Superman and Batman Movie Announced for 2015

This year the Comic-Con International award for Saving the Best For Last goes to Warner Bros., which at the end of its panel in Hall H brought out Zack Snyder to make a very big mic-drop announcement: That there would be a new Superman movie. With Batman.

“It’s official,” Snyder said, taking the stage. “We are going to make another Superman movie.”
Then he called up actor Harry Lennix to read a teaser statement that was recognizable to fans of DC Comics: “I want you to remember, Clark, in all the years to come, in your most private moments, I want you to remember my hand at your throat. I want you to remember the one man who beat you.” (For those that don’t know, that’s from The Dark Knight Returns.)


The movie will be titled Superman & Batman according to The Los Angeles Times; Snyder will direct the film, slated for 2015; and—according to The Hollywood Reporter—Henry Cavill will reprise the role of Clark Kent/Superman, but it’s unclear who will play Batman. Man of Steel screenwriter David S. Goyer will pen the script. Sources also told the Reporter that the film will be part of the build up for a 2017 release for the Justice League movie. 

Fruitvale Station Movie Review: Michael B. Jordan Will Likely Nab an Oscar Nomination

Michael B. Jordan in Fruitvale Credit: courtesy of The Weinstein Company
In Theaters: Now

It’s not too soon to trumpet Michael B. Jordan as a likely 2014 Best Actor Oscar nominee. The soft-spoken, baby-faced actor — best known for his fine TV work in The Wire, Friday Night Lights and Parenthood — is that powerful in this exceptional drama.

The true story traces the last day in the life of Oscar Grant (Jordan), a 22-year-old ex-con who was shot in the back by an Oakland transit cop in the Fruitvale train station just after New Year’s Eve in 2009. His death and the police officer's ensuing slap-on-the-wrist conviction led to massive protests throughout the area.

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That’s the headline. This film captures the human. Thanks to a series of quietly riveting snapshots, Oscar is shown as a caring father, an aimless pot dealer, a doting boyfriend, and a short-fused punk who angrily threatens his former grocery store supervisor. In a searing flashback scene, Oscar, whose drug-dealing landed in him in jail, gets a visitation from his mom (Octavia Spencer) on her birthday. One minute, he’s nonchalantly conversing with her about his daughter; the next, he’s embroiled in a knock-down fight with a fellow inmate; the next, he’s tearfully begging his mom for a hug as she leaves in a furious huff. It’s an unflinching, 360-degree character portrait.

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Ultimately, Oscar is the hapless victim. Though his demise is set up in the prologue, this doesn’t make his last chaotic moments in Fruitvale any less tension-filled: As he lay handcuffed face-down on the ground unarmed, pleading to the arresting, menacing police officers of his innocence, audiences might get lulled into the feeling that maybe — just maybe — his life will be spared. Instead, his death is played out in haunting fashion. Spencer’s reaction to every parent's worst nightmare is a gut-wrencher.

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All this drama might seem overwrought and manipulative — if it weren't for the actual raw footage, shown in the film, from horrified onlookers who recorded the incident on their Smartphones. In the end, these eyewitness accounts help bring Oscar’s murder to justice. Just know that his unshakeable tale doesn’t bring closure.

Sharknado: Stars Tweet About Syfy Movie Starring Tara Reid, Ian Ziering

Ian Ziering and Tara Reid star in Syfy's Sharknado, which became a Twitter sensation when it premiered on July 11, 2013.
Sharknado became a Twitter sensation when it premiered on the Syfy network on Thursday, July 11. The movie -- about a tornado filled with sharks -- stars Tara Reid, Ian Ziering and Cassie Scerbo. Dozens of celebrities weighed in on the over-the-top flick via the social networking site.

"As usual, the beach youths all deserve to die," former MTV News staff Kurt Loder wrote. "Rooting for the sharks #Sharknado." Actor Patton Oswalt joked, "Dear @SyfyTV: please follow up SHARKNADO with PARTLY CLOWNY. Sky. Clowns. Michael Pare (probably)." 30 Rock alum Judah Friedlander also pitched a movie to the network, writing, "SharkFart vs Diarrhea Whale. Call me @Syfy. That's my movie pitch. #Sharknado."

