To say that Marvel's first foray into self-financed film was a success is an understatement, to be sure. Iron Man kicked the summer movie season off with a huge bang and the DVD version is hoping to do the same with the fall DVD season. Will the disc be a blockbuster at Blockbuster? Will Netflix be sending out so many discs that the U.S. Postal Service is completely derailed for months?
The Marvel movie you never thought you'd be able to own for yourself is actually coming to DVD. Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., the FOX TV movie, is coming to DVD exclusively to your neighborhood Best Buy.
As you'll remember, this man-mountain of a film stars none other than David Hasselhoff, the greatest actor known to man. Yes, that's right. He kicks the ass of one Chuck Norris.
Think that Sam Jackson was an inspired choice for the role of Nick Fury in Iron Man? Then turn back the clock ten years to the last guy to play the character in live-action form. From the pages of Marvel Comics comes Nick Fury (David Effin' Hasselhoff), the infamous hard-boiled, cigar-chomping, eye-patch sporting, former director of the covert counterterrorism strike force S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division). When his old organization uncovers a plot to annihilate Manhattan with a deadly virus by his arch-nemesis, the sexy, sinister Viper - Fury must return to duty, this time aided by his old flame Val and new colleagues Alexander Pierce and Kate Neville. Will Fury be the antidote Manhattan desperately needs, or will Viper's venomous scheme eradicate the city completely? Armed with a stockpile of high-tech weapons, Fury is the city's only hope in the full-length action-packed adventure debut of this Marvel Comics hero!
Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. is being released on DVD by popular demand for the first time ever on September 30, 2008 and exclusively at Best Buy for an SRP of $22.98. Originally airing on FOX Television in 1998, Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. was written by David S. Goyer (The Dark Knight, Batman Begins, Blade, Jumper) and produced by Stan Lee and Avi Arad of Marvel Films (credits including X-Men, The Incredible Hulk, Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Iron Man and more).
For a mere $22.98, you can reserve the DVD at Best Buy.com and then sit by your mailbox and wait for the fateful day that it arrives.
Welcome back, boys and girls, to the The DVD Shop!
In this storefront section of the GayGamer Castle we'll be looking at all of the DVDs that are somehow linked to comics in one way or another. They may be theatrical releases of comic book or graphic novel adaptations. They may be direct to DVD adaptations. They may be documentaries exploring some facet of comic books. They may even be random interview discs of famous comic creators.
I'll be doing my best to keep the selection as varied as possible. There are only so many ways to review the extra special collector's limited ultra edition of the Spider-Man 2.75 release. That said, I'm sure I'll be getting around to the Spider-Man films too, but I promise to try and throw something new in there for you.
I know this feature hasn't been around lately, but it takes time to watch these DVDs and I have surprisingly less time now than when I only had one job. Crazy, I know. So while this may not be a weekly feature anymore, there are still plenty of great (and not so great) movies and TV shows out there to check out. There's also a bevy of new stuff hitting in the next few months.
Case in point, today we're taking a look at the just released Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow direct-to-DVD feature from Lionsgate. How does it stack up with the previous D2DVD movies?
Mack Rawden over at Cinema Blend talks up the recurring theme of nerds in teen films. While a ubiquitous presence from day one, we seem to be in a resurgence of nerd culture lately.
And Mr. Rawden has seem to have had enough. Rawden bemoans movies that glorify the underdog as something of an annoying underachiever and someone who deserves our scorn. The jocks who mercilessly torment the nerds and abuse them for four years? They're the real stars.
Is anyone else sick of dweeb protagonists complaining about getting hit with dodge balls? I am. Picking off the fat kid isn't even mean--it's Natural Selection, motherfuckers.
Now I'm not going to go off on a rant about how odd it is for a grown man to be justifying throwing dodgeballs at an overweight kid, but what in Mr. Rawden's past has brought him to this point of delusion?
Why is it that every single goddamn high school movie now is about unathletic, unpopular, undesirables weaseling their way into a roll in the hay with the most beautiful girl at school? That's not even an admirable goal. Most of the cheerleader types are vapid vortexes of slutiness and stupid opinions.
Okay, now it's fairly obvious he's just jealous and over compensating. It would seem that perhaps Mr. Rawden was in fact counted among the nerd populace and is now rebelling as best as he can by condemning his roots.
If he doesn't want to be associated with nerd culture, he should probably not be writing for a movie blog.
No, no. Don't worry. Superman is not reverting to that God awful Red/Blue energy duality.
