by David | Oct 2, 2013 | Geekery, Slider
It’s Wednesday. You’ve had a long week already.
How about some things to smile about?
- Simon Kinberg - writer from X-Men: Days of Future Past - has been drafted to script the Fantastic Four reboot script. Matthew Vaugn is already on as co-writer. And with Josh Trank in charge - he of Chronicle fame - this could be REALLY good.
- The long anticipated reboot of The Legend Of Conan is happening. AND it will star Arnold Schwarzenegger. (With the very lovely Andrea Berloff writing)
- The World of Warcraft film adaptation is GO! Duncan Jones‘ film based on the MMO game lands December 2015.
- They really are casting The Flash in Arrow. (If you’ve not been watching that series, you’re missing out on trashy superhero TV)
- The C.S. Lewis Company are developing The Silver Chair as the next film in the Narnia series…
- Saoirse Ronan confirmed she is up for a part in Star Wars VII
- And last, but certainly by no means, least… David Levithan is in Ireland and the UK this week! (GO! GO! GO!)
How about a bonus reason?
- Aline Brosh McKenna (writer of Devil Wears Prada) is scripting a live-action Cruella de Vil feature film for Disney. Whoop!
by David | Oct 2, 2013 | Books, Geekery
According to The Bookseller David Walliams’ Demon Dentist is the fastest-selling children’s book of the year!
29,002 copies moved in the UK last week!
THAT’S HUGE!
by David | Oct 1, 2013 | Geekery, MOVIES, Slider
Last week saw the first hit of Joss Whedon’s Marvel Agents of SHIELD… with a new episode landing tomorrow in the US last weeks debut hit some decent numbers.
Though with ad spend on every subway, in every taxi and bus, on street corners and billboards - not to mention the spending that came before the TV series with the Marvel feature films …
The US figures - according to Nielsen - 12.1 million people watched it live. Another 3.7 million watched on DVR. Another 4.7 million watched the repeat on Thursday. And 1.6 million streamed online. A grand total of 22.1 million viewers and counting.
For comparisson Breaking Bad’s finale reached 10.3m … while Big Bang Theory‘s new season premiere broke 20 million in six hours.
by David | Oct 1, 2013 | Geekery, Slider
This should turn you a little green - though mostly it underlines the importance of Games Ireland and the support they give alongside Enterprise Ireland:
Australia’s funding board for film, television and multimedia projects, Screen Australia, have allocated $2.6 million to support the development of 21 games as part of continuing government efforts to fund the Australian video game industry.
Late last year the state announced plans to release $20m over three years and in July this began distributing $6 million to 10 indie studios over three years.
by David | Oct 1, 2013 | Books, Geekery
Ramon Vitral recently interviewed Chris Ware for the Brazilian magazine Galileu. Bleeding Cool have the exclusive original English version that you NEED to read.
In Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud says an accurate definition for comics would be “juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence”. You haven’t deliberated the sequences in Building Stories. Is it possible to say that your work raises doubts about McCloud’s definition? Or that Building Stories goes beyond the usual understanding of comics?
I went to art school so I suppose there’s always some voice in the back of my head prodding me to push beyond or to try and get at something that’s never been done before, but I don’t do so only for the sake of doing it; I do it to try and get at the real textures and structures of reality and memory as I’ve come to know them. I think the potential for comics to capture the ebb and flow of consciousness in both its linguistic and visual complexity is still pretty much untapped, especially since I think comics are by definition an art of memory, and I try with most of what I do to try to expand that a little bit, hopefully without alienating the reader in the process. (The utility of such an exercise is, of course, open to question.)
I genuinely want to make something interesting, compelling and respectful of the reader; there are so many other easily-swallowed media out there that I think we cartoonists have to try ever harder to compete, for lack of a more sporty word. It’s a sort of challenging though ultimately healthy situation, I think.
by David | Oct 1, 2013 | Geekery, Slider
You take one little break and look what happens… Walker Books have announced the formation of Walker Entertainment - grouping all media-related and media-inspired publishing (TV and film tie-ins as well as celebrity publishing) together.
Under the ever watchful eye of Helen McAleer - head of Walker Productions - Walker Entertainment will go one step further and act as licensee to third-party properties - with the first deal being nabbed for Aardman Animation’s Shaun the Sheep.
Expect more (MUCH more) as Hank Zipzer goes into live action production, Pig Sticks and Harold awaits greenlighting and more than a few other special treats coming (you’ve seen that backlist!)
