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Comics:
Uncanny X-Men Loses Artist, Fanboy Planet Webmaster Wonders Why This Is News…
Just in time for tomorrow's release of Joe Casey's Poptopia conclusion, we are reminded to mention that Ian Churchill has stepped off of Uncanny X-Men, believing that the book does not fit his style. The next issue will be guest-pencilled by Sean Phillips (Wildcats). No word yet on who will be named permanently, though, really, Phillips could be pretty cool. Different, but cool.
Ty Templeton Writes JLA Adventures
Of course DC had to launch a title to tie in with the upcoming animated series. And they can do no better than to tap Templeton to write it. No stranger to the animated genre, Templeton has worked on both the Batman and Superman Adventures books, as well as Marvel's companion book to the animated Avengers series two years ago (the show sucked, the book rocked). Look for the JLA Adventures in October. (And if you can find it, look for Ty Templeton's Stig's Inferno, a brilliant series which he has yet to finish.)
Gene Simmons Rides The Dark Horse
As if the KISS coffin was not enough, Dark Horse announced plans to publish comics spotlighting individual members of KISS. Late next spring, we can look forward to The Demon (unless DC says otherwise), Starchild, Space Ace, and Catman.
Long a comic book fan, Gene Simmons promises that these will be a little more mainstream than the Psycho Circus title Image produced a few years ago. He also owns the rights to the books Marvel produced in the seventies, with an eye to having those reproduced sometime in the near future.
Movies:
Frank Miller Goes To Hollywood (Again)
Warner Bros. Pictures has spent the summer negotiating with Frank Miller and Geoff Darrow for the rights to adapt their 1992 series Hard Boiled to film. If all goes well, David Fincher (Fight Club, The Game) will direct, and Nicolas Cage will be the happiest actor in all of Puppet Land, finally getting to star in a comic book movie.
For those not familiar with the series, published by Dark Horse Comics, it concerns the adventures of a killer robot that thinks it's a tax collector. Actually, that explains a lot about the IRS.
Pop-star, Actress Aaliyah Dies In Plane Crash
You've probably already heard that much. But what does that mean to the average fanboy, other than the tragic death of a talented artist? Well, after an impressive film debut last year in Romeo Must Die, she had moved on to two high-profile genre projects: The Matrix Reloaded and The Queen of the Damned.
At the time of her death, Aaliyah's role in The Matrix Reloaded was 80% complete, according to Coming Attractions. How the Wachowski Brothers will work around this, with doubles, furious re-writing, or complete recasting, has not been decided yet.
The producers of The Queen of the Damned fared little better. Aaliyah stars as Akasha, the mother of all vampires, who battles the outrageous vampire Lestat (Tom Cruise in Interview With The Vampire, now Stuart Townsend) for the fate of the undead. Its release date uncertain, the whole project may now be in permanent limbo as Warner Brothers waits for a tasteful time to release it.
Television:
Witchblade Renewed
TNT has committed to another 13 episodes of the series, and still Yancy Butler keeps her clothing on. If there are any fans of the show out there, let us know what you think of it, because we still have not seen it.
Adult Swim To Debut This Weekend On Cartoon Network
Starting Sunday, September 2, at 10 p.m., the Cartoon Network programs a block of shows just for those who like their cartoons arch and irony-filled. Look for our review of Adult Swim later this week.
Videogames:
None Of This Playstation 2 On eBay Crap For Mario In a strange marketing move, Nintendo announced that it would release the hotly anticipated GameCube two weeks later than originally announced. While that in and of itself may not be strange, the reason is. Nintendo wants to make sure that it has enough stock on hand to meet demand. None of this Playstation 2 on eBay crap for Mario, no sir.
At $199, the Gameboy-compatible Gamecube will retail for $100 less than Playstation 2 and Microsoft's Xbox, which itself has been rumored to be delayed.