This time the "blu" is a good thing as the recent Superman: Doomsday DVD is coming out with a rerelease and first go-round on Blu-Ray high def. Yay for double dips! I was not a huge fan of the movie, but it was a worthy first shot in DC's DVD library.
Both the 2-disc DVD special edition and the new Blu-Ray disc will have the same features which are conveniently listed below. The discs will release day-and-date on November 25th.
* Audio Commentary by Producer Bruce Timm, Writer Duane Capizzi, Voice Director Andrea Romano and Executive Producer Gregory Noveck
* 4 Bonus Episodes from Superman: The Animated Series, selected by Bruce Timm (NEW to the Special Edition)
* Documentary: "Requiem and Rebirth: Superman Lives!" - About how the DC Comics team decided Superman's fate
* Featurette: "Behind the Voice"
* Featurette: "When Heroes Die: The Making of Superman: Doomsday" (NEW to the Special Edition)
* Featurette: "Clash of the Juggernauts" (NEW to the Special Edition)
* Sneak Peek at DC Universe's Justice League: The New Frontier
* Sneak Peek at DC Universe's Feb. 2009 release of Wonder Woman (NEW to the Special Edition)
For those of you who have a Blu-Ray player (otherwise known as a Playstation 3), you'll be thrown for a loop come October. Ed Norton's The Incredible Hulk will be coming to Blu-Ray (and DVD), but instead of the titular color border slapped on the top of the high definition disc will be a spiffy green border!
Now that's news!
Here are the special features for both the DVD and Blu-Ray:
(This is the 3-disc special edition DVD, ther eis also a barebones single disc edition.)
* BONUS FEATURES - SPECIAL EDITION DVD AND BLU-RAY HI-DEF: Alternate Opening
* The Making of THE INCREDIBLE HULK: An in-depth look at the making of the blockbuster film, featuring interviews with Edward Norton, director Louis Leterrier, and producers Avi Arad, Kevin Feige and Gale Anne Hurd and the entire cast and crew. The documentary covers the film's innovative take on the character, look and storyline, as well as the casting process, production and profile of director Louis Leterrier.
* Becoming The Hulk: This featurette focuses on Edward Norton's approach to the iconic role and the incredible visual effects employed by award®-winning studio Rhythm & Hues to create the character on screen.
* Becoming The Abomination: From the first motion-capture session to the visual effects at Rhythm & Hues, viewers go behind the scenes with actor Tim Roth and watch as he transforms both his mind and body into the super villain known as The Abomination.
* Anatomy of a Hulk Out: Behind-the-scenes looks at three of the movie's most exciting action sequences:
o Hulking Out in the Bottling Plant - Go inside the first action sequence of the film where both viewers and the army are given a glimpse of the Hulk to come.
o Hulking Out on Campus - A behind-the-scenes look at the creation of a Hulk action sequence, featuring airplanes, guns, and even a sound machine.
o Hulking Out in Harlem - From pre-visualization animatics to visual effects, this featurette shows how filmmakers created one of the largest action sequences in Marvel film history.
* From Comic Book to Screen: See the incredible comic books come to life courtesy of narration, sound effects and "living" panels of action.
* Feature Commentary With Director Louis Leterrier And Cast
* Digital Copy of THE INCREDIBLE HULK- Compatible with PC, Mac or iPod.
* Deleted Scenes
And here are the Blu-specific specific features:
# U Control: Universal's exclusive signature feature, U Control puts viewers one click away from going deeper into the making of the film without ever interrupting the movie, through animated comic book panels, storyboards, early renderings of the visual effects, interactive cast and crew interviews and exclusive information about the characters, back story, and THE INCREDIBLE HULK physics.
* Thunderbolt Files - Explore the top-secret files of the forces hunting The Hulk with this interactive feature that takes you deeper into the movie - without ever leaving the film.
* Scene Explorer - Discover the secrets behind the special effects! Explore all the individual layers that go into an effects-intensive scene with this unique Blu-ray feature.
* Comic Book Gallery - Enjoy a Hi-Def experience of the classic comic book images that inspired key shots in the movie.
# BD-LIVE FEATURES - Blu-ray and Playstation3 players with an Internet connection can access exclusive interactive applications that allow viewers to communicate with friends and family while watching the film:
* My Chat - Just plug your player into your Internet connection and connect to BD-Live to chat with friends while watching the movie and conduct your very own private screening discussions.
* My Scenes Sharing - Share your favorite clips with your buddies through the BD Live Internet connection
When Marvel entered the film business we all knew they'd be converting some oddball properties to their own features. However, I don't think anyone saw Ant-Man getting his own franchise let alone a name director heading the project.
