Kenneth Branagh’s upcoming adaptation of the Norse god comic book superhero Thor is showing up in the news more and more often these days, and with each and every new morsel, the excitement for the movie builds up steadily. The latest news announcement from Marvel is that Thor’s Asgardian god friends the Warriors Three — Volstagg, Fandral, and Hogun — have now been cast!

Branagh has contracted the talents of Stuart Townsend to play the role of Fandral, Tadanobu Asano for Hogun, and the fantastic Ray Stevenson for the part of Volstagg. Townsend is best known for his work as the vampire Lestat in Queen of the Damned and as Dorian Gray in The League of Extraordinary Gentleman. Stevenson recently ended many lives in Punisher: Warzone, but is best used as a brutal warrior, as he has played in King Arthur and on HBO’s Rome. Asano is a Japanese actor who hasn’t done an American film yet, but he appeared in the Oscar nominated Mongol. [...]

Over the weekend, head geek of Ain’t It Cool, Harry Knowles, posted to his Twitter account links to images of what he called “Jack Kirby’s Premiere ish of a 5-issue INGLOURIOUS BASTARDS mini-series from the 70s.”

While I saw the original tweets — one each for each of the five covers — I was waiting for a follow-up tweet or post on what exactly these covers are, but one never came. Like, where did these covers come from? And will there be a comic book adaptation of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds? One can only hope.

But for now, all we have are these five Jack Kirby-inspired covers to drool over. Check them out here below (click for full, larger view).

Oh, speaking of Inglourious Basterds, an awesome awesome movie, it will be released on DVD and Blu-ray, and as a digital download on December 15, 2009, and is available for pre-order now [...]

We all should know the story by now: Matthew Vaughn — director of Layer Cake and Stardust — decided that a movie based on Mark Millar’s ultra-violent graphic novel Kick-Ass needed to be made, and brought it to the money. Unfortunately, none of the studios had any interest in making a movie that would include an 11-year-old girl who is deadly surgical with a Katana blade. Instead of giving in, Vaughn went down another path and pulled the unthinkable: he went and got the money all by himself…all $75 Million of it. Since this bold move, Kick-Ass has been growing into a very popular project with many itching to see this “outside-the-box” superhero movie. After some footage at Comic Con was universally praised, the studios that had passed were now battling each other for the very right to distribute the film.

Now, finally, we the regular folk of the world are able to get our first peek at this curious and intriguing little flick with the release of the very first official trailer, and it was surely worth the wait. Kick-Ass promises to be a funny, fully-entertaining movie for adults, and it is fair to assume that it won’t take long to acquire a massive fan-following. [...]

It’s quite likely that 99.9% of you have already decided that you will not be seeing either of the movies discussed here based solely on the title of this post. Sadly, you are perfectly fair to judge so quickly, and you are not alone in your disdain for these and other childhood characters (liked or not) being made into feature films.

First up, it’s being reported that Owen Wilson has signed on the dotted line to voice the role of Marmaduke, a giant clumsy CGI dog based on the 1954 comic strip of the same name. The movie will do the same as all of these movies do in mixing CG and live-action. The plans for a Marmaduke movie have apparently been around for a while now as it has a cast of known names that will surely regret ever agreeing to appear in it down the road. The names include William H. Macy, Judy Greer, and Lee Pace as live-action characters, while Steve Coogan, Emma Stone, Damon Wayans, George Lopez, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Marlon Wayans, and Fergie will all voice CG characters. You might as well call it Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2: Honey, I Blew Up the Chihuahua. Marmaduke is set for release in June of 2010 — get excited. [...]

The trades are reporting that Sir Anthony Hopkins is currently in negotiations to appear in Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation of Marvel’s Thor. Hopkins would be playing the Norse god Odin, father of Thor, who exiles his son into the disabled body of a mortal doctor in order to teach him some useful virtues and humility in life. This news comes as a bit of a surprise as it was announced back in early June that Brian Blessed would be playing Odin.

The movie will tell the story of the cocky and spoiled hero whose lack of discipline re-ignites an ancient war, forcing Odin to banish him to the above-mentioned mortality without memory of his status as a god. While inhabiting this human body, he discovers his true identity and how to switch back and forth from the handicapped Dr. Donald Blake to the warrior Thor, God of Thunder. As with most comic book based movies, this is expected to be something of an origins story to set the character up for those who are not familiar with it. This is also necessary due to the fact that Thor will be part of the epic joining of superheroes in The Avengers, which will feature Iron Man, Hulk, and Captain America. [...]

