Here's another great report from the San Diego Comic Con, which has really evolved over the years into a Comic-Scifi-Fantasy-Movie-Gaming Con. As Father Geek I 1st took Harry to this Con in 1972, he was 8 months old, he didn't miss one until his mom and I divorced in 1984. The first time we went it was all comics except for the stack of movie posters we took and there were no Directors, scriptwriters, or movie stars there. They've come a long way with alot of hard work, much of it by geek volunteers. We at AICN that off our hats to them. Speaking of hat taking off, what about these fantastic reports that have been sent in this week. You spies have done your fellow geeks a great service and you have our heart felt thanks. Don't stop sending info. Check your local scene. We want to know what's happening all over the world and without you it's a nearly impossible job. Well from me here's Kreed more griest for the geek mill.
Kreed of Ylum here. Hail Harry. Just returned from San Diego, and I have some news that I hope isn't all just duplication for you.
1) Hellboy Asked Mignola himself about the flick, and he said that he'd been talking with the director, Guillermo del Toro, and they are in agreement about a lot of things: they want Hellboy to be a guy in a suit ( I might prefer CG or stop motion, but...) And they would both like that man to be Ron Perlman. OK, I can see it. For Abe Sapien: Crispin Glover. Cool. Mike wants him to be calm and serene by himself in his float tank, but take on that sort of crazy and fidgety edge when he has to interact with people. He said they would like (but were sure they couldn't get) Jean Renault to play Rasputin. The script is written but needs to be pared down from an epic scope into a do-able project. It will follow the rough outline of the first Hellboy book, Seed of Destruction, in that we'll see Hellboy's arrival in this plane at the end of WWII, followed by a modern day adventure.
In a related note, Mike said it looked like del Toro would probably get to this project after, lemme see if I can remember Mike's words, a weird, "Quick and the Dead" style western with Coppola, featuring some guy with a mechanical hand (a la Army of Darkness?) Also, Mike wasn't getting his hopes up too much about the movie, because, well, you know how projects fall into limbo.
2) Bone: Jeff Smith announced that the much beloved Bone comic will be adapted to an animated movie. Since Smith is an ex-animator, and has been VERY protective of his property in the past, I'm confident this will be one of the classic animated movies of all time. We should all be very excited. (Anyone out there who hasn't read the comic yet, don't feel bad, just get out there and find it and read it. It is FANTASTIC! Truly sublime reading for all ages.) Unfortunately, he couldn't give us any specifics like who's directing, or what studio is fronting the money, because the legal fine print is still being ironed out. But that info should come soon.
3) Batman the Animated Series and Batman Beyond: Had to miss the heart of this presentation, unfortunately, but I got to see some slides of some stuff from Beyond. I should have the pics I made of the future Batmobile developed in a few days. Cool stuff. I can't wait. But the really cool thing from this presentation was the rough cut we saw of a segment from the upcoming episode called "Ledgends of the Dark Knight" wherein we get treated to an animated segment of Frank Miller's Dark Knight. Specifically the junkyard fight between Batman and the leader of the Mutants. Just taken straight from issue 2. The BatTank, with that spiney cockpit, Rob and Bob (I think that was their names), dialogue ("You've got it wrong. This is an operating table.) It had no sound effects yet, but be sure to set your VCRs when this one comes on. Talk about kick ass.
Also, tangentially, I sat next to the woman who runs Fox TV Animation at the presentation. I asked her if there was anything she could tell me about upcoming animation projects, and she said that nothing had been greenlighted beyond "Iron Giant."
Kreed of Ylum
