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Want To Star In 'Spider-Man: The Musical'? Here's Your Chance!

Posted 7/15/08 5:24 pm EST by in News


Spider-ManSure, Christian Bale gets to be Batman. Brandon Routh got to be Superman. And Tobey Maguire got to be Spider-Man -- three times! But only you can be Spidey on Broadway. You can sing, right?

The producers of "Spider-Man" have announced an open casting call in New York for singers and actors to audition as Peter Parker, Mary Jane, and Arachne. For Peter Parker, they'd like a male aged or appear to be aged 16- to 20-years-old, with a greak rock voice. He "can be nerdy with understated sex appeal" with a "good sense of humor." For Mary Jane, they'd like a female in the same age range, with a strong pop/rock singing voice, who has a "beautiful girl-next-door" look. And for Arachne, a dangerous but seductive Spider-Woman, they'd like a female aged 25- to 35-years-old, with "amazing rock vocals." "Think Sinead O'Connor with a Middle Eastern/Bulgarian/Greek twist," they say. Foreign accents welcome. Read More...

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Neil Gaiman Celebrates 'Sandman' Anniversary With New Comic And More

Posted 7/15/08 11:29 am EST by in News, Uncategorized


'Sandman'Sandman's 20th anniversary is this fall -- and with no "Sandman" or "Death" movie in sight, how is Neil Gaiman celebrating? By delegating -- tons of new Sandman stuff is coming out, and he didn't have to do all of it for once.

First, the commemorative poster. "What we're doing right now is proving to be a logistical nightmare right up there with invading Normady," Gaiman said. "We're doing a poster with every 'Sandman' artist trying to draw more or less every 'Sandman' character. Mark Buckingham designed it, so all over the world, you have people drawing characters."

Then, the collectible object. Buckingham also designed cold-cast porcelain bookends -- sturdy enough to hold all ten volumes and/or the Absolute collections -- in the form of Dream and Death. Read More...

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How Joss Whedon's 'Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog' Was Born: The Making Of A Cult Musical

Posted 7/10/08 12:42 pm EST by in News


Neil Patrick Harris in 'Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog'Dr. Horrible has his evil eye set for Web domination next week -- but it wasn't so long ago that he only existed as a glint in Joss Whedon's eye.

So how did the "Dr. Horrible Sing-Along Blog" materialize so quickly? (Click here to read all about the "Dr. Horrible" project.) It all started during some tedious downtime during the recent writers' strike, when the Buffyverse creator decided that he wanted to do something creative, but was prohibited from writing for television or movies. What was left, besides comics?

And so, with his brothers Zack and Jed, and Jed's fiancee Maurissa Tancharoen, he wrote up an idea that ordinarily could have been done for TV, but was actually better suited for the Web: a miniseries that could be shared. Joss-appeal was in place with the miniseries' content: a superhero story (or spoof, rather) told through the eyes of a maniacal supervillain wannabe (played by Neil Patrick Harris), and told through song. ( Read More...

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We Dissect The New 'Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince' Photos

Posted 7/7/08 7:13 pm EST by in Hot Stuff, Photos


Every few months, when we least expect it, a little bit of movie magic comes in through the Owl Post -- well, actually, Harry Potter photos from "Half-Blood Prince," courtesy of Warner Bros. Sometimes the photos reveal a lot, and sometimes, not so much at first glance -- it depends what you see in them.

Ron Weasley doesn't look happy putting on a Quidditch uniform for the first time for the Gryffindor team -- but Rupert Grint is loving it. The actor was upset that Quidditch was ditched from the plot of the last film, since director David Yates didn't think depicting the flying sport was necessary. He's since changed his mind, which means Ron gets to come into his own by playing keeper -- but Quidditch is back for one film only, since what happens at Hogwarts isn't really of concern in "Deathly Hallows" until the end. Read More...

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Joss Whedon's Hollywood Status Update: Horror Fantasy 'Goners,' 'Cabin In The Woods' And More

Posted 7/7/08 4:08 pm EST by in News


Joss WhedonOK, so we know Joss Whedon is busy with Buffy (as a comic book) -- but what about all his other projects? We asked the man himself for an update.

"Goners" -- Whedon once told us that he was writing a script for a movie, which he called a "very personal thing about human connection and questioning whether there is such a thing at all." It was to be an original story, a horror fantasy, "a little darker than I'm used to," about a young woman who gains some powers. "Not something I've written about before," he joked, "but I'm excited to try some new territory." Universal, however, has not been quite as excited just yet, as "Goners" "has gotten backburnered," Whedon said, meaning it's still in development. "I still have hope for it, though."

"Cabin in the Woods" -- Instead, Whedon moved on to a new movie project, which he co-wrote with "Buffy" alum and "Cloverfield" scribe Drew Goddard. "It's genius, it's funny," Goddard said. "It's got a harder and darker edge, but it's also got classic Whedon qualities. It'll rip your heart out and be heartfelt at the same time." Enough with the hype, what's it about? "There's a reason the title is so straightforward," Goddard teased. "It's its own sub-genre, the cabin in the woods, and this is sort of our take on it. It's fresh and new." Read More...