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Ziering, 49, wasn't able to catch the premiere. "#LiveTweetingSharknado I cant believe how this movie is blowing up ALL social media," he wrote. "Working with @Chippendales tonight, seeing it tomorrow." The Beverly Hills, 90210 alum added, "After seeing myself in a wetsuit at 207lbs I'm surprised I didn't get eatin first.. #lardandincharge."

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To see how the rest of Hollywood felt about Sharknado, read on:

Olivia Wilde, Drinking Buddies
I just recorded it based on this review: "@MiaFarrow: Omg omg OMG #sharknado"

B.J. Novak, Saving Mr. Banks
I'm afraid that now when we have a real sharknado everyone's going to treat it like a joke.

Chrissy Teigen, model
Say what you will about Tara and Ian but I don't see any of YOU starring in shark tornado tv movies

Christina Applegate, Anchorman 2
We can't just stay here and let sharks rain down on us.....,

Josh Gad, 1600 Penn
The Producers of Planet Earth are watching #SharkNado tonight asking themselves, "why do we even try?"

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Autumn Reeser, Entourage
On @NecRoughness set w/ @Karissaleelee and we are flabbergasted at the amount of people tweeting about #Sharknado. And now we feel left out.

Horatio Sanz, G.B.F.
I wish I could join in on the shenanigans, But I had a cousin that was killed by a #Sharknado back in '93. #RamonRIP

Elizabeth Banks, The Hunger Games
Well, there goes my Emmy. RT @Syfy: . @oliviawilde @MiaFarrow We have roles for you both in the #Sharknado sequel @DamonLindelof is writing"

Michael Chiklis, Parker
Clearly SyFy is employing the old, "so bad, it's good," method with tremendous effect. #TrendingForHours #SharkNado"

Hugh Jackman Wants Wolverine to Join the Movie 'Avengers'

 

With Marvel Entertainment's movie properties split across three studios - Fox has Fantastic Four and X-Men, Sony has Spider-Man and Marvel has everything else - the prospect of seeing an on-screen version of the current comic book Avengers featuring Captain America, Thor and Iron Man teaming up with Wolverine from the X-Men and Spider-Man to save the day on a regular basis seems almost impossible. One man, however, has hopes that it could happen. His name? Hugh Jackman.

During the film's press junket for his return to the role of everyone's favorite be-clawed mutant in The Wolverine, Jackman admitted that he's even asked Marvel about the possibility himself.

"I literally asked the same question the other day to Tom from Marvel who works with all the other studios, he works with Sony and Fox, that’s his job to liaise," Jackman told the website Collider. "I said, 'Man, can this happen?' and he goes 'Look, it’s not gonna be easy because you’re working with different studios and they’re their properties.'"

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However, Jackman is remaining hopeful. "I believe - maybe I’m optimistic, I understand at Marvel they’ve got The Avengers, they’ve got a lot of big things going on, but at some point I just find it almost impossible that there’s not a way to bring Iron Man, all the Avengers characters, Wolverine, the X-Men characters, Spider-Man, and somehow get them in together," he said.

He's even got an idea of how to handle the business end of the whole thing. "I’m like, okay you’ve got three studios, just split it three ways in terms of the cost, and happy days it’s all coming together!" Okay, I didn't say it was necessarily a complicated idea of how to handle the business end, but still.

In the off-chance that this could help this cross-studio crossover happen, it's worth remembering that Andrew Garfield, the current movie Spider-Man, has already voiced his support for the idea of Spidey joining the Avengers at some point in the future. Clearly, it's time to get Samuel L. Jackson and Robert Downey Jr. involved…

Is Fox Planning an 'X-Force' Movie? (Report)

With The Wolverine still weeks away from release and X-Men: Days of Future Past still in production, you could be forgiven for thinking that Fox currently has its hands full when it comes to the X-Men movie franchise. It appears, however, that plans are already in motion to bring a little bit of 1990s mutant magic to the big screen with a future installment.

The X-Men Films blog has noticed that Fox has registered the domain X-ForceMovie.com, noting that "this is usually how future X-Men film titles end up getting leaked" (Both X-Men: First Class and Days of Future Past were leaked in this manner ahead of official announcements).

