Tag: watchmen

The ‘Oh, God, *why*?’ WATCHMAN CHAPTERS 1 & 2 teaser.

I have a complicated opinion about WATCHMEN. Like THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, it was simultaneously excellent, and a very bad example for the rest of the comic book industry to follow. I don’t want to say that it should have never existed, but if it ever turns out that we need to sacrifice it in order to preserve the Sacred Timeline, well, sacrifices sometimes need to be made.

I do not have a complicated opinion about the upcoming WATCHMEN cartoons: this animation style sucks.

Continue reading The ‘Oh, God, *why*?’ WATCHMAN CHAPTERS 1 & 2 teaser.

HBO negotiating to bring Watchmen to small screen.

It makes sense. I guess.

Fresh off critical favorite The Leftovers, Damon Lindelof is in talks for a potential Watchmen TV series for HBO. Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that the project is in the early development stages. An official deal is not yet in place. Representatives for HBO and producer Warner Bros. Television declined comment.

Continue reading HBO negotiating to bring Watchmen to small screen.

DC to release Watchmen prequels!

(H/T: Pejman Yousefzadeh) They’re calling it “Before Watchmen,” and DC is very eager and honored to have the opportunity to further milk the classic, beloved brand further.  Yup: classic.  It’s a quarter-century old, you know… and yes, that mean’s that you’re old, too! If it makes you feel any better, well, so am I.

What?  Did they ask Alan Moore?  Why, of course they didn’t: they have his signature on the original contract from lo, so many years ago, and that’s pretty much all that they need.  My sympathies are, by the way, muted: nobody forced Moore to sign those contracts, and DC is paying royalties on use of the characters that he and his associates created, and frankly Moore’s schtick of awesome crankiness about this sort of thing can get a little too self-consciously… dramatic.  Yes, Hollywood takes art and makes it commercial.  That’s what Hollywood does, folks.  People with a problem with that shouldn’t sell them art.

Not Watching the Watchmen over on RedState.

Warner Todd Huston, my colleague over at RedState, has written something on Alan Moore‘s Watchmen comic series: the fact that it’s titled “Unheroic Superheroes, Watch out for the Watchmen” suggests that he’s not likely to be going to go see the film, to put it mildly (he’s gone into more detail here, although I haven’t read it yet). Continue reading Not Watching the Watchmen over on RedState.

$750 million lawsuit filed against Marvel Entertainment.

Guess it’s settled whether there’s money in that franchise, huh?

According to the Associated Press, a lawsuit was filed yesterday in a Manhattan federal court on behalf of four shareholders of Stan Lee Media, Inc. against Stan Lee, his partner Arthur Lieberman, his wife Joan Clayton, Marvel Entertainment, Inc. and producer Avi Arad. The four unnamed shareholders are seeking more then $750 million in profits from films based on Marvel characters, including “Spider-Man,” “X-Men” and “Iron Man.”

While details are still trickling in regarding specifics to the case, the AP reports that the lawsuit claims profits from Lee’s comic creations belong to the company after emerging from bankruptcy in 2006. The suit claims Lee and the others named in the proceedings ignored the company and shareholder’s interests.

I came across this while looking up Watchmen info – see Moe succumb to the Fanboy side of the Force! Succumb, Moe, succumb! – and while I figure that this will probably get settled it’s still a little interesting. I mean, sure, between the Spiderman movies and the X-Men films and the entire Iron Man “my-God-it’s-full-of-Tony-Starks” thing Marvel must be a hot commodity right now. Still, 750 million’s nothing to sneeze at – even if they’re hoping to “only” score a 100 million or so.

Moe Lane

PS: Watchmen comes out in March; Star Trek’s still up for May.  And I don’t know what’s going to be the big summer must-see movies, yet.