Image Credit: Jordan Strauss/WireImage.com; Sylvain Gaboury/PR Photos; Sara De Boer/RetnaIf it’s not the hottest female role for next fall, it’s certainly among the top five: NBC and Warner Bros. are currently on the lookout for an actress who’s popular, tough, gorgeous, and sympathetic enough to play the classic comic-book character in the network’s much-anticipated reboot. Easy peasy: One on every corner of Hollywood, right?
Not exactly. READ FULL STORY »
Marvel Entertainment
ABC entertainment president Paul Lee says the chance of The Incredible Hulk and other Marvel titles joining network’s schedule is pretty high. (ABC and Marvel are both owned by the Walt Disney Company.)
ABC has been developing a slew of Marvel properties, including superhero-turned-detective Jessica Jones and the return of the not-so-jolly green giant.
“I’m thrilled we have Marvel within our family, it’s a superb opportunity for us,” he says. “If you’re going to bring back a franchise, it’s easier to launch a well-known franchise, but what really distinguishes these are the showrunners — we have A-list showrunners.” READ FULL STORY »
In the new superhero drama The Cape premiering this Sunday on NBC, David Lyons plays an honest cop named Vince Faraday living in a crooked metropolis terrorized by a masked villain named Chess (True Blood’s James Frain) and freakish thugs like the reptile-skinned Scales (X-Men: The Last Stand’s Vinnie Jones). Vince is a family man, too, and he shares with his son a passion for a comic book superhero named “The Cape.” When he’s framed for murder and accused of being corrupt, Vince goes underground and finds safe harbor among a group of circus performers/not-so-bad bank robbers that go by the knowingly threatrical handle “The Carnival of Crime.” They hook him up with a seemingly magical cape that allows him to fight crime in Palm City (with assistance of the mysterious anti-corruption crusader Orwell, played by Summer Glau) and hopefully clear his good name as the superhero that both he and his son love, and in this way, weekly adventures will ensue. READ FULL STORY »
Twilight screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg is planning to bring Marvel superhero, Jessica Jones, to television, according to Variety. AKA Jessica Jones is being considered for ABC’s slate next fall, and Brian Michael Bendis, who created the comic-book series in 2001 (it was originally titled, Alias), will be a consultant for the show.
Corpse disposal was much on the minds of the Walking Dead characters in last night’s episode, “Wildfire,” following the campfire massacre of the preceding week. The show’s simple, but contentious, conundrum? What to do with the bodies of loved ones that could turn into zombies who love the taste of bodies?
The answers were varied. While Andrea took a heartbroken age to shoot Amy, Norman Reedus’ Daryl wasted no time pickaxeing in the head any corpse that moved, or at least looked like it might do so. Meanwhile, poor Jim was left to zombie-ficate by the side of the road as the rest of the diminished band of survivors headed off to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (which, as I’ve noted elsewhere, really seems to have been sleeping on the job with regard to both control and prevention. I will be extremely disappointed if Noah Emmerich’s CDC scientist gets a bonus this Christmas).
Who can we blame for all this cruel and bloody mayhem? Well, we can start with Robert Kirkman, who is a writer and executive producer on the show and also pens the still ongoing Walking Dead comic book (the thirteenth collected volume, Too Far Gone, has just hit stores). After the jump, the scribe answers our questions about last night’s episode, teases next week’s season finale, and ruminates on the possibility that coming back to life as a member of the drooling undead may actually be “awesome.”
Image Credit: LandovHe aired on TV from 1978-82 and is about to return to the big screen for yet a third time, but there are plenty of people in Hollywood who think The Hulk can still stage a comeback to the small screen. To wit: Some reports suggested that the newly-launched TV arm of Disney-owned Marvel is high on developing the franchise for another run in prime time. Insiders caution to EW that any speculation about the return of the big green man is premature, though interest from ABC is apparently there. But for right now, there is no script and certainly no modern-day Bill Bixby to assume the high-profile role.
EW has been told that Marvel TV head Jeph Loeb (you’ll know him as the comic book writer who, together with Jesse Alexander, brought us the best years of Heroes) is on the lookout for a genre scribe who can reboot the franchise for today’s TV audiences. Rumor has it that Damon Lindelof (Lost) is among the writers on his wish list, though the Hollywood Reporter said Battlestar Galactica producer David Eick was also looking to pitch a take.
Even if we don’t see a new version of a Hulk TV series by next season – if at all – the promise of Marvel looking to expand its sphere of influence into TV is an exciting development, especially given all the titles (obscure or otherwise) that the company has at its disposal. Says Comic-Con marketing head David Glanzer, “I am excited at the prospect of comics getting more exposure on television. However, for me, storylines are critical. As a fan I want substance more than flash.”
James Hibberd
@James_Hibberd
Lynette Rice
@EWLynette