For those unfamiliar with X-Force, the concept was created by Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza as a replacement for the teen superhero title New Mutants, with the characters from that series re-organizing themselves into a more militaristic group led by time-traveling cyborg Cable. The first issue set a sales record for the comic book industry when released in 1991.

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Through the years, the title has been adopted by different creators for various (and varied) projects, including a satire on the concept of celebrity superheroes and a black-ops branch of the main X-Men team. Currently, the "X-Force" name is being used by two otherwise unrelated series at Marvel: Uncanny X-Force and Cable and X-Force.

With only the URL registration to go on, it's too early to hazard a guess about which version of the team a prospective movie would use, but concept creator Liefeld has long teased the idea of his Cable character appearing in a movie.

Of course, with Fox holding an X-Men movie panel at Comic-Con in San Diego next weekend, more news may be forthcoming sooner than you suspect.

Vin Diesel Offers Marvel Movie Tease(s)

Vin Diesel just can't help himself.

A couple of weeks after teasing Facebook fans by announcing that "Marvel has requested a meeting … no idea what for … haha, you probably know better than me," the Fast & Furious and Riddick star is at it again, sharing a picture from the Marvel offices and telling fans "Only the people in the room can tell you what was discussed …"

This was accompanied by an image of Diesel in front of a reproduction of the cover to Avengers #2 by Jack Kirby. A coincidence or deliberate tease? And if it's the latter, what to make of the fact that that particular cover features the tagline "See The New GIANT-MAN!"?

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Of course, Diesel may be offering another hint as to his potential Marvel role, adding "Thanks to Our page, for pushing to make it happen … you know I get tunnel vision with my work … and after that meeting today … wow!" One particular word stood out for longtime Marvel fans, prompting speculation that he might be taking on the role of superheroic android The Vision in Joss Whedon's next Marvel movie.

Personally, I think any Avengers talk is a misdirect at this point. For me, Diesel is perfect for one role at Marvel Studios above all others, and if Comic-Con this month passes without an announcement that he'll be voicing Rocket Raccoon in 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy movie, I feel as if everyone should mourn a tragically missed opportunity.

Twitter: @sajilpl

The Lone Ranger Review: The Johnny Depp Movie Is a "Clunky Two-Hour Grind"

Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer star in The Lone Ranger. Credit: Peter Mountain
In Theaters: Now

Rating: 2.5 stars/4

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Might as well start with the end. There's a rollicking 20-minute sequence on parallel speeding trains, complete with quick-draw gunfire, well-timed kabooms and that classic "William Tell Overture." (You'll know when you hear it.) Until then, however, prepare for a clunky two-hour grind.

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The classic TV Western serves as source material: In 1869 Texas, prosecutor John Reid (Armie Hammer) longs to bring his brother's killer to justice. With help from his new friend, the mystical Native American Tonto (Johnny Depp), he's transformed into the noble Lone Ranger. The two play off each other so well, a sequel is probably brewing as you read this. But Depp is his own worst enemy: The gifted actor has done the kooky, costumed character shtick so many times, it's no longer surprising to see him roll his eyes or bury his index finger into the desert sand, then lick it (one of the many juvenile jokes).

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Each time they seem to be making progress on the journey, a turgid detour stops the action cold -- a wailing widow here, a childhood flashback there. Tighter storytelling would have turned a decent outing into a great one. Sorry, kemosabe.

Follow me on Twitter @sajilpl

'Vampire Diaries,' 'Continuum' Actors Join Eadweard Muybridge Movie (Exclusive)

The Vampire Diaries actress Sara Canning, Ian Tracey and Jodi Balfour have joined the cast of the untitled psychological drama centered on Eadweard Muybridge.

Michael Eklund is starring in the Canadian indie, which is being directed by Kyle Rideout and produced by Josh Epstein. Rideout and Epstein were behind Wait for Rain, a short that won best science fiction/fantasy at last year’s Comic-Con International Film Festival. The Muybridge project is their first feature.

Also joining the cast are Christopher Heyerdahl and Torrance Combs. The movie begins principal photography next week in Vancouver.

