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Mood: Amused ]
The New York Times, of all places, offers this sensational interactive gallery of Al Jaffe‘s surprisingly prescient Mad fold-ins.
(Thanks to Mark Williams for the link.)
Fold-Ins, Past and Present
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Author Archives: The Geek Curmudgeon
Jonah Hex and Lone Ranger films announced
I’m as happy as the next geek about the announcements of both a Jonah Hex and Lone Ranger films. What puzzles me is that neither movie plans on involving Joe R. Lansdale with the script.
From ShockTillYouDrop:
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| In just a little over a month, powerhouse writing-directing team Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (Game) begin shooting a sequel to their pumped-up, kinetic actioner Crank. Following that, it’s Jonah Hex, the DC comics western steeped in the supernatural.
"I think it’s the best script we’ve written," Taylor told me during a late-night soiree in Hollywood thrown in anticipation of Pathology, a film he co-penned with Neveldine. Warner Bros. apparently loves the script and understands the tone the pair have brought to this tale of true grit and blood – and if you’ve seen Crank and Pathology, you know all bets are off and you’re in for a unpredictable, f’ed-up ride. |
It may be the best script they’ve written, but no incarnation of Jonah Hex has ever matched Lansdale’s interpretations. In his three DC/Vertigo mini-series, Lansdale (along with his frequent artistic cohort Tim Truman) re-imagined the scarred gunfighter’s adventures with a supernatural bent.
From Lansdale’s intro to Jonah Hex: Two-Gun Mojo:
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| I remembered reading the Hex stories as being somewhat spooky, supernatural. But when I began rereading those written by Hex’s creator, John Albano, I was astonished to discover they were good, tough Western stories, but they weren’t any supernatural elements. Nary a one. […] This surprised me. My memory had play tricks on me.
[…]The old comics were great, but I decided I wanted to bring in the elements of my false memory, tie them to Albano’s creation, and let the good times roll. I wrote my story to reflect the old Hex,[…] but I gave the story an echo of what I thought had been in the early Hex stories, but wasn’t. I decided to keep it subtle however, so that the reader could, to some extent, read it either way– as real supernatural business, or as real-life weird business. |
Course the reason for not including Lansdale may have had to do with the 1996 lawsuit surrounding the second Lansdale-Truman Hex series, Riders of the Worm and Such.
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| The Winter brothers sued DC, as well as writer Joe Lansdale and artists Tim Truman and Sam Glanzman, on the basis of two unsavory characters introduced into the Jonah Hex storyline as the Autumn brothers, which the Winters argued constituted a defamatory representation and a misappropriation of the musicians’ likenesses. Like the Winters, the Autumn brothers were albinos from the South named Johnny and Edgar. The fourth issue of the miniseries was entitled "The Autumns of Our Discontent," replacing "Autumns" for "Winter" in the famous phrase from the first line of Shakespeare’s Richard III. Though singing cowboys figured in the story, the Autumn brothers were anti-singing. They were also dim-witted,murdering, pig-humping, inbred offspring of raped humans and supernatural worms. |
The case worked its way through the legal system, finally being resolved in 2003, when the California Supreme Court sided with DC.
Thought DC never collected Riders of the Worm and Such, the duo returned to Hex in 1999 with Shadows West (also never collected. Imagine an Absolute Jonah Hex collecting the three Lansdale-Truman series?). Lansdale also scripted the Jonah Hex appearance on The Adventures of Batman and Robin.
Typical Hollywood b.s. probably has more to do with why Lansdale isn’t writing the upcoming movie, but one never knows. Still, I’d be much more eager if he was involved.
And then this announcement from Disney via Hollywood Reporter:
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| Writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio are going from "shiver me timbers!" to "Hi-ho Silver!"
The writing duo, best known for their work on the "Pirates of the Caribbean" films, are in final negotiations to write a live-action big-screen adaptation of "The Lone Ranger" for Disney and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. |
Soon after the success of their first Jonah Hex series, Lansdale and Truman tackled the iconic Western characters The Lone Ranger and Tonto. Their controversial take started with Tonto decking the Lone Ranger. This humanized Tonto grew the ire of Rush Limbaugh, who cited it as an example of what is wrong with America, and applauded by Native American groups. This one had some weirdness and supernatural as well, but it was one of the finest portrayals of the Lone Ranger. And yet, Lansdale is not working on this script either.
