Movie & TV News: 08/17/09

Medium
Variety reports that while NBC cancelled the show, and CBS picked it up, it may not be as easy as that. NBC now claims to have "exclusive rights to air the show until September." And now they want to be reimbursed for episodes rerun on CBS. So, it may be awhile before this mess gets sorted, so fans of the show another reason to love NBC.

Prince Namor, The Submariner
Collider spoke here with director Jonathan Mostow who told them that Universal is keeping The Sub-Mariner (which had been listed as a 2010 release) in development (but don't hold your breath). Here in DigitalSpy Mostow said: "These characters have been around forever and to really do justice to them and make the right movie, you have to get the script right. So we're still working on that and we'll see. With everything Marvel, we like to keep it in a shroud of secrecy." The biggest thing this will make sure is that the ruler of Atlantis won't show up in 2012 The Avengers or any of the other Marvel Studios adaptations. And since The Human Torch is covered by copyrights for The Fantastic Four, none of those great 1940's battles will reach the screen during our lifetimes. Damn.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine 2
The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed here that Christopher McQuarrie has been brought in to adapt the Chris Claremont/Frank Miller "Mariko" storyline. No confirmation on possible Bryan Singer involvement in the 2011 film, however.

TV DVD News
TVShowsOnDVD.com has posted info about "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (Season 4) here, "Sordid Lives: The Series" (Complete Series) here, "The Rockford Files" (Movie Collection, Vol. 12) here, "Ben 10: Alien Force" (Vol. 5) here, "Iron Man: Armored Adventures" (Vol. 1) here, "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" (Best of Season 2) here.

Harry Potter News
Slashfilm tells us here that all of the films are heading to the theaters again, but in extended editions. What the new added footage is has not been released, but it doesn't matter the muggles will line up for all of them, no doubt.

Youngblood
MTV spoke here with Brett Ratner about the 2012 film. Ratner said: "My vision for it is: We're going to make a very edgy, cool film… We're not soft-peddling it at all." About casting he says: "Definitely [Robert Pattinson] from 'Twilight,'… He just feels like he belongs in that world. I don't only see him as a vampire, he's a really good actor."

Superman
Variety reports here that while a judge ruled recedntly that in 2013, the Siegel/Schuster heirs will own the full copyright to Superman, many auxillary elements of character developed by DC Comics after Siegel and Schuster’s initial introduction of the character were, well, up, up and away in the air. That was until Wednesday, when Judge Stephen Larson ruled that the Siegels (Not Warner Brothers) now control Superman’s early history, including his time on Krypton, his parents, baby Kal-El and the whole "sent to Earth from a dying planet" storyline. The Siegels also captured ownership of early Superman comic-strips and early Superman/Action Comics issues. As far as future Superman films go Judge Larson has already ruled that unless the DC?Warners get another movie into production by 2011, they will forfeit the opportunity to do so entirely and the full rights to Superman (including any depictions of the character on TV/Film) will pass into the hands of the Siegel/Schuster heirs. As a writer I find it hard to be unhappy at this ruling, maybe other studio won't think Clark Kent isn't "DARK" enough.

Special thanks to Movie Goods.com for so many of the dynamite movie posters we use from time to time. You cannot find a better place to run down those new or classic posters.

Comic Previews
Comics Continuum has posted preview pages of
X-Men: Legacy #227,