Muybridge was a world-famous 19th century photographer who took pictures of nude and deformed subjects, found fame with his landscape shots and pioneered motion photography by capturing animals and humans in action and led the way for motion pictures with his zoopraxiscope device. His personal life also was noteworthy: He killed his wife’s lover and received a justifiable homicide verdict.

Canning will play Muybridge’s wife, while Balfour will be one of the photographer’s models who became the focus of some of his very first nudes.

Tracey will portray the founder of Stanford University who enlists Muybridge's services to win a famous bet over whether a horse had all four hooves off the ground while galloping.

Canning stars in Primeval: New World, the North American version of the hit BBC sci-fi show.

Tracey has appeared in the popular Canadian sci-fi show Continuum and appeared in Man of Steel and A&E’s Bates Motel.

Balfour is one of the stars of CBC’s acclaimed show Bomb Girls.

Follow me on Twitter @sajilpl

'Captain Planet and the Planeteers' Movie in the Works From Sony (Exclusive)

Environmental cartoon Captain Planet and the Planeteers is getting the big-screen treatment.

Sony Pictures is in final negotiations to pick up the rights to the early 1990s series for an adaptation to be produced by Mark Gordon, Don Murphy and Susan Montford.

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The show was produced by Turner Broadcasting and DIC Entertainment, the latter known for Inspector Gadget and The Real Ghostbusters cartoon shows.

Captain Planet told the story of five teens from around the world -- North America, Africa, Eastern Europe, Asia and South America (if this isn’t tailored for today’s international marketplace, I don’t know what is) -- that are given powers by Gaia, the earth spirit, in order to protect the planet from the devastation of polluters.

When their powers are not enough, the teens combine to summon a superhero named Captain Planet.

The Captain and the Planeteers fought villains such as Dr. Blight, Verminous Skumm, Duke Nukem and Looten Plunder. (The series initially attracted high-profile celebrities to play the baddies -- Sting  ,   Meg Ryan and James Coburn among them.)

A movie adaptation attempted to take form in the 1990s but only reached the script stage. Murphy and Montford developed a live-action series with Cartoon Network in the late 2000s but it never took root.

Andrea Giannetti will oversee for the studio.

Gordon is a veteran producer whose credits range from Speed and Broken Arrow to Saving Private Ryan and 2012. He is also the executive producer behind shows such as Grey’s Anatomy, Criminal Minds, and the upcoming Ray Donovan.

Murphy, one of the producers behind The Transformers mega-franchise, and Montford are in production on Vampire Academy, the adaptation of the YA novel by Richelle Mead being directed by Mark Waters.

 

Twitter: @sajilpl

 

James Gandolfini: His Most Memorable Movie, TV Roles Remembered

James Gandolfini was so much more than Tony Soprano. Although the late actor -- who died of a heart attack at age 51 in Rome, Italy on Wednesday June 19 -- is best remembered for his role as the tortured mafia don in the masterful HBO series, he leaves behind a huge filmography of memorable roles on the big screen, too.

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The married father of two won three Emmys as Tony in The Sopranos, which ran from 1999 to 2007. But his first major film role was opposite Brad Pitt and Patricia Arquette in 1993's True Romance; two years later, he was a standout in scene-stealing moments with John Travolta and other A-listers in Get Shorty. He would go on to share the screen with the likes of Julia Roberts (The Mexican, 2001), Susan Sarandon and Kate Winslet (Romance and Cigarette, 2005) and many others, working with the best directors of the era.

As Hollywood mourns the June 19 death of James Gandolfini at age 51, look back at the Soprano star's most memorable roles, from Get Shorty to Where the Wild Things Are.
Credit: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

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Most recently, Gandolfini appeared as the CIA Director in one of last year's most acclaimed films, Zero Dark Thirty, and recently earned a Tony nomination in the intense drama Gods of Carnage. Often called a "gentle giant," he voiced the lovable "wild thing" creature Carol in 2009's Where the Wild Things Are. (He counted Kristen Stewart as a costar in 2010's Welcome to the Rileys.)

