"New Frontier "comic special to Join DVD release

As if the release of Justice League: The New Frontier as a direct-to-DVD animated movie of February 26 weren't cool enough, creator Darwyn Cooke is releasing a 48-page Justice League: New Frontier special a week later, featuring three untold tales set during the time period of the orignal story. As Cooke told Newsarama:

The special will be a special in that old school way. It will have a small connecting story and the conceit is that these are untold events that the government classified back in the early sixties. There are three stories in the special. The main story is something I call Chapter X, and it is the story behind the big Batman/Superman fight hoax referred to in New Frontier. In the book we only deal with that event as a squib in a magazine article along with on shot of them brawling. This 22 page story will tell about what leads up to the two fighting, and how they choose to resolve it. A host of our Frontier cast are in this story, from King Faraday and the Suicide Squad through to Wonder Woman and Hourman. We also get to meet the New Frontier Alfred .... J. Bone and I are tackling Wonder Woman, Black Canary and old school chauvinism in an New Frontier parody along the lines of the old Kurtzman/Wood Mad satires. The director of the NFDVD is a talented young man named David Bullock. He and I are tackling a short that features Robin and Kid Flash up against Red saboteurs.

An animated adaptation of one of the best comic stories in years, and now a comic follow-up. Comics CAN still be good! For more inforamtion on DC's New Frontier-related offerings, click here.

Justice League: New Frontier will premiere at the WonderCon in San Francisco on Feburary 22-24, and arrive in stories on Feburary 26. The New Frontier comic special hits shops on March 5.

"Dark Knight"'s Joker Heath Ledger dead at 28

Actor Heath Ledger, 28, set to appear as the Joker in this summer's The Dark Knight, was found dead in his apartment in New York City today. The death appears to be drug-related, though whether it was a suicide has not yet been determined.

From his obituary from AP:

And in what may be his final finished performance, Ledger proved that he wouldn't be intimidated by taking on a character as iconic as Jack Nicholson's Joker. Ledger's version of the Batman villain, glimpsed in early teaser trailers, made it clear that his Joker would be more depraved and dark.
Curiosity about Ledger's final performance will likely stoke further interest in the summer blockbuster. Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan said earlier this month that Ledger's Joker would be wildly different from Nicholson's.
"It was a very great challenge for Heath," Nolan said. "He's extremely original, extremely frightening, tremendously edgy. A very young character, a very anarchic presence that taps into a lot of our basic fears and panic."

Farewell to a talented young actor.

Boldly Going Where Roddenberry Has Gone Before: New Star Trek Teaser Trailer Online

Debuting in theatres in front of Cloverfield, the teaser trailer for the Star Trek prequel movie is now online.

Director J.J. Abrams talked about the teaser and a little about the movie, which features a new young cast playing Kirk, Spock and the rest of the classic Entrprise crew, in Entertainment Weekly:

The clip shows welders busy on what turns out to be the new starship Enterprise — massive and detailed, an embodiment of space-gazing idealism. Abrams wanted to underscore the fact that he's ''starting from scratch,'' he says. His movie chronicles an early adventure of the original crew, including Kirk (Smokin' Aces' Chris Pine) and Spock (Heroes' Zachary Quinto). Eric Bana plays a villain. Leonard Nimoy returns as an older version of Spock, which could corroborate spoiler reports that the movie has a time-travel twist.

Not in the movie? William Shatner -- and he's not happy about it. See an article and video interview about that here. But Abrams has an explanation for that: "The only reason Mr. Shatner is not in the movie and Mr. (Leonard) Nimoy is, is that his character died on screen."

"Daydream Believer" writer dies

John Stewart, member of the 1960s folk act, The Kingston Trio, and writer of the Monkees' "Daydream Believer," among other pop songs, has died. He was 86.

Here's a clip of the Monkees doing "Daydream Believer":

And here's the Kingston Trio in 1966 on the The Andy Williams Show, singing "Where Have All the Flowers Gone":

Will Smith spoofs superheroes in Hancock

A few weeks after The Incredible Hulk, and a few weeks before The Dark Knight comes Hancock, Will Smith's superhero spoof, opening on July 2 -- a very successful holiday weekend for Mr. Smith. See the trailer here.

See the movie? Finish the book first!

So, last week, I made a rare trip to the movie theatre to see Sweeney Tood: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, the musical directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp. The movie was enjoyable, but the experience continued to remind me why there's little point in going to the theatre anymore -- the cost, the discomfort, the noise. Anyway, the one thing I continue to enjoy about going to the movies is seeing trailers, even though they are readily available online. So, I was hoping to see The Dark Knight, or Iron Man or Cloverfield, to actually see them on the big screen. Instead, I got a bunch of trailers for movies I have no desire to see on screens big or ... not as big (my TV is pretty big) -- movies aimed at kids, and other musicals. But then, there came a trailer that seemed familiar, even though I had never seen it before. It was for a movie called The Ruins.

The reason it seemed familiar is because I have been reading the book by Scott Smith that the movie is based on for months now, but was not getting far. I am so easily distracted by my iPod and DVR, that I rarely make time for reading anymore, unless it includes pictures and word balloons. But for some reason, seeing the trailer has inspired me to finish the book, even though I know I won't go to the theatre to see it when it comes out in April.

It has gotten great reviews, and I enjoyed Smith's first book, A Simple Plan, also made into a very good movie (directed by the Spider-Man film trilogy's Sam Raimi), but I had a hard time getting into The Ruins, and struggled to get past the first 100 pages (the paperback is just over 500 pages).

But since seeing the trailer last Sunday, I have made it a priority, and have read another 200+ pages, and the book has indeed picked up. I haven't touched a TV show or movie on my iPod in several days (haven't given up the DVR though), so I'm reading on the train again. I predict I'll be finished the book within the next week, and will likely be lending it out with high recommendations. But I still won't see the movie in the theatre in April. Only Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and The Dark Knight will do that over the next several months.

Next book for me is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. See the same strategy worked for the first four books in the Potter series -- I read the books by the time the movies came out. But not this time. Now, it's on DVD and will soon be on cable, and I haven't touched the mammoth book yet. So soon that will be on the list over there on the right (the one that has had The Ruins on it for over six months along with Larry Kane's Lennon Revealed).