday, Oct. 4 at 10 p.m. (ET) and on Sunday, Oct. 5 at 1 a.m. (ET).
Upcoming episodes of Teen Titans will include, and note the dates are tentative:
Saturday, Sept. 6: "Switched"
Starfire and Raven don't really "get each other." Star doesn't understand Raven's repression, and Raven can't deal with Starfire's emotional outbursts. But when The Puppet King imprisons Robin, Cyborg, and Beast Boy inside wooden puppets and takes control of the boys' bodies. The girls are going to have to understand each other -- if they want to survive.
Saturday, Sept. 13: "Deep Six"
When a mysterious amphibious villain called Trident makes off with a boatload of dangerous Toxic Waste, the Titans hop into the T-SUB and go on an undersea adventure to put a stop to Trident. This is Beast Boy's big chance to morph into all sorts of undersea animals and show the team what a big hero he really is. But unfortunately another big hero shows up to steal the spotlight: a good-looking water-breathing teenage do-gooder named Aqualad.
Saturday, Sept. 20: "Masks"
Slade sends a team of Robotic Commandos to steal a high-tech chip. Now Robin is more determined than ever to find out who Slade is -- and what he's planning. But while Robin is obsessively researching his arch-nemesis, a mysterious new bad guy called Red X tries to steal the same chip.
Saturday, Sept. 27: "Detention"
The Titans awake to find themselves captured as prisoners of Mad Mod, a madcap bad guy in a psychedelic suit. Mad Mod has decided to teach the teens a lesson, creating a massive mind-bending school full of optical illusions and brain-washing hypno-screens. Will the Titans be "re-educated" and lose their minds in the process?
Look for more Cartoon Network news on Wednesday here in The Continuum.
SPIDER-MAN ANIMATED UPDATE
"Spider-Man Dis-Abled," a new episode of MTV's Spider-Man animated series, is scheduled to air Friday at 10 p.m. (ET).
Here's how Sony television describes the episode:
"Peter Parker (Neil Patrick Harris) is covering a press conference where the Mayor of New York City and Tremaine, a visiting Euro-dignitary, are addressing the public. As they leave the event their limousine is shot with a dart bomb and Spider-Man comes to the rescue. Peter's friend and potential romantic interest Indira Daimonji (Angelle Brooks), an intern at news channel Empire-1 helps him sell his footage of the press conference and ensuing car commotion. Then Peter and Harry's apartment is ransacked and the conclusion is that the robbers were after the videotape shot during the Mayor's speech.
"A digital enhancement of the tape reveals a woman shooting the dart-bomb! Indy discovers the woman on the tape is Silver Sable (Virginia Madsen), an Eastern European assassin for hire. The unique thing about this assassin is that she only kills criminals so Spider-Man can't figure out why she's going after the Mayor.
"Spider-Man moves out to thwart Silver Sable's plans which leads to a dramatic showdown on top of a moving limo carrying Tremaine and the Mayor inside. During this fight Silver Sable reveals a secret about Tremaine's real identity that sends Spider-Man reeling."
Click on the thumbnails for larger images.
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DIGITAL WEBBING'S FREAKSHOW
Digital Webbing and Fiction Factory have announced Freakshow, a 32-page, four-story horror one-shot written by C. G. Kirby and penciled by Steve Morris, Ryan Ottley, Enzo Pertile and Dan Schmidt. Cover by Ryan Ottley and Matt Webb.
The book will ship October.
"It was a fun book to write. I'm a big fan of the old horror comics and I wanted to create a collection along those lines. It's cliché to call this a labor of love, but that what it was for me," Kirby said.
"It's been great to see the project take shape from the early script stages to recruiting the artists to finalizing the cover art and logos. Seeing the artwork for the first time for each of the stories was especially gratifying. These guys are doing exceptional work "We've got zombies, demons, escaped convicts and psychic connections to serial killers. Something for everyone!"
The horror book also marks the debut of Kirby's Fiction Factory comics imprint.
"It's my own little publishing house where I get to put my stuff out under the Digital Webbing banner. Freakshow is our first book." says Kirby. "I approached Ed Dukeshire, Digital Webbing webmaster, letterer extraordinaire and E-I-C about Freakshow and creating the imprint and he was onboard with the idea from the start. Ed is really working hard to expand the variety of Digital Webbing offerings and keep the production levels high. It's a great place to put out comics."
Freakshow will be a black-and-white comic and will cost $2.95.
BRIEFLY
"We're thrilled to make the move to a being a quarterly book. And we're not planning to cut the page count to make that any easier on us," said new editor-in-chief Sean Taylor. "This is something we've wanted to do for a while, but we had to wait until the time was right."
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