"He was too big," Rolling Stone's Peter Travers raved. "Big in size. Big in talent. Big as in unbreakable. This is an actor who could blend tough and tender like nobody's business. And Gandolfini kept his private business to himself. He didn't talk much about acting. He just did it. When something touched him, he gave it everything, producing two documentaries for HBO about injured Iraq War soldiers and post-traumatic stress disorder."

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Added Sopranos creator David Chase: "He was a genius. Anyone who saw him even in the smallest of his performances knows that. He is one of the greatest actors of this or any time. A great deal of that genius resided in those sad eyes. I remember telling him many times, 'You don't get it. You're like Mozart.'"

Watch this touching tribute to some of Gandolfini's most memorable moments on the big and small screens -- also featuring moments from The Sopranos, The Man Who Wasn't There, Killing Them Softly and more -- now and tell Us: What will you miss most about this star?

 

Is the Superhero Movie Genre as Invulnerable as Its Iconic Characters?

 

Man of Steel may have yielded the top spot at this weekend’s U.S. box office to Monsters University, but across the world, Zack Snyder’s Superman reboot remains No. 1 in people’s hearts. The movie has made north of $400 million internationally despite what could charitably be described as “poor critical reception” — and shows little sign of stopping.

 

It’s also very much not alone. Even though reviews of the film ranged from the excited to the downright damning, its reception with audiences remained decidedly strong. It set a new opening weekend record for June box office and even though the movie’s aggregate rating by critics on Rotten Tomatoes was a decidedly meh 56 percent, the audience rating was “fresh” at 82 percent and the audience metric of Cinemascore gave it an A-. Many a summer superhero tentpole has followed a similar trajectory. All of which underscores one simple, yet still surprising, truth about flicks based on superhero comics: Moviegoers can’t seem to get enough of them.

 

It also, however, begs the uncomfortable followup question: Will that last or will the appeal of capes and special powers and do-goodery wear off as audiences move on to other thrills?

 

There were many — myself amongst them — who believed that the staggering success of last year’s Avengers marked the pinnacle for the genre, and that audiences would drift away from superhero-centric movies after the big climax of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And then Iron Man 3 broke box office records all around the world. Man of Steel’s success may be an even stronger indicator of the longevity of superhero movies as a genre, however. At this point, we cynically expect Marvel movies to do well, because — The Incredible Hulk aside — all Marvel movies do well. What Man of Steel does is prove that audiences can get excited about a big superhero movie that isn’t produced by Marvel (or starring Batman).

 

That’s a good thing, too, considering just last week Sony announced its timeline for two more Spider-Man movies beyond next year’s sequel to Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man, effectively plotting new Spidey flicks for this fall’s incoming high school freshmen to catch in theaters until after their graduations. Calling Spider-Man the company’s “most important, most successful, and most beloved franchise,” Sony Pictures’ marketing and distribution chair Jeff Blake revealed that the studio plans to release the third and fourth installments of the rebooted series in June 2016 and May 2018, respectively.

 

A week earlier, Disney announced two mystery movies by Marvel Studios with 2016 and 2017 release dates respectively, adding to a slate that already has two superhero movies every year between now and then. Warner Bros., meanwhile, is rumored to be fast-tracking a Man of Steel sequel that would see it arrive in theaters as early as next year, with the long-stalled Justice League movie arriving a year later, a schedule which seems not only faster than a speeding bullet in terms of movie production, but also more than a little ambitious (or insane).

 

Add to that Fox’s X-Men franchise — The Wolverine is coming next month, X-Men: Days of Future Past next year — and other, lesser-known, superhero properties in various stages of development or production including Kick-Ass 2 this August and a Fantastic Four flick in 2015, and it’s increasingly clear that if the success of the superhero genre is just a bubble in the wider summer blockbuster movie story, it’s a bubble that’s nowhere near bursting — at least on the supply side.

 

Of course, most of the big superhero successes have come from iconic characters like Iron Man and Superman, who are already well-known to mainstream audiences. It will be more interesting to see in coming years is how moviegoers react to films whose  superheroes who lack the brand awareness of the Avengers or X-Men. Even with the Marvel logo attached, next year’s Guardians of the Galaxy — a collection of space-faring characters who have only been in print intermittently since the concept’s creation decades ago, featuring a talking raccoon and giant living tree, amongst other characters — may prove to be too much of an abstract concept in much the same way that Warner/DC’s Green Lantern did in 2011.