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Casting Call: Who Should Join The Team For Marvel's 'Runaways'?

Posted 6/26/08 6:57 pm EST by in Casting Call


Marvel's 'Runaways'There was the Scooby Gang, there was the Buffy gang (who often called themselves the Scoobies), and then there are the Runaways (who don't call themselves anything). One's a witch, one's a mutant, one's an alien -- but they didn't know these things until they discovered that their parents were actually evil super-villains bent on destroying the world. So what did these teens do? They ran away, stealing whatever magical tools they could grab, and in so doing, became a misfit group of super-heroes, pledging to fight their parents and any other big bads who got in their way.

"Runaways" is a popular Marvel comic-book series, written by Brian K. Vaughan, who handed it over to Joss Whedon, and it's about to become a movie as well, with Vaughan scripting. We're confident he's got that covered, but what about the casting? Here are a few suggestions to get the "Runaways" moving. Read More...

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DC Comics' Hollywood Crisis: Our Unsolicited Advice

Posted 6/23/08 6:45 pm EST by in Unsolicited Advice


As the home of such icons as Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, you'd think DC Comics would rule the superhero universe. But no. In fact, rival Marvel Comics is kicking DC's butt. How can this be?

Movies are where the real superhero action is these days, and Marvel, having scored major hits with the current "Iron Man" and "Hulk" films (and with "Thor," "Captain America" and the all-star team-up "Avengers" already in the pipeline), is cleaning up at the box office. Meanwhile, DC and its corporate parent, Warner Bros., haven't quite exploited their own stable of stars -- not just Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, but also the Justice League of which all three of those characters are a part, along with Flash and Green Lantern. Turning these revered comics properties into money-minting movie franchises should have been a no-brainer. If the process has been mishandled, DC's numbers are down, and fanboys are in revolt, what can be done about it? Plenty.

-- Observe Neil Gaiman's "Law of Superhero Movies," which is that "the closer the film is to the look and feel of what people like about the comic, the more successful it is." This, Gaiman says, is "something that Warners tends singularly to miss, and Marvel tends singularly to get right." Warners may prove Gaiman wrong here with the forthcoming "Watchmen." Read More...

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Eva Amurri Has Good 'Life' Next To Evan Rachel Wood's Bad Girl

Posted 4/24/08 10:40 am EST by in Interviews


Evan Rachel Wood and Eva Amurri in 'The Life Before Her Eyes'She was the Jewish bad girl in "Saved," but in "The Life Before Her Eyes," Eva Amurri is the Christian goodie good to Evan Rachel Wood's bad girl -- and she likes it that way. "I was playing a bad girl when I got the script, and I thought, 'What a great thing to do, pull a total 180,'" she said. "Who wants to play one thing all the time anyway?"

Despite their differences, Evan and Eva's characters become best friends who are put to the ultimate test, when they're forced to choose which of them will live or die during a school shooting. "It's a horrifying situation, to be point blank at the end of a gun," Eva said, "and have someone say, 'Who should I kill?'" Read More...

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Michelle Trachtenberg Looks Up To Zac Efron As Her Dad In 'Seventeen Again'

Posted 3/28/08 12:39 pm EST by in News


Michelle TrachtenbergMichelle Trachtenberg was off fighting vampires when she was 17 -- but for "Seventeen Again," she's happy to be "free and clear" from action scenes, especially those that involve dancing. That, she leaves to her co-star Zac Effron.

"I just watch him and mope," she said -- and not because she's pining for a different sort of action. As if! He's playing her dad (even though she's two years older), and just to rub it in, she called him "Dad" on set. "Anything we did, father/daughter-wise," Trachtenberg told us, "I'd tease him, 'I'm older than you! You're not really my father,' while he's trying to tell me what to do." But she understands that the girls love Zac, and she doesn't fault them for that: "If you think he's hot, rock on. He is." Read More...

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David Yates Snags Director's Chair For 'Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows'?

Posted 2/20/08 5:29 pm EST by in Hot Stuff


Daniel Radcliffe in 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'Is the "Harry Potter" film franchise done passing the wand? After the first two films, Chris Columbus stepped aside as Alfonso Cuarón, Mike Newell and then David Yates expanded the Potter-verse. But could it be that Yates, who shot "Order of the Phoenix" and is in the middle of "Half-Blood Prince," will be the last one to leave his mark?

Children's writer Lois Lowry thinks so, as she wrote on her blog Tuesday, telling her fans that Yates had pulled out of shooting an adaptation of her book "The Giver" so that he can do "Deathly Hallows" instead. "He has just decided he wants to do the final 'Harry Potter' first," she wrote, "thereby postponing 'The Giver' for several years." Read More...

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