Kevin Munroe Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Admit it -- when you read about the latest comic book being optioned, you're either thinking "Crap, I haven't read that one" or "When is that one about the undead Mexican wrestler going to get its day onscreen?" If it was ever the latter, you're in luck today. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Dark Horse graphic novel El Zombo Fantasma has been optioned by Death Ray Films (also the brains behind War Monkeys) and Maya Entertainment. Kevin Munroe, co-creator of the book, will adapt and direct the film.

The story centers on El Zombo, a Mexican wrestler and all around bad boy. Murdered one fateful night, El Zombo is given a chance at redemption. If he can protect the life of Belisa Montoya, a troubled Los Angeles teenager, he won't go to hell. Thinking to get out of hell and catch up with his murderer, El Zombo agrees. Of course, Belisa isn't what she seems to be, and their fates are intertwined. You don't just get sent back from purgatory to protect random teenagers, you know.

There's a 16-page preview of it on Dark Horse's site -- it's a lot of fun, and comparisons to Hellboy are apt. Death Ray and Maya are hoping to launch a similar film franchise with El Zombo. It has some familiar Internet talent behind it too -- two of the producers are none other than Kellvin Chavez of Latino Review and Robert Sanchez of IESB.net. Slowly and surely, Internet fandom is conquering Hollywood.

It was last August when I first heard the phrase "WAR MONKEYS," and I've been waiting for fresh news ever since. Yes, seriously. Now it comes, courtesy of Shock, and the news is this: War Monkeys will be directed by Kevin Munroe, which thrills me not because I necessarily loved Munroe's last movie (TMNT), but because a production company doesn't sign a director unless the movie is actually being made. Which means that WAR MONKEYS is being made. That's awesome.

Munroe told Shock that Cleve Nettles' script is sort of like "Quentin Tarantino's Gremlins," which is a description that makes my salivary glands kick in. But wait, there's more! It's also "an older, meaner brother of [an] Amblin [production]. It's real horror with real scary elements. You've got real monsters here with the monkeys. But the characters are a modern day Abbott and Costello. In the same vein of Shaun of the Dead but scarier."

And in case you thought the title was a joke of some kind ... it's not. The movie is about two guys trapped underground with a gang of furious, military-trained rhesus monkeys who are mega-smart and weapon-trained. I wish this movie could come out tomorrow.

I bet you didn't see any of this coming. According to Moviehole, Dreamworks has already greenlit a sequel to Transformers and 20th Century Fox has done the same for its Fantastic Four franchise. Transformers was a no-brainer; that film is bound to make a ton of money once it's finally released theatrically in the states next week. No word yet on whether Michael Bay will direct again, but if they want to get the ball rolling right away, I imagine they'll look to fill his shoes. Expect tons of people to cry foul once Brett Ratner's name is mentioned. With Fantastic Four 3, Moviehole's source says the film will again be dependent on who they can "team the Fantastic Four up with." Seeing as Silver Surfer's presence worked, expect another superhero to take his place and join forces with The Four. Here's where you fans get to tell 20th Century Fox what you expect out of the sequel.

And then comes TMNT. Marvel's Steve Murphy recently shared the following info with readers on his blog: ""As of two weeks ago Imagi Entertainment (the TMNT movie animation studio) informed Mirage Studios that there was a 50-50 chance of a CGI film sequel. Last week they upped the odds to 70-30 in favor of a sequel, as talks between Imagi and their distribution partners Warner Brothers and the Weinstein Group seem to be heading in a positive direction..." I'm pretty stoked about this one; TMNT surprised the hell out of me when it hit theaters this past spring, and assuming they bring back Kevin Munroe (a must, in my opinion), expect a lot of good things out of the sequel. And, based on my conversation with Munroe, there's a fairly good chance we'll see an old nemesis show up to wreak some havoc.

Last night, I had the pleasure of talking with TMNT director Kevin Munroe while he was halfway around the world gearing up for the film's Hong Kong premiere. Though it was crazy early in the morning (for Kevin), the guy still managed to unload a mouthful of goodies; we talked everything from working with two production teams (one in the States and one in Hong Kong), to creating a tone and story for TMNT that remains faithful to the comics, but still manages to reach out to people of all ages. During our talk, Kevin opened up about whether or not he'll be involved in a TMNT sequel, what we should expect from Gatchaman, and what he thinks about the Justice League movie. Could it be done? Would he direct it? Read on to find out ...