 

Given the amount of lead time required in making these special-effects heavy movies — and the amount of lead we’re seeing in their announcements — it’s possible that audiences could tire of superhero movies before Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man makes his fourth appearance. But if they do, the question may not just be whether the genre is oversaturated, but whether the box office success of the genre can persist beyond the nostalgia and familiarity of its most iconic heroes.

 

 

Kyrgyzstan Latest Former Soviet Republic to Make Epic Historical Movie

MOSCOW – Kyrgyzstan is the latest former Soviet republic to put public money into producing a national historic epic.

Queen of the Mountains (Kurmandjan Datka in the local language, Kyrgyz) is the $1.5 million story of a noblewoman, Datka, revered to this day for her diplomacy in saving her nation from complete destruction and subjugation when Russian imperial forces conquered the Central Asian country in the 1870s.

Shot on digital Red Epic film and starring three top Kyrgyz actresses as the lead at different stages of her life -- as a young woman (Elina Abai Kyzy), middle-aged mother (Nazira Mambetova) and old woman (Jamal Seidakmatova). The film is backed by Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambaev and minister of culture, Sultan Raev.

Writer-director Sadyk Sher-Niyaz, who is producing through Aitysh Film, Bishkek with national studio Kyrgyz Film, told The Hollywood Reporter that despite the film’s historical setting, it's subject -- that of a courageous woman who breaks away from Islamic mores and a patriarchal country to achieve great things -- is up-to-date.

"It's the story of a young woman who is forced into an arranged marriage but escapes, flees to the mountains and falls in love with the local chief, Alynbek, whom she marries. When he is killed by political rivals she becomes the 'queen of the mountains' and a key figure in the national struggle when the Russians invade."

Filled with spectacular locations, lavish costumes, bloody battle scenes and dramatic turns, the film is shooting on location this summer with a release slated for early next year.

Last year’s $10 million national epic from oil-rich neighbor Kazakhstan, Myn Bala, which included a top-notch international creative crew, was a box-office sensation in that more populous state.

Kyrgyzstan, which has a population of 5.5 million and GDP per capita of just $2,400 a year (compared with Kazakhstan's population of 17.7 million and per capita GDP of $13,900) is not a major producer of films. But the country’s rugged and beautiful scenery makes it a spectacular movie location and a new, relatively affluent generation of educated young people are increasingly using low-cost digital equipment to make films.

"We’re experiencing a film boom now, with around 100 low-budget movies shot every year – many of them about love, of course!" Sher-Niyaz said.

 

Jim Carrey Condemns His Movie Kick-Ass 2 for Violence in Wake of Newtown Shooting

Jim Carrey is speaking out against his upcoming film Kick-Ass 2 because of its depiction of gun violence in the wake of the Sandy Hook shootings. Credit: Michael Buckner/Getty Images

Jim Carrey is having a crisis of conscience about his upcoming movie Kick-Ass 2. The 51-year-old actor spoke out against the satirical superhero sequel on Sunday, June 23, telling his 10.8 million Twitter followers that he wanted to distance himself from the film due to its depiction of violence in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary shootings in Newtown, Conn.

"I did Kickass a month b4 Sandy Hook and now in all good conscience I cannot support that level of violence," he tweeted of the flick, set to be released in August. "I meant to say my apologies to others involved with the film. I am not ashamed of it but recent events have caused a change in my heart."

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Carrey stars in the comic-book adaptation as Colonel Stars & Stripes, a born-again Christian vigilante who teams up with the titular hero (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Hit-Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) to take out lowlife criminals. Speaking about the movie with MTV News in March, he described his character as "a guy that came from a violent background who is trying to turn it around, and he uses a gun with no bullets in it."

At the time, he said he was "becoming more conscious" of violence in films and was "being careful" with his choices going forward. He also said Kick-Ass 2 was going to be "a great movie."

