For the sake of movie spoilers, I’m putting the rest of this post behind a jump…

I got about halfway through the trailer when I thought that it looked familiar, but it wasn’t until the ‘Based on the Life Story of Aron Ralston’ that I realized why. It’s pretty rare that I read anything resembling biographies, so it comes as surprise to be ahead of the game and know a story in advance.

I heard about Ralston’s…incident, let’s call it, back when it made the news even over in the UK in 2003. I think anyone who heard about what happened spared a moment to consider exactly what they would do in his circumstance, and how they would cope with the choice he was faced with.

I picked up his book that came out later that year, too, the aptly-titled Between a Rock and A Hard Place that detailed the incident and his climbing experience that led to it.

In case you were wondering, yep, that’s a prosthetic arm he has on the cover.

And yes, the picture below is one he took while his arm was trapped by an unmovable boulder for 127 hours. Luckily he had a penknife.

You can see where this is going, right?

My main problem with the book was that while you can’t help but sympathize with Ralston’s situation, you don’t sympathize with Ralston himself. He comes across as, to put it bluntly, a bit of a douche. He consistently takes stupid risks in pursuit of adventure and they end up landing him in a deadly situation that he could have avoided – or at least limited – had he simply been a more careful planner. Even though he becomes aware of that through the course of his recounting the incident, this overshadowed the book for me.

That said, the movie looks good. Firstly, very few directors can use locations like Danny Boyle can, and the desert and canyons of the American west are spectacular.

Secondly, the casting is spot on – because as unlikeable douches go, I think James Franco (who seems to have traded in his heroin-chic teeth for a big set of pearly whites, judging by the trailer) can do them like no other. Mainly that’s because he has an ability to make unlikeable douches likeable. The story itself is tailor made for a great character arc as Ralston comes to grips with his situation and I think Franco can really sell that.

Having Kate Mara and Amber Tamblyn as two hikers he meets along the way doesn’t hurt, either.

Of course, as I know how the movie ends I may wait until it comes out on DVD…

via

I had no idea that Lennie James was in the pilot – that guy just brings class to everything.

AMC also have a bunch of character images online (and there’s a gallery below).

[View with PicLens]

Aside from an oddly-airbrushed Sarah Wayne Callies, they look good!

This week it’s 1×14 – Special, where we find out that Walt is…well, special. Even if he does drop out of the show aside from the odd cameo after the first season.

Click on over for the episode summary with comments and references to things to come, Q&A, quotes and some talk about ‘changing the arc‘ as far as Walt’s concerned…

Action Comics #892 – I’m still not entirely sold on Cornell’s Lex, nor the Lois fembot that he seems set on pairing him with. It’s just not quite clicking. That said, it’s entertaining enough – and the Jimmy Olsen back-ups start soon!

Teen Titans #86 – Good lord. It’s like watching a car crash in slow motion, if a car crash had painful dialogue, poor plotting and poor characterization. Why am I buying this again?

Deadpool Team-Up #890 – Kind of surproised that this book has lasted as long as it has. Some hit, some miss -but Machine Man? Yes, please.

Fantastic Four #582 – Grumble grumble mutter mutter.

Namor The First Mutant #1 – If I was picking up new titles, I’d pick up this. But I’m not, so I’m not.

Spider-Girl The End #1 – Sniffle. So long, Mayday!

And on the trades front, things that will be with me shortly…

Siege Thunderbolts – this will be picking up on where I dropped the Tbolts, just when Parker came on board. Looking forward to this.

X-Men Inferno Crossovers – Don’t you judge me. This is a whole blog post waiting to happen!

From The Kevin Bishop Show, apparently.

Bet that post title gets some hits..

When I was using a PC at home I started using Comic Collecterz (or something like that) but since I moved over to Mac I’ve moved over to the awesome web based www.stashmycomics.com.

Yes, I’m that nerdy.

Anyway as I get the list up to date (and it takes a while) I figured I’d post what I have from time to time because clearly I’m not quite blatant enough about how nerdy I am.

So: Acclaim Comics. For a while in the 1990s, Acclaim produced a line of comics based on the Valiant characters. Whilst the comics were generally good, and many had some great creators (Waid, Priest, Ellis, Ennis, Busiek, Nicieza, Bright, Eaton, Wood, Kayanan to name a few), they never really clicked with fans. Readers of the old Valiant line were annoyed that all the past had been jettisoned, and perhaps other readers were simply buying too many other books.