Edgar Wright, director and co-creator of Spaced, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, is not only behind the forthcoming Ant-Man film but a huge fan of the property itself. In an interview with Wizard Universe, Wright gives us an update on the film's progress.
Can you confirm that you're still involved with "Ant Man?"
WRIGHT: Absolutely. I wrote the first draft of the script which, to be honest, kind of took two years to deliver because I did "Hot Fuzz" in the middle of it. But I did my first draft of it just before the strike last year and I think it's one of my favorite things I've ever written. It was a real blast to write. I know that [Marvel's] very pleased with what we've done and, really, really, the appeal to that for me is the fact that like, Ant Man is considered slightly D-list. The whole raison d'etre of the piece for me and my thing has always been to take something that would seem to be uncool and make it really cool and that's certainly the case with British cops in "Hot Fuzz." To take the most seemingly kind of underwhelming concept and make something really cool out of it--I always liked that premise. As a little kid I had a reprint of "The Man in the Ant Hill," the very first Ant Man kind of story and it's something that always struck me. Most shrinking films are about in somebody in jeopardy and this is something where the shrinker has the power. Rather than it being something that's a terrible thing to happen, it's actually making your character into the most bad ass sort of action hero/spy possible.
I'm still unsure if the book will focus on Hank Pym or use either of the other two Ant-Men. It sounds like Wright is certainly enamored with Pym, but we'll have to wait and see.
The Hollywood Reporter is, well, reporting that the comic book series The Boys is headed to the silver screen. Once a property of DC's Wildstorm imprint, the book was cancelled among a hefty controversy, but was immediately picked up again at Dynamite Entertainment.
Focusing on a small group of CIA operatives, the titular "Boys," the book is a deconstruction of superheroes in the modern world. Imagine if Gruenwald's Squadron Supreme were written today ... and contained a lot more violence and sex. The book is written and drawn by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson.
The first question to come to mind: Will Simon Pegg be asked to join the film since he is obviously the visual basis for the book's main character?
And if you get the reference of the title, please let me know so I don't feel as old as I do for writing it.
Movie Web has a sneak peek at the next Marvel DVD, hitting stores September 2nd. Taking place some years in the future, the movie tells the tale of the children of some Avengers as they band together to hold back Ultron's return.
Waiting for a New Avengers or Runaways DVD? Sit back, it'll be a while.
While I was very much not a fan of Superman/Doomsday, was underwhelmed with Justice League: New Frontier and didn't see the point to Batman: Gotham Knight, I'm excited for this new DC direct-to-DVD feature. It's a ways off, admittedly, but it's looking good so far.
A sequel to the forthcoming Hulk Vs. Wolverine, here's the first look at the direct-to-DVD Hulk Vs. Thor.
It looks rather nice, actually. I like the idea of Hulk running amok in Asgard as I don't recall seeing it before. I guess they'll wait to see how these two movies sell before they greenlight more, but without seeing them yet I'd be down for a series of Hulk Vs ... DVDs.
TVGuide.com has a "first look" at the upcoming Wonder Woman animated movie, and it's definitely just a "first look".
The Felicity star voices Princess Diana, the Amazon-turned-superhero. "This story is funny and action-packed and adult in a nice way," Russell says. "Then they said Nathan Fillion was playing opposite me, and that made it that much better."
Fillion, who costarred with Russell in the 2007 indie darling Waitress, plays Air Force pilot Steve Trevor, who crash lands on the Amazon's island. "Playing second fiddle to Keri is a wonderful fiddle to play," Fillion says. "I've done it before, I'll do it again--quite happily." The Desperate Housewives star adds, "What I like about Steve Trevor is that he's a very real guy. He's very honest and he's very natural. He doesn't apologize for much. And he's about as normal as a guy can be while hanging out with Wonder Woman."
There's a bit more to it at the link above, but not much. Perhaps there will be a small trailer in today's release of Gotham Knight?
Moment Of The Week #8
Well last week Ruby Summers blasted the competition easily for Moment of the Week! Just like the old saying goes, never underestimate a girl made out of living gemstone with laser eyes. This week we take a look at some astounding moments from last weeks Spider-Man: Secret Invasion, Wolverine, New Avengers, Final Crisis: Rogue's Revenge, Ultimate X-Men and Thunderbolts. (Marvel heavy, last week) So join me after the jump, and be warned. Spoilers lie beyond. So if you still have to pick up any of these books, don't read ahead because it'll ruin the surprise!...
