Evidence! Evidence that Iron Man 2 is now filming!
Here we see Mickey Rourke, hot off of his wrestling Oscar nomination, suited up in what is assuredly a prototype of the weaponry he will use as the Marvel baddie Whiplash!
I’m still angry that Rhodie won’t be played by Terrence Howard, even though Don Cheadle is one helluva actor. I like continuity. But, I really like the casting of Rourke, who actually fits this character’s dark past quite well.
Hope to see more soon, Jon Favreau!
Today Newsarama posted a preview of the comic book adaptation to Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time! This will be a Herculean effort by the Dabel Brothers, the breadth of Jordan’s series going to require hundreds of issues to bring to life.
Issue #1 is the start! To view the preview, click HERE!
Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time #1 will be released June 24th!
M-O-O-N! That spells adaptation!
As reported HERE in February, Del Rey Books will be adapting The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub into a monthly comic book series, to start releasing at the end of the year!
And since it was announced the project has been moving forward!
The Talisman is definitely one of those foundational books that make up who I am as a whole. I first read it after I had read the first two Dark Tower books and the connection between them could not be ignored. And like the Dark Tower series The Talisman is filled with great characters—both good, evil and in between—and the settings are wondrous. The kid who still lives within me and who yearns to visit the Territories is excited to see the tale of Jack Sawyer come to life!
Tony Shasteen, the artist Del Rey tapped for the project, produced character sketches before the first page of the comic book was produced, each one of them sanctioned by King and Straub. In February we showed you Morgan Sloat and Speedy Parker.
Well, Tony, Del Rey, and StephenKing.com have released the next three!
Visit HERE to view the character sketches for Lily Cavanaugh, Jack Sawyer and Phil Sawyer!
A lot more will be coming in the next few months concerning the adaptation of The Talisman, so stay tuned!
M-O-O-N!
It is perhaps Philip K Dick’s most popular works and this summer Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep will be given the full graphic treatment by BOOM! Studios. If that title isn’t familiar to you, then perhaps you’ve seen or heard of the movie it inspired: Blade Runner.
But this isn’t some half summarized adaptation of PKD’s Androids. BOOM! promises that the actual text of the novel will appear beside the panels. Meaning that PKD’s title will remain a product and vision of his mind. Previews World has this title listing as being available in June of this year.
From BOOM! Studios:
THE BOOK THAT INSPIRED THE FILM BLADE RUNNER COMES TO BOOM with backmatter by Warren Ellis! Worldwide best-selling sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick’s award-winning DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? has been called “a masterpiece ahead of its time, even today” and served as the basis for the film BLADE RUNNER. BOOM! Studios is honored to present the complete novel transplanted into the comic book medium, mixing all new panel-to-panel continuity with the actual text from the novel in an innovative, ground-breaking 24-issue maxi-series experiment! [Read the full announcement here]
Not familiar with the story? Here’s your summary in a nutshell: It’s 2021 and a massive World War has decimated the population of Earth, all but wiping it out and driving many of those who survived to life on colonized Mars. But not everyone left and those who stayed suddenly found themselves living on a desolate planet. To compensate for low population numbers across all species and in an attempt to rebuild life-as-they-knew-it as quickly as possible, realistic androids are created. They are indistinguishable from real people or animals and, for fear that they could wreck havoc on the population, are eventually banned from Earth.
But not every android identifies themselves. Some hide amongst the population. For those rogue ‘droids, there are officially sanctioned bounty hunters, like Rick Deckard. Rick’s job is to hunt down and deactivate the androids hiding among the people. It’s a tough job because unlike their human counterparts, androids don’t break quite so easy.
The Dabel Brothers really started something years ago.
They decided adapting high profile sci-fi/fantasy novels into comic books could possibly be lucrative, reaching a fan base that enjoy such projects.
They were right. They had a string of successful adaptations. Now, after it has proven it can work, other companies like Marvel Comics (The Dark Tower by Stephen King) and Del Rey Books (The Talisman by Stephen King & Peter Straub) have begun adapting books into comic books as well.
The original adapter hasn’t quit.
Dabel Brothers just released a Sneak Peek of the first 10 pages from their forthcoming adaptation of Eye of the World, the first book in the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. The pages are only inked, but they showcase very good art by Chase Conley. And with comic book writing legend Chuck Dixon scripting the series, Jordan’s work is in capable hands!
If the final book in the Wheel of Time series is released this year, 2009 might be the year of Jordan!
And the Dabel Brothers will have a hand in it.
Some great new fantasy books have graced bookstore shelves in the last few years: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch and His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik are only some of the books that have raised a new bar—a new standard—in sci-fi/fantasy publishing.
And then there is David Anthony Durham, whose first fantasy novel Acacia has just been optioned by Hollywood for a live-action movie!
