Category: Entertainment News

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Gotham TV Series Premiere

This year`s fall line-up kicked off with its first comic super-hero TV series premiere of the season on September 22nd 2014. TV network Fox rushed to join the already established WB Arrow series and ABC`s Agents of Shield series in the fight for comic book based heroes supremacy on the small screen. Unlike most TV series, Fox bypassed the traditional pilot episode and went straight to a full season production for the new series Gotham. The series producer is Bruno Heller who developed the hit crime drama, The Mentalist.

Based on the Batman comic books, Gotham is a prequel story to Batman. The story starts with James Gordon as a rookie detective just assigned to be the partner Harvey Bullock. Gordon`s first case is the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne. For those of you not familiar with the origin of Batman, this is the incident that leads Bruce Wayne on to the road to become Batman.

The first episode is packed with introduction of all the major characters in the series. I am not a big fan of this process since it basically shows everything without a build up. I would have preferred them to introduce the characters a few at  time and not overwhelm the viewer. The series is written similar to most crime dramas such as Criminal Minds and CSI.

The cast consists mostly unknowns or relatively new performers. The only big name would be Jada Pinkett Smith, wife of rapper/actor Will Smith, who portrays Fish Mooney. Ben Mckenzie, who played Ryan Atwood on the series The O.C., portrays James Gordon and David Mazouz, who was mute boy Jake Bohm on the series Touch, is Bruce Wayne. The actors and actress were for the most part fit their roles. The only exception to this would be Bullock`s character. He is portrayed by Donal Logue who does not fit the build I would imagine Bullock be.

Overall, the first episode was pretty good and does peak my interest. I am curious as to how the series will progress. Hopefully Fox`s record of butchering comic related TV series such Birds of Prey will spare this series.

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Latest News: New Extended Trailer for the Gotham TV Series from Fox

This is the latest trailer for the new Gotham TV series based on Batman stories by DC Comics that will be on Fox in Fall 2014 TV season. From what I can see, this is going to be an awesome series. The creators choose to follow a lot of the original Batman series and the mood and tone of the series is perfect for Batman. If this trailer is what the series is truly going to be like, then I think Fox has a hit on its hands!
http://youtu.be/0d1zpt6k5OI

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Latest News: Warner Bros. announces Zack Snyder will direct Justice League movie

DC Comics Justice League New 52 1 Cover

According to an exclusive interview with Warner Bros. President of Worldwide Production, Greg Silverman, by the Wall Street Journal, Zack Snyder will be the direct for an upcoming Justice League movie. This leads to confirming all the rumours that have been floating around for the last few years of a possible Justice League movie. As to who will actually be featured in this movie, Mr. Silverman is being pretty tight lip.

The upcoming Superman vs Batman movie has been presented to be a leading point to the Justice League movie since it will feature Superman, and Batman as well as the first introduction of Wonder Woman to the big screen. This move by Warner Bros. looks like it would be similar to what Marvel has already achieve with multiple  movies leading into one big team movie. How this will turn out for Warner Bros. is yet to be determined since the only super-hero movie franchise that has done well for  them so far at the box office was the Dark Knight Trilogy.

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Queen and Country Movie in the works by 20th Century Fox

A Queen and Country live action movie is in the works and is being produced by 20th Century Fox. Queen and Country is comic series created by Greg Rucka (DC Comics Action Comics / Batman, Image Comic’s Lazarus) and published by Oni Press publication.  The series centers on spy Tara Chace who works for the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) and her dealings with the politics and red tape of the agency and as well the dangers of her occupation.

So far Canadian actress Ellen Page has been cast for the lead role of Tara Chace. Page is not unfamiliar with playing a comic book character since she played the role of Kitty Pryde / Shadowcat in the X-men: Last Stand movie and will also reprise the character in the upcoming X-men: Days of the Future Past movie. It was announced in March 2014 that British director, Craig Viveiros, has been chosen to direct.

No date has been set for either the start of production or the film’s release.

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Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming`s Powers Series Announced

Brian Michael Bendis and Oeming`s Powers Live Action Series was announced by Deadline to be produced by Sony Pictures Television. The series will not appear on the big networks but be a original series on the Playstation Network. The critically acclaimed series created by Bendis and Oeming was originally pitched to FX but talks broke down.