Someone named Dr. Monster has an awesome artist remix of Scooby Doo in which Velma, the nerdy girl of the group, is the only remaining survivor of the the Mystery Team after zombies, vampires, and other evil creatures have taken over the planet. Click the image to see it in-full.

She isn’t completely alone, as a solid, Dolberman version of Scooby has shed his goofy skin and is ready and willing to protect with highly-aggressive nature. Velma has also grown up in her new role, making sure to always be equipped with a shotgun, machete, and wooden stakes while wearing a cross ’round her neck. She also re-named the van The Misery Machine and pimped it out with flammables, an artillery of weaponry, a giant wooden stake, ultra-powered lights, and a nice little memorial for Fred, Daphne, and Shaggy.

The image definitely gives off a sort of Y: The Last Man vibe but with a woman and monster invasion instead. OK, maybe I Am Legend would work much better in comparison, but that movie sucked, so Y it is! [...]

Swallow Me Whole
Written and Drawn by Nate Powell
Top Shelf Productions
Release Date: October 29, 2008

I tried to write a nice little intro paragraph for Swallow Me Whole, but rather than write something flowery and overtly descriptive, I decided to just cut right to the chase. Swallow Me Whole is one graphic novel that you should pick up above all other comic books out there.

Written by Nate Powell , Swallow Me Whole tells the tale of two step-siblings, Ruth and Perry, and how each of them deals with growing up in the suburbs and with their similar mental diseases. Ruth thinks that the dead insects she collects are alive and Perry thinks the wizard on the top of his pen is talking to him and compelling him to draw. Relying on each other to keep one another sane, Ruth and Perry do the best they can to keep each other’s demons in check and hope that there is light at the end of this rather dark tunnel.

I was not familiar with Nate Powell’s work up until I read this but there is a reason that this won an Eisner Award for Best New Graphic Novel. It is a great read. The story is nicely paced and the dialogue is realistic. He also creates some nicely relatable characters in Ruth and Perry [...]

We at Geeks of Doom love Halloween. The smell in the air, the leaves changing color to mark the occasion, and all of the old edited horror movies playing over and over on your TV make it one of the most entertaining and exciting times of year.

Back in 2006, we compiled a list of some of the best geek costumes on the market for those of you who do not yet have an idea as to what you want to be. It’s already been three years now, so we thought it was about time to compile another epic list of costume options for the undecided (which includes myself).

While checking these costumes out, keep some things in mind — most importantly: pretty much every costume that you see will have multiple styles of varying price and quality. The majority of the ones we have here are in the $30-$50 range, but you can find really high-quality “Deluxe” versions of the costume that will run you in the $100-$200 dollar range. These are for the folks who have money to spare and love authenticity. If you’re out of your freakin’ mind, there’s even Batman and Darth Vader costumes that will run you $700+ dollars. If you don’t like the one we’ve linked to, just search the character and check out all of the others that exist. Most costumes have children’s versions available, too. We’ve included some great kids’ costumes, but if you find an adult one you’d like for the little ones, just search it out! [...]

The Mirage Group, who owned the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and brought us the all CGI TMNT, has sold the entire global property rights to children’s brand Nickelodeon for $60 Million. The deal includes the movies and shows, as well as the rights to all merchandising.

It’s been in a news a few times recently, but in case you haven’t heard, a brand new Ninja Turtle movie is on the way. The movie is to retract from that CGI style that they tried and move back into the glorious world of live-action. To ensure an even greater realistic quality, it is expected that they will use the same methods used in Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are in which people are put into highly-detailed costumes and only the facial expressions are created using computer effects. Hopefully, the end result will be similar to the Ninja Turtles we saw in the ’80s and ’90s, but with a whole lot more realism to them. [...]

In the same interview with the LA Times that revealed Marvel topper Kevin Feige’s view of Batman & Robin as the most important comic book movie ever to be made, screenwriter Akiva Goldsman spoke about all of his other upcoming projects for DC Comics. Covered here is some new bits from the revamping of Swamp Thing and the movie adaptation of Lobo. They also talk about other projects such as Jonah Hex, which you can follow their link to read about.

