Jeff Katz Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Comic-Con 2009 is over and done with, and the word of mouth is that it's grown too big for its britches. Whether or not that's the case will be debated up until the Con's contract with the city of San Diego ends in 2012, but based on my view from the floor on both Wednesday's Preview Night and Saturday, the seams have definitely swelled to the bursting point.

Yesterday on KCRW's public radio show The Business, about the film industry, host Kim Masters spoke with American Original founder Jeff Katz about this year's Comic-Con. You can listen to the episode right here, and for people who have never been before, Katz paints a fairly lopsided picture from his point of view of the entire experience.

He calls Friday and Saturday the "biggies," ... this after a record crowd waited outside to get into Thursday's Twilight / New Moon panel starting on Wednesday, which also included James Cameron's Avatar and Disney's Hall H presentation. He also talks about studios clamoring for a piece of the fanboy pie, while looking to do the exact same thing himself.

With movies like Shoot 'Em Up ($39 million dollar budget, $12.8 million dollar gross in the US), Snakes on a Plane (massive internet buildup and then a huge flameout), and X-Men Origins: Wolverine (don't get me started) on his resume, he's positioning himself with his recently announced American Original (which he's self-dubbed a "nerd machine") entertainment company to try and pocket the geek dollar. Does he have his finger on the pulse of thirty-something nerdom, or is he just a wannabe blowhard?

Listen to the show and decide for yourself, while Comic-Con evolves and decides what it wants to be.

Former Fox executive Jeff Katz is praising X-Men Origins: Wolverine to the heavens -- or at least to MTV's Splash Page. He thinks Wolverine's solo movie will be his finest hour (or two) yet, and insists that everyone involved has a perfect grasp on the character.

"To me and [Hugh] Jackman, our mantra for Wolverine has really been one term: 'bad-ass.' As long as Wolverine is consistently bad-ass, people are generally going to go with you. That's what they want from that character. Iron Man comes out and it does a tremendous business, Batman comes out and it does a tremendous business, and the inclination in the movie biz a lot of the time is, 'Well, that thing just worked, so we have to chase that. But as comics people know, Batman is not Iron Man is not Superman is not Wolverine - they're all different."

Call me infatuated, but I don't doubt Jackman's take on the character, and I fervently hope all claims of darkness, grit, and violence come to pass. My concern has always been how many mutants they crammed into a Wolverine film that are, as Katz puts it, "fanboy friendly" and poised for sequels of their own. Deadpool is one thing, but Gambit and Emma Frost are another.

What does wind me up, though, are the possible plans Katz was privy to for future Wolverine films. "I can't speak to what's been discussed in the interim since I've been gone, but Mr. Jackman certainly has a desire to go to Japan." And with that, Mr. Jackman, you just became my favorite person in geekdom. Let's get together sometime and talk a certain Frank Miller book, just for laughs.

Look for the first X-Men Origins: Wolverine trailer in front of The Day the Earth Stood Still in theaters December 12.