Sadly, all the series died out before they hit two years, but I did stick with a lot of them for a while – 17 issues in the case of Quantum & Woody and Troublemakers, and slightly less in for a few others. I imagine the majority of these comics can be found lurking in dollar bins or cheaper at most conventions and many are definitely worth a look – especially the two I mention above, X-O Manowar, and the Eternal Warriors and Turok one-shots.

There’s also a couple of licensed Sliders comics in there because come on, who doesn’t like Sliders?

Anyway, if you’re interested in such things:

LIMITED EDITION COMPILATION SET! INCLUDES ALL 52 ACTION-PACKED EPISODES

plus THREE NEW BONUS FEATURETTES

WARNER HOME VIDEO TO DISTRIBUTE DVD Set NOV. 23

(Available for preorder on Amazon here)

BURBANK, CA (August 19, 2010) – Warner Bros. Animation’s breakthrough series Batman Beyond comes to DVD for the first time in its entirety.  Featuring DC Comics’ iconic hero, Batman, Batman Beyond: The Complete Series presents nearly 20 hours of animated action spread over 52 episodes, as well as all-new bonus featurettes and a 24-page, 8”x 12” collectible booklet. Batman Beyond: The Complete Series will be distributed by Warner Home Video on November 23, 2010 as a nine-disc limited edition DVD set for $99.98 (SRP).

Batman Beyond: The Complete Series centers on Terry McGinnis, an ordinary teenager … until his father is mysteriously murdered. Suspecting foul play at his father’s company, Wayne/Powers Corporation, Terry meets Bruce Wayne and learns of a secret identity hidden for decades. Now too old to don the cape and cowl as Batman, Wayne refuses to help – so Terry does what any brash young kid would do: steal the Bat-suit and take matters into his own hands! Vowing to avenge his father’s death, Terry dons the high-tech suit tricked out with jetpacks, a supersensitive microphone and even camouflage capabilities in search of his father’s assassin. It’s 52 action-packed episodes following the adventures of the partnership between an ex-crimefighter and his apprentice, starring Will Friedle (Boy Meets World) as Terry McGinnis and, reprising his seminal role, Kevin Conroy (Batman: The Animated Series) as Bruce Wayne.

Casting throughout the series’ 52 episodes featured award winners from feature films, primetime television and the Broadway stage – from Paul Winfield, Stockard Channing and Seth Green to

William H. Macy, Wayne Brady and Teri Garr – not to mention George Lazenby (On Her Majesty’s Secret Service), Dan Castellaneta (The Simpsons), Jodi Benson (The Little Mermaid), George Takei (Star Trek) and Henry Rollins (the front man for the rock band, Black Flag).

An all-star production team was headed by executive producer Jean MacCurdy and producers Bruce Timm, Alan Burnett, Glen Murakami and Paul Dini. Writers on the series included Burnett and Dini, as well as Stan Berkowitz, Bob Goodman, Rich Fogel, Hilary Bader and John McCann.

Included in the beautifully custom designed package is a 24-page, 8”x 12” collectible booklet with the inside perspective and artwork from the vaults especially compiled by DC Comics for this release.

Three new bonus features created specifically for the Batman Beyond: The Complete Series are:

TOMORROW KNIGHT: THE BATMAN REBORN

The “Batman Beyond” creative team gives you a peek into the character of Terry McGinnis, and what made him worthy to become the new Caped Crusader.

GOTHAM: CITY OF THE FUTURE

A look at Gotham City, circa 2039, and how the team built a realistic vision of the near future while remaining true to the city they created in Batman: The Animated Series.

THE HIGH TECH HERO

Explore the technology behind the Bat-suit, its amazing powers and the real world science that inspired it.

The collection will also contain the DC 75^th anniversary documentary, Secret Origin:  The Story of DC Comics.

“Batman Beyond was a landmark series as it created altogether new directions for the iconic character, and added dimensions for fans both old and new to the Batman mythology,” said Amit Desai, WHV Vice President of Family, Animation & Sports Marketing. “Warner Home Video is proud to release this important series in an all-encompassing box set, just in time to make a perfect holiday gift for the ultimate fan.”