The best part of everything talked about was easily Swamp Thing. At first this was just another of many remakes which actually sounded pretty cheesy, but with this interview, some excitement has begun to build up. Goldsman explained that they “want a film with real Southern, dark horror overtones, a little bit like a classic Universal horror film,” and that they actually want to make the movie closer to Alan Moore’s popular comic book vision of the character and not based on the 80s movies.

With these two things, this new Swamp Thing has a lot more potential than it once had, though there is still a long way to go before we really see what they try to do with the property. [...]

One of the busiest screenwriters working today, Akiva Goldsman, spoke to the LA Times recently about many, many big upcoming projects. The writer is one of the few rare cases we’ve seen that makes a case for giving people second chances. He wrote the scripts for Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever and the passionately-hated Batman & Robin, but went on to take home an Oscar for Best Picture winner A Beautiful Mind. In an around these two highest and lowest points, he’s done many other well-known movies that received varying response such as I, Robot, Cinderella Man, The Da Vinci Code, and I am Legend.

When the topic of Batman & Robin came up something was mentioned that stuck out. It came from the mouth of Marvel’s main man, Kevin Feige, who was quoted as saying that the loathed comic book movie may actually be the most important movie to be made for that genre. And why would he say such things? Well, because of how horrid the movie was, of course. Feige explained that the sheer awfulness of that film forced open new eyes, which in-turn laid the groundwork for the much more accepted style of comic book movie making seen in franchises like Spider-Man and X-Men [...]

Lauren Shuler Donner is a producer on all things X-Men related, past and future. While at a junket for the X-Men Origins: Wolverine Blu-ray, Empire Magazine was able to talk to Donner and dig up a treasure chest of updates on all of the big projects that are currently piled up on the stove top, including X-Men Origins: Magneto, Deadpool, X-Men: First Class, and of course, the Wolverine sequel that’s being developed.

The first chunk of information comes from Wolverine. Donner explains that this is the furthest along in its production, and that it will likely be the next film released from that world. The sequel will see Wolverine heading to Japan for his Samurai storyline, and she explains that to be as faithful as possible, filming will actually be done in Japan, and they’re even planning on working with Fox’s division in Japan so they don’t do or say anything ignorant to the culture, which is obviously a very smart move. [...]

Earlier this month, I was lucky enough to visit this year’s Baltimore Comic-Con.

Now I can go on and on about how great the convention was. I could say how awesome it was to meet Terry Moore, Steve Lieber, and Marc Silvestri. I tell you how nice it was to see Cliff Chiang, Khoi Pham, and JG Jones again. I could also tell you how great of an artist colorist Laura Martin is but why not show you guys in a series of photographs?

Enjoy! [...]

Sam Raimi has been talking a lot of Spider-Man 4 with MTV lately. Recently, they discussed the topic everyone wants to know about: villains. As it has always been, there is still no idea who the villain will be, but it appears that they are leaning toward a few prospects. Raimi was [...]

Of all of the Marvel superhero movies that will fuse into each other on May 4, 2012 when The Avengers is released, Jon Favreau’s Iron Man (and soon to be Iron Man 2) is probably the universal favorite. The director’s careful handling of the character and wonderful job of adding a sense of realism for us all to relate to made him the unanimous choice of fans worldwide to take up the reigns and direct The Avengers, and it was one of the big questions in recent times. Favreau recently spoke to MTV about the whole thing, and confirmed that he would unfortunately not be directing the ultimate superhero movie, and also about the task of bringing all of these larger-than-life characters together in one movie.

While in Bora Bora for a Couples Retreat junket, Favreau made it quite clear that he would not be directing Avengers because he will not be available to do it. No word on exactly what he’s doing that will be taking up his time in 2012 (though that end of the world thing may take up some schedules), but one has to imagine that as a director, he doesn’t want to get stuck in one genre forever. [...]

Back in June, Bryan Singer did an interview where he was asked about the X-Men franchise and whether he would ever return (Read: Is Bryan Singer Itching To Do More ‘X-Men’ Adventures?). He revealed that the four hours that it takes us to watch X-Men and X2: X-Men United took six years of his life, and so he is “eternally intertwined” with the franchise and would love to return.

