comic Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It's entirely possible I am the only one disappointed by the following news, but bear with me. The latest word on Rob Zombie's dirty lucha libre cartoon, The Haunted World of El Superbeasto, is that it's headed directly to DVD and Blu-ray. That's the bad news. The good news is that after three years, it will finally see the light of day (or the darkness of night). Zombie's first foray into animated filmmaking has plenty of clever characters doing the voice acting, like Rosario Dawson, Paul Giamatti, Danny Trejo (!), Clint Howard, and Zombie regulars Bill Moseley, Sid Haig, and Sheri Moon Zombie.

Zombie told IGN in an interview this past spring, "It came out awesome... That started off as this little tiny half-a-million dollar direct-to-video movie that expanded into this $10 million animated extravaganza." Except, well, it's a $10 million animated extravaganza that is going direct to DVD.

I have high hopes that it will make an appearance as a midnight movie in my local theater (and yours!) and perhaps get some attention at one of the many horror festivals like Fantastic Fest. Even though I'd like to see in on the big screen, it does look like the type of movie that would make more money on DVD than in theaters, especially with its target audience, which I can only guess is made up of fans of over-the-top cartoons, horror, heavy metal, and Mexican wrestling... or stoners. Not that they're mutually exclusive, of course.

(Courtesy of FEARNet)

Well, Dead of Night may not be the most recognized comic book title out there, but I can guarantee that it definitely will have it's share of man-candy. Shock Till You Drop reports an exclusive that Taye Diggs will sign to star as the bad-guy in the adaptation of the Italian horror comic, Dylan Dog (renamed Dead of Night) by Tiziano Sclavi. So if you are keeping score, this brings Dead of Night's total to one Terminator, one Superman, and now, one very hot doctor.

According to Shock, Diggs will play the leader of the vampires who goes up against the supernatural private detective played by Routh. So far most of the ink has been spilled over Routh's involvement in the film, which, with the exception of a few cameos will be marking his big return to the world of comic book movies (followed by Scott Pilgrim and Superman: Man of Steel). As for Digg, this will be his first time in a comic book flick, which is probably the only genre the man hasn't done -- if you don't believe me, take a look at they guy's resume, he's all over the map.

The casting announcements for the film have started to gain speed, and just yesterday, Shock also announced that Journey to the Center of the Earth's Anita Briem would star as Routh's love interest. So with *Sam Worthington at Routh's side, and Briem as the damsel in distress; Diggs will make a nice addition as the bloodsucking bad-guy. Although his last shot at horror was the slightly embarrassing remake of House on Haunted Hill, so here's hoping things work out a little better this time.

Dead of Night is already shooting on location in the Big Easy and should arrive in theaters later this year.

*Correction: Sam Huntington will play Routh's sidekick.

When you consider that the big-screen adaptation of Solomon Kane only just found a lead a little over a month ago, the producers certainly seem to be wasting no time in getting the film in gear. The Movie Blog now has a first look at the teaser poster for the action-adventure flick. The film is based on the adventure series of the same name by Conan the Barbarian creator Robert E. Howard about a cursed 16th Century swordsman. Back in October, Rome's James Purefoy had signed to star as Kane, an immortal swordsman who is forced out of 'retirement' for an all-out battle between good and evil. In the stories Kane was described as "a somber and gloomy man of pale face and cold eyes, all of it shadowed by a slouch hat". One look at this poster and you can see that Purefoy is an excellent choice.

The first appearance of Kane was in back 1928 in the magazine Weird Tales. Over the years, the character has appeared in over 13 stories and was even the subject of a 1976 Marvel Comic. A lot has changed since 1928, and some of the text has become the subject of criticism over its shall we say 'antiquated' views on race and women -- you know you're in trouble when you describe African tribesmen as, 'closer to mankind's beast ancestors'. Then again, it was written in 1928, so what are you going to do? I guess we will just have to hope that Michael J Bassett (writer and director for the film) has some serious re-writes in mind. Solomon Kane is set for release in 2008.

Check out the full-size poster after the jump ...

Having reached my saturation point for gossip about Angelina Jolie's adoption habits some time ago, it's kind of a relief to read some news that doesn't focus on her personal life. Last month, Matt shared word that Jolie had signed to star in the big screen version of Wanted. Now, The Chicago Tribune reports that Jolie is in Chicago doing some preliminary work on the film, although exactly what kind of work isn't really known yet; all we know is that she's testing out Dodge Vipers. Directed by Timur Bekmambetov (Night Watch / Day Watch), the story of Wanted is based on the graphic novel of the same name by Mark Millar and J.G Jones. The plot centers on a young man (James McAvoy), who discovers after his father's murder that the old man was a member of an elite group of assassins.

Morgan Freeman will also star as one of the founding members of the group and Jolie will act as McAvoy's mentor while they break him into the family business. Her character has been described as 'Catwoman-like,' although she's apparently more of a villain than Catwoman. Most of the film is being shot in Prague, but Jolie will be due back in Chicago later this summer to shoot some of the action sequences. Already, gossip hounds are salivating over the prospect of Jolie bringing the whole family to the set when production starts -- remember the good old days when she used to be just an actress and not a tabloid staple? Wanted is currently penciled in for a March 28, 2008 release, so stay tuned to Cinematical for updates.