About Warner Home Video:

With operations in 90 international territories Warner Home Video, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, commands the largest distribution infrastructure in the global video marketplace.  Warner Home Video’s film library is the largest of any studio, offering top quality new and vintage titles from the repertoires of Warner Bros. Pictures, Turner Entertainment, Castle Rock Entertainment, HBO Home Video and New Line Home Entertainment.

About DC Entertainment:

DC Entertainment, home to such iconic DC Comics properties as Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, The Flash, MAD Magazine, and Fables, is the creative division charged with strategically integrating across Warner Bros. and Time Warner.  DC Entertainment works in concert with many key Warner Bros. divisions to unleash its superheroic characters across all media, including but not limited to film, television, consumer products, home entertainment, and interactive games. Publishing over 1,000 comic books, graphic novels and magazines each year, DC Comics is the largest English-language publisher of comics in the world.

DC SUPER HEROES and all related characters and elements are trademarks of and © DC Comics.

(s10)

About Warner Bros. Animation:

Warner Bros. Animation (WBA) has been producing award-winning original animation since 1930, when it released its first cartoon, “Sinkin’ in the Bathtub.” Since then, WBA’s characters have set the standard for innovative, quality animation. Producing for network and cable television, online, home entertainment and feature films both domestically and internationally, WBA is highly respected for its creative and technical excellence, as well as for maintaining the studio’s rich cartoon heritage. WBA also oversees the creative use and production of animated programming based on classic cartoon characters from the Hanna-Barbera and DC Comics libraries. WBA is one of the most-honored animation studios in history.

The world of the movie is a timeless, more innocent world, a world where Evil lives behind an Iron Curtain on the Dark Side of the planet, a world where, even in 1995, it is always November 21, 1963. Men still wear hats, kids are into hot rods and spaceships, women have bouffant hairdos, and New York City is the vibrant, shiny capital of the Free World. A Technicolor, bossa nova, Douglas Sirk world. A world where radiation is not only terrifying and evil but also capable of producing wonders and miracles. A world of amazing machinery and devices. There is wickedness, to be sure, and there are bad people, and it takes the eternal vigilance of a few stalwart champions to keep our shores from being overrun, our homes and towns from being infested from within, by the emissaries of darkness. Fortunately such champions exist: the Fantastic Four.

He’s right. As much as I like the two previous Fantastic Four movies (and I like them a lot for what they are – frothy family-friendly superhero flicks), a true FF movie that captures the spirit of the comics should be set in the 1960s.

Think of it – a period superhero movie; where else could you have Mr Fantastic’s inventions seem so amazing? Where the pogo plane wouldn’t be laughed at? Where you could poke fun at the rampant sexism evident in the early FF comic?

Chabon also thought that you should just skip the origin story entirely and have the FF as established celebrity super-heroes; I like that too.

And yesterday when I posted about January Jones being cast in the new X-Men movie, it struck me that she would make a perfect 1960s Sue Storm. Perfect. And if she was Sue, why not populate the entire cast with Mad Men actors?

Jonn Hamm as the emotionally distant, distractingly handsome super-genius, Mr Fantastic!

The aforementioned January Jones as Sue Storm, the model-turned-headstrong superhero that just wants to get married so that she can finally be kissed and not heard!

Vincent Kartheiser as the self-absorbed none-too-bright cad about town, Johnny Storm!

And as we’re skipping the origin, there’s no need to see Ben Grimm at all – which means John Slattery can use his piercing blue eyes to emote ol’ Benjy through the CGI’d rocky hide of the Thing!

Yep, I think we’ve got this all wrapped up!

So, goodbye Alice…but hello the really rather spectacular January Jones!

I’m surprised that Jones landed the role if only because she seems to be keeping a low profile during Mad Men‘s run – but in all honesty I consider this an upgrade in the acting department (not that I have much to judge Eve’s acting on…)

And let’s face it, in looks alone Jones matches Frost’s porcelain blonde perfectly.

[View with PicLens]

Also on the cast list – Zoe Kravitz as Angel (presumably Angel Salvadore) who, according to google, dated Ben Foster, the other Angel from X-Men: The Last Stand. Spooky.

Between Jones, Oliver Platt, James McAvoy and Kevin Bacon, I’m starting to get the feeling this could actually be rather good…