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Alas, he no longer stands behind that opinion. But others -- like Mark Millar, who created the comics on which Kick-Ass and Kick-Ass 2 are based -- do. In a response to Carrey's tweets on Sunday, Millar took to his website with a long, personal message in which he called the actor "magnificent" and defended the movie's depiction of violence.

"As you may know, Jim is a passionate advocate of gun-control, and I respect both his politics and his opinion, but I'm baffled by this sudden announcement as nothing seen in this picture wasn't in the screenplay eighteen months ago," he wrote. "Yes, the body count is very high, but a movie called Kick-Ass 2 really has to do what it says on the tin."

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"Like Jim, I'm horrified by real-life violence (even though I'm Scottish), but Kick-Ass 2 isn't a documentary," he continued. "No actors were harmed in the making of this production! This is fiction and like [directors] [Quentin] Tarantino and [Sam] Peckinpah, [Martin] Scorcese and [Clint] Eastwood, John Boorman, Oliver Stone and Chan-Wook Park, Kick-Ass avoids the usual bloodless body count of most big summer pictures and focuses instead of the CONSEQUENCES of violence."

"Ultimately, this is [Jim's] decision, but I've never quite bought the notion that violence in fiction leads to violence in real life any more than Harry Potter casting a spell creates more Boy Wizards in real life," Millar concluded. "Our job as storytellers is to entertain, and our toolbox can't be sabotaged by curtailing the use of guns in an action movie...Kick-Ass 2 is fictional fun, so let's focus our ire instead on the real-life violence going on in the world."

 

Movie Producer Looks to Slay 'Dungeons and Dragons' Lawsuit

Wasting no time in defending a lawsuit over Dungeons and Dragons film rights, Courtney Solomon's Sweetpea Entertainment has already filed a motion for summary judgment.

It was just a month ago that Hasbro filed a lawsuit in California federal court. Upon news that Sweetpea was possibly working with Warner Bros. in developing a film based on Chainmail, a board game from Dungeons & Dragons designer Gary Gygax, Hasbro wanted a declaration that it owns rights to the property and sought an injunction to stop the film.

Sweetpea is now rolling the dice that the end-game is nigh.

Hasbro admitted in the lawsuit that Sweetpea acquired rights to the property by an agreement in 1994 and that Solomon produced a 2000 theatrical film and some TV films thereafter. But the the toy company contended that "Sequel Rights have reverted to Hasbro" based upon a five-year reversion clock.

Sweetpea, represented by Patty Glaser's law firm, looks to kill that claim by arguing in a summary judgment motion this week that Hasbro was required to serve written notice of the potential termination with opportunity to cure.

"Hasbro has never provided written notice of its intent to terminate the license, nor has Hasbro provided Sweetpea an opportunity to cure, and therefore Sweetpea is still licensed under the license agreement," says the motion for summary judgment (read in full here).

In addition, Hasbro is claiming damages for copyright infringement for the coming film.

In response, Sweetpea makes the case that there's a fatal flaw in this claim.

"To establish a prima facie case of copyright infringement, a plaintiff needs to juxtapose the specific elements of a copyrighted work with an infringing work," says Sweetpea's motion. "Here, Hasbro merely alleges that Sweetpea is in 'discussions' to produce a Dungeons & Dragons sequel based on a script entitled Chainmail. Even though Hasbro admits it received a copy of the Chainmail script, there is no evidence that Chainmail—or any other work— contains specific elements that are also present in any Hasbro copyrighted work. In fact, there is no evidence of any copyrighted work. Instead, Hasbro merely refers in the complaint to 1500 copyrights without specifying which ones allegedly are infringed."

It's not unheard of for people in the movie industry to get sued for copyright infringement before production of a film finishes. For instance, in a lawsuit that was brought during last year's Toronto Film Festival and later settled, the producers of a planned eco-terrorism film were sued for infringing a literary property.

But the defendants in this case say that Hasbro at least has an obligation to spell out the alleged substantial similarities between one work and the next. (Hasbro has  been reported to have licensed a Dungeons & Dragons reboot to Universal.) As the motion puts it, "It is not sufficient for Hasbro to argue that the mere idea of a sequel to the Dungeons & Dragons movie infringes Hasbro’s copyrights."