Cinematical: So, what's the vibe over there in Hong Kong? Are they big Turtles fans there?

Kevin Munroe: You know it's funny, I think the property is much bigger now. I sat down for dinner the first night we got here, and this bus stopped in front of this window behind me, and my wife pointed out that there was this huge TMNT poster plastered across the side of the bus. There's a lot of posters everywhere, it's pretty cool. Tonight is the premiere, so we're gonna go to that. And then there's a crew screening after that, because it was Hong Kong based production, and we'll go to that too.

Cinematical: Talk about working with the crew in Hong Kong. I know there was a 300-person creative team assigned to this film -- some based in California and some in Hong Kong. What was that experience like? Was it hard keeping everyone on the same page, what with the language barrier and everything?

KM: Yeah, you hit the nail right on the head there. It's like an exaggerated, very expensive TV animation model. You have the Los Angeles-based production crew -- that's me, my production designer, storyboard artists, editor -- all the front end kind of stuff. And that was about thirty people or so; that's where we worked with the DP and created all this really specific camera stuff. Then we ship everything over here [Hong Kong], and there was about 350-400 people over here. In the beginning, it was this insane communication challenge. For example, during the monster hunt montage, we wanted to decorate it with wooden pallets in the background. So I told them I wanted pallets, and they kept sending me reference photos of people with open mouths. I didn't understand what they were doing. And then I realized they were thinking the palate of your mouth.

Folks, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are officially back ... and with them come a new look, a new enemy and the best film of the franchise by far! It's taken 27 long years to capture the look and feel of Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird's original comic book (which they self-published back in 1984 with money from a tax refund) on the big screen. Originally intended to parody other comics (like Marvel's New Mutants), the Ninja Turtles quickly found a massive fanbase; kids searching for something a tad different, a tad more exciting -- something that was a whole lot of fun. Even after three live-action movies, an animated series, toys, lunchboxes and pez dispensers, the Turtles still somehow managed to stick around -- but not without criticism.

Though the original comics established a dark tone and a powerful, multi-layered storyline, some folks couldn't get past the silly concept. If only the Turtles were a bit more family friendly (but still kicked ass), profits would skyrocket. And they did. Thus, a new generation of kids grew up with a lighter version of the Turtles -- the kind that entertain you stuffed amidst other shows during your Saturday morning cartoon line-up. Die hard fans of the original comics grew up, got jobs and occasionally entertained the wild idea of a big-screen Turtles revival. But they knew it was too late; the superhero market was too crowded. Little did they know at the time, but a guy named Kevin Munroe would show up. And this guy ... he would change everything.

We're jumping between a few different sites today, trying to bring you the coolest news to leak out of WonderCon. Over at FirstShowing.net, they sat down with TMNT director Kevin Munroe who alluded to a possible sequel that, unlike the version hitting theaters on March 23, might actually include the infamous villain Shredder. TMNT fanatics are a little skeptical about the new film, as it takes place after the defeat of The Shredder and includes a new crop of monsters. However, old favorites like April O'Neil and Casey Jones are making an appearance ... so all is definitely not lost. (Heck, the late Mako voices Splinter and Patrick Stewart will voice the evil Max Winters -- even Kevin Smith shows up as a greasy chef. Not bad, eh?)

But what about that sequel? Of course, it all depends on how the first movie does -- and, based on the trailers I've seen, the flick certainly looks a lot better than Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Turtles in Time. Munroe did say that a sequel is set up at the end of TMNT with a very "not-so-subtle nod" and, in a perfect world, the next film could bring Shredder back. He says, "Yea, it'd nice, it'd be really cool. As a fan I'd love that. Because we now have these sort of better Shredder stories of how to bring Shredder back. But now if it works out well, and Karai coming to New York, that's a setup for a really good volume in The Turtes in the comics as well, it could work out to a really cool sequel."

Perhaps it's a bit premature to be talking Turtles sequel, but I have a really good feeling about this new film. In my opinion, this CGI look is the best yet; much better than the campy live-action versions and a bit edgier than the cartoon. If you ask any Turtles fan, they wouldn't be completely happy unless we were handed a super dark PG-13 Ninja Turtles flick -- but, you know that's never going to happen. So, we might as well suck it up and welcome whatever Turtles-related coolness is heading our way.