Lansdale has become a sought after screenwriter over the past several years with a half a dozen productions in their early stages. So having him work on two characters that he clearly understands might make sense, but this is Hollywood, where sense need not apply.
Dental Revelations
[ 
Currently: Listening to Blonde on Blonde– Bob Dylan ]
Today, as I have every six months for the past ten years, I got my teeth cleaned. During that same period except when she is on vacation, the same technician has cleaned my teeth. The visit started normally enough. We discussed the weekend and what we’ve been up to.
"You are a writer? What do you write? Have you written a book?" I know I had mention previously that I’m a writer. Not exactly something you hide.
I had just finished telling her about me and Brandy’s upcoming New York vacation and how my last trip was work related. A research trip for something I was writing.
"I’m a critic. Primarily write about pop culture. I have two pieces in the current [Austin] Chronicle."
"Yeah, but have you written a book?" Why does that always come up? Am I not a "real" writer with some 300,000 published words over the best decade but no book? Sadly for most, the book, regardless of its quality or who published it, legitimatizes a writer. Thankfully for these occasions, I have produced a book. I tell her about Geek Confidential.
"So what’s next? What were you researching in New York?"
"Have you heard of Irving Klaw? He’s my grandfather." I wasn’t expect much of a response. The technician, as evident by her family photos and her manners of speech, is clearly a suburbanite and not the type usually knowledgeable about Bettie Page and Irving Klaw.
"As in Bettie Page? No way! I saw that movie [The Notorious Bettie Page] about her on HBO. That was your grandfather and grandmother taking the pics?"
I then explained about how the woman, Paula, was actually my grandfather’s sister and filled her in on a some family history. She enjoyed the movie and was astonished about some of the things I told her about Irving. About how he practically invented the pin up industry in 1940s and his works helped to change the public perceptions about pornography.
It continually amazes me who knows about my grandfather and who wants to learn more. With HBO showing Notorious six times in April, I imagine more interested folks are going to be asking about my grandfather. I’m prepared to be pleasantly surprised.
Moorcock on Clarke
Michael Moorcock offers this moving, heartfelt eulogy for his friend Arthur C. Clarke.
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| His view of our world, rather like PG Wodehouse’s (whom he resembled physically) didn’t include much room for the Four Horsemen galloping through his rhododendrons. His preferred future was extremely Wellsian, full of brainy people sitting about in togas swapping theorems.
And he was unflappably The Ego. After we watched the preview of 2001, Brian Aldiss, JG Ballard and I all admitted it had left us a bit cold in the visionary department. He took our poor response with his usual amused forgiveness reserved for lesser mortals and told us how many millions the movie had already made in America. |
The New Wolfman
Entertainment Weekly offers up the first images from the Benicio Del Toro-starring, Joe Johnston-helmed The Wolfman remake. Pretty impressive, but with Rick Baker behind the makeup, I wasn’t too concerned. With the under appreciated Johnston directing and the perfect Del Toro casting, this might actually be pretty good. Course, I thought the same of the disastrous Van Helsing, so initial looks can be deceiving.
Borders Considers Sale
From Publishers Weekly, March 19:
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| The possibility that Borders may one day be for sale has been discussed in publishing circles for several years, but that chance became more likely with the early morning announcement from the bookstore chain that it had hired J.P. Morgan Securities and Merrill Lynch to help it explore strategic alternatives. Those options, Borders said, include the possible sale of the company and/or some of its divisions. Continued… |
This could be terrifying news for the American book industry. What happens if Barnes & Noble buys Borders? Or if Borders is chopped up into smaller companies?
Imagine the megalithic Barnes & Noble tromping throughout the US with no stiff competition? Sure, Amazon offers some resistance but online has yet to replace the neighborhood book store.
What happens if B&N decides to not carry an author or title? With no Borders, publishers will have little recourse.