Powers is a centered around two detectives, Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim, who have the daunting task of policing super-powered beings called `Powers`. The series was originally published by Image Comics but now is published through the Marvel creator owned imprint Icon.

Tossing their hat into the growing list of comic related live action series such as Arrow, Gotham, Defenders, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Fox has tapped Charlie Huston to write the new series.  Huston has worked on comic book series such as Wolverine Best There Is and Moon Knight. The series will an hour long drama. Release date has yet to be announced.

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DC and Fox announces Gotham TV Series

DC Comics Entertainment and Fox Networks have announced a new live action TV series called Gotham based on the DC Comics Batman characters. The series focuses on the early days of James Gordon before he becomes the Commissioner of Gotham City. The series will also have origin stories of Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle, Joker, Penguin, Two-Face and Riddler.

The showrunner for this series is Bruno Heller who also worked on Rome and The Mentalist. Ben McKenzie has been slated to be  James Gordon and David Mazouz will be Bruce Wayne. Fox has announced that they will be bypassing the traditional pilot stage prior to picking up a series and will go directly to full production.  It has been reported the starting March 2014, production will begin and the series is slated to premiere during the 2014-2015 television season.

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Agents of Shield / Thor: Dark World Tie-in

For those of you who have been keeping up with the latest episode of Marvel’s Agents of Shield TV Series, then you probably saw the trailer that promotes a tie-in with the new Thor movie, Dark World. I guess the people at Marvel really do know what they’re doing. I have to give a two-handed thumbs up. For those of us who hate waiting to see the next movie to continue the story, this is an awesome bonus. You can watch the movie, then get to watch the TV series to continue the storyline. I wonder what genius over at Marvel Studios thought of this!  Tune in November 19th 2013 Tuesday night to see the latest episode of Agent of Shield with the Thor movie tie-in!

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Marvel Studios signs exclusive deal with Netflix to produce 5 new series

If Netflix wasn’t already pretty awesome where you can get unlimited access to TV series and movies for only $8 a month, here’s another reason. Marvel Studios has signed and exclusivity deal with online content provider, Netflix, to have 5 new series based on Marvel properties. Through ABC Studios, Netflix will have webseries of Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and Iron Fist. Each series will have a minimum of 13 episodes. Then a 5th webseries will have the 4 characters team-up for a Defenders series.  The first of these webseries will debut in 2015 starting with Daredevil.

With the success of the Agent of Shield series, I guess Marvel is going full force to compete with DC in terms of “TV” dominance. Even though Netflix is more of an online content provider, I think it’s a pretty smart move considering more and more people are getting rid of their regular cable provider and switching to online content provider especially with the rise of portable devices such as tablets and smartphones.  Either way, DC is going to have to step it to compete with Marvel.

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Star Wars Episode 7 set to debut December 18th 2015

The official date has been set for the premiere of the first installment of the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy to be directed by J.J. Abrams (Star Trek, Cloverfield). December 18th, 2015 is the day and Star Wars fans could not be more  happier for this early Christmas present.  Rumors have it that the movie be in 3D. Now whether it actually be filmed in 3D is yet to be seen.

Also announced is the casting call for two characters in the new Trilogy has been posted. According casting agent based in the UK, Claire Curry, they are seeking a young woman who is smart, beautiful, and athletic to play a 17 years old character named Rachel and young man who is smart, handsome, and athletic to play a character named Thomas. I do not know who Rachel and Thomas are but it sounds like Disney is looking for Star Wars version of Barbie and Ken.

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The Flash Appears on Arrow TV Series!

The Flash will be appearing as a guest on the CW Arrow TV series.  Barry Allen will be appearing in 3 episodes with the 3rd one being a backdoor pilot into the new Flash TV series being created by two of the three Arrow TV series creators, Andrew Kreisberg and Greg Berlanti and DC Comics superstar writer, Geoff Johns.  No official announcement has been made as to when the new Flash tv series will begin. Johns also wrote two upcoming episodes of Arrow for season two. These would episode 8 and 9 which most likely be the episodes the Scarlet Speedster from Central City will appear in.

This may not be the live action appearance that comic book fans have been looking forward to but it will have to do for now. Marc Guggenheim stated that he still plans on making a Flash movie and is aiming at a release date sometime in 2016.