I knew it was too good to be true. I thought it would get screwed up in casting or getting some shmo to direct it (see Fantastic Four), but with director George "Mad Max" Miller, I had hopes.

Alas, Variety reports:

Warner Bros. let the options lapse on the young cast that director George Miller chose to play DC superhero staples. The studio, which had set Tuesday as its greenlight deadline for the pic, confirmed Wednesday the project is on indefinite hold.

Sigh...

Yes! A film version of the uber-geek tome Watchmen by Alan Moore is looking more like a reality.
This was announced today, just in time for Comic-con... You can almost hear the collective sound of geeks everywhere springing a chubby!

Per Hollywood Reporter:

Watchmen, the long-gestating big-screen adaptation of the seminal DC Comics limited series, has finally found its superheroes.

Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, Matthew Goode, Billy Crudup, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Malin Akerman have been cast in the Warner Bros. movie, which Zack Snyder is directing. Larry Gordon, Lloyd Levin and Deborah Snyder are producing.

Set in an alternate America, "Watchmen" follows costumed hero Rorschach, who is living a vigilante lifestyle because most masked heroes have retired or been outlawed. While investigating a murder, Rorschach learns that a former masked-hero colleague has been killed, prompting him to begin investigating a possible conspiracy.

Haley will play Walter Kovacs, aka Rorschach, who ignores the ban on costumed vigilantes.

Crudup will play Dr. Manhattan, a superpowered being with godlike powers and temperament.

Akerman will play Laurie Juspeczyk/the Silk Spectre, who is involved with Dr. Manhattan -- but that relationship begins to fall apart as he becomes more disconnected from humanity.

Goode will play Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias, a costume adventurer who retired voluntarily, disclosed his identity and built a large fortune.

I wonder if Moore will remove his name from this film, as he did for V for Vendetta?

One of the many reasons Microsoft sucks ass...

I came across this bit of brilliance.

I could've done without music from Curly Sue... But I usually pretend he didn't make any films after Uncle Buck (okay, I'm cool with Career Opportunities, but that's it!)

Though a few weeks have passed since the release of 300, the brouhaha over the film's various historical inaccuracies and not so peachy depiction of Persians has hit a fever pitch as reported by the BBC:

The film has stirred controversy among Iranians across the world, but it is the expatriate community in North America that have been the loudest voice opposing an "assault on its culture and tradition".

Personally, as an Iranian who admittedly doesn't feel a lot of cultural identification, I do see their point - you don't want to kick someone while they're down... It's not like Iranians have been getting a free ride as far as good press or positive depiction goes for the past 20 years.

That said, the movie's based on Frank Miller comic for Christ's sake! It's a complete roller coaster ride of fabrication and erroneousness all around... Does anyone actually believe that the Spartans were walking around with chiseled pecs and six pack abs, speaking in quasi Scottish accents?

Heath Ledger talks The Joker and superhero movies... kinda sounds like an ass, but i'll reserve judgement... after his kick ass work in Brokeback he has a free pass as far as I'm concerned.

I'm sure I'm not the only one blogging about this and that they'll be many more, but here goes.

I'd been looking forward to this for months. MONTHS! Bought my tickets in advance, etc, etc. Show up on Saturday to be greeted by this (see photo): A line snaking all the way around the main entry of the Javits Center. Why you ask? Because the fire marshall decided to not let any more people in (and later debated on shutting the whole thing down). Genius!

Of course all the thanks go to the jackasses at Reed Exhibitions who put on the whole thing and over sold it by, I don't know, a couple of thousand. Funny enough their website states that they are "The world's leading exhibition and conference organisers". Next time I'm putting together a villiage idiots convention, I'll be sure to contact them.

But really, it's sad that the city that started the modern comic book industry hasn't had a proper convention in forever and it's first attempt at one is just such a blundering mistake. Why someone didn't think of starting one with the help of Comic-Con International, who puts on the biggest comic convention in the world every year, I will never know. I just feel sorry for Reed Exhibitions, since they've incurred the wrath of many a nerd with too much time on their hands, while living in their parents' basement.

Oh yeah, and the end of story from Saturday? We stood in the aforementioned line for 45 minutes so they could scribble our names on a pad of paper and tell us we'll get refunded in 30 days.

Good times.

I've been meaning to blog about this since it happened a few weeks back (and in this world of blogging, you never want to talk about yesterday's news, God forbid news from weeks and weeks ago!)

But in a semi recent issue in that bible of entertainment journalism better known as Entertainment Weekly, there was a surprisingly good, in-depth article about Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons 1986 comic book, Watchmen. All Talk By Casey posted the entire article here since it's only available partially on the EW site.

The article goes on to talk extensively about how the whole idea came together and how Moore and Gibbons fine tuned and added aspects as issues progressed. Plus the fact that Watchmen has influenced everything from Joss Wheadon's whole body of work (especially Buffy), to Lost, to The Incredibles.

For my money, I can't say it’s the best comic I’ve ever read (it's a long list that starts with Frank Miller's Year One and goes on from there...), but still, I remember my teenage mind being sufficiently blown by reading Moore's nihilistic interpretation of a world where heroes didn't matter anymore… Oh, the horror!