While at the Pusan International Film Festival recently, Singer once again spoke about the possibility of retaking the helm for X-Men 4. He confirmed the previous interview statement that he would like to get back into that universe, and that he has actually been talking to 20th Century Fox about this return. Singer spoke about how he loves Hugh Jackman and the rest of the cast, and especially how much he loves the ability to tackle real-world issues through the fun of science fiction and fantasy movies such as the X-Men films. [...]

Everyone loves a great underdog story (Rudy! Rudy!); and the story of Canadian heavy metal band Anvil is one of the better ones we’ve seen as of late. Their documentary, Anvil! The Story of Anvil has received almost purely raving reviews (98% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes), and has re-entered the band into the public eye, where they surely deserve to be.

In their re-acquired fame, the band — consisting of Steve Kudlow, Robb Reiner, and Glenn Five — have found themselves playing festivals and shows again, recording a new album, and appearing on many different popular talk shows. Better yet, they’ve apparently even netted themselves another movie gig: a cameo appearance in Seth Rogen and Michel Gondry’s The Green Hornet adaptation. As it turns out, Gondry is one of the many fans of the band and brought them in to film a brief scene where they actually explode while playing a rock club — likely to be the work of a villain that the Hornet will have to pursue and apprehend. [...]

Legendary Pictures has obtained the rights to turn Gravel into a feature-length film adaptation of the popular comic series from Warren Ellis and Avatar Press. Ellis himself will be credited as an executive producer on the film, and he will handle the first draft of the script so that future draft writers will have a solid template to work from.

Gravel — which began in 1999 under the name Strange Kiss — follows Sergeant Major William Gravel, a British SAS soldier who is something of a modern day Mage, with skills in the dark arts of magic. Gravel is a hired hand who makes his living job-to-job from various client contracts to take on supernatural beings using his special abilities.

Warren Ellis is one of the most popular comic book writers out there today. He’s done work for both Marvel and DC comics, among many others, and is responsible for titles like Transmetropolitan and Planetary. He’s also branched off into the world of novels, with his title Crooked Little Vein. [...]

The whispers around town indicate that Spider-Man 4 writer Gary Ross is currently in discussions with Sony to write, and maybe even direct their planned spin-off movie, Venom. The movie has already had multiple drafts written, including one from Zombieland writing team Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick.

Ross plans to finish up his scrip for Spidey 4 and then move right into the Venom project. All indications so far is that all things we’ve seen from the character will be thrown away, and that this movie will start all over again — including re-casting the role once filled by Topher Grace in the forgettable Spider-Man 3.

Gary Ross hasn’t written a ton of things, but what he has done are all pretty fairly well-known and respected works. His credits include the Tom Hanks classic, Big; presidential comedy, Dave; the Tobey Maguire double-feature of Pleasantville and Seabiscuit (which will help with Spider-Man 4); and the upcoming monster movie reboot, Creature from the Black Lagoon. [...]

Adventure Comics #1
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Francis Manapul
Colors by Brian Buccellato
DC Comics
Price: $3.99

I may be the only one who signed up to get Adventure Comics based solely on the strength of Francis Manapul’s art. I became a fan of his work after reading it in the pages of Jim Shooter’s recent Legion of Superhero run. It’s a shame that the run was cut short, because his art was perfectly suited for that book. His art on that book showed that he could handle any kind of action sequence that was thrown at him. Fortunately, he’s on to bigger and better things, with this new (old) series that features the new adventures of Superboy.

Connor Kent is back from the dead, killed by Geoff Johns in the pages of Infinite Crisis, and returned from the grave by Johns in Final Crisis: Legion of Three worlds. Those in the know will remember that DC had run into some legal troubles over the use of the name Superboy, but they were able to clear that all up, and now he’s back and ready for action. This issue picks up with him trying to get back to a normal life. He has moved back to Smallville, and is living with Ma Kent, meanwhile he’s trying to live up to Superman’s legacy. Unfortunately for his peace of mind, Connor is only a half-clone of Superman, with the other half belonging to Lex Luthor, and this leads to him questioning what is behind his motives. Is he Superman, or is he Luthor? The first issue gives us a good set up for what should be a good run [...]