What’s worse than two gigantic book chains? There being only one…
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| To write books is easy, it requires only pen and ink and the ever-patient paper. To print books is a little more difficult, because genius so often rejoices in illegible handwriting. To read books is more difficult still, because of a tendency to go to sleep. But the most difficult task of all that a mortal man can embark on is to sell a book.
from a poem by Felix Dahn, paraphrased by Sir Stanley Unwin |
(Thanks to Jeff VanderMeer for the link and for offering a unique solution)
Animated Opinions
The latest issue of The Austin Chronicle contains my feature on the unique internet movie review site, Spill.
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| Like most weeks over the past six years, Martin Thomas, C. Robert Cargill, Chris Cox, and Korey Coleman gather to record their movie discussions. But now, instead of weekly Austin cable-access show The Reel Deal, they bring their act – equal parts critique, comedy troupe, and sideshow – to the Internet as a series of animated shorts under the moniker Spill. |
What the Frak Is Going On?
In advance of the forthcoming final season, SciFi produced this eight minute recap of BSG.
If you have been watching only on DVD, DO NOT watch this. Talk about your reveals.
Live action John Carter?
According to JimHillMedia.com, Pixar is mulling over the prospect of filming the first John Carter of Mars movie, projected as a trilogy, as a live action feature. This would be the first non-animated anything from the award-winning studio. My question is why?
No one makes animated movies like Pixar. Even their lesser films such as Bug’s Life and Cars offer more humanity and better crafted stories than the vast majority of live action movies currently in the cineplex. As demonstrated in The Incredibles, portraying people involved in science fictional concepts is certainly no problem. So why even consider the change?
From JimHill:
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| [S]tudio suits seem to be cooling to the idea of producing movie versions of all seven of C. S. Lewis’s "Narnia" books. [U]nless "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" does truly huge box office once it’s released to theaters in May of this year … Disney & Walden Media (i.e. Mickey’s partner on the "Narnia" film series) will probably still go forward with production of the already-in-development "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader." But after that … The Mouse would then mostly likely pull the plug on the rest of the proposed "Narnia" film series. |
That leaves a huge live action hole in the studio schedule starting in 2011.
So who would play a live action John Carter? When the idea of the movie was kicked around in the 80’s and early 90s, Kevin Costner’s name was batted around. While he was an excellent choice back then, at 53 he’s probably a bit long in the tooth now. (Course with the 65 year old Harrison Ford reprising his role as Indiana Jones and the 61 year old Stallone playing both Rocky and Rambo once again, I guess anything is possible.)
Ideally, John Carter should be a Southerner in his early 30s in excellent shape. It better not be Will Smith. While Smith is proving to be a better actor than I thought, John Carter is a SOLDIER FOR THE SOUTH during the CIVIL WAR. Not many black men doing that.
Both Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, depending on their abilities to use Southern accents, might be good. As might Mark Walberg. The film will be heavy on action.
Of course as we all know, the truly important role is Dejah Thoris, the Princess of Mars.
Apparently back in the 1970s, another live action version was attempted and even got to the design sketch stage. Sadly, it was never filmed.
It is safe to hate Wal-Mart again
Back in November I bragged on Wal-mart for carrying Everex’s TC2502 gPC, the first mass-market under $200 desktop computer. The low-cost PC featured gOS, a custom distribution of Ubuntu Linux. At the time, reports circulated that the new computer had completely sold out at the 630 Wal-Marts that offered the product.
Now this from Wal-Mart:
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| Computers that run the Linux operating system instead of Microsoft Corp.’s Windows didn’t attract enough attention from Wal-Mart customers, and the chain has stopped selling them in stores, a spokeswoman said Monday.
"This really wasn’t what our customers were looking for," said Wal-Mart Stores Inc. spokeswoman Melissa O’Brien. |
But later in the same article:
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| Wal-Mart sold out the in-store gPC inventory but decided not to restock, O’Brien said. The company does not reveal sales figures for individual items. |
So is Bill Gates a Wal-Mart shareholder or what?
The only good news gleamed from this article is that Walmart.com carries the newer version of the low-price PC. Though currently Walmart.com claims this computer is NOT FOR SALE ONLINE!
