I’m not sure how I feel about this. During the MIP Junior Market Convention in France, Warner Bros. Animation executive VP for creative affair (shit thats a long ass title…), Sam Register announced a new CG animated series titled ‘Beware the Batman’ will be hitting the small screen in 2013. The new series which will include executive produce Glen Murakami (Batman Beyond, Teen Titans) will feature a more classic Batman, a gun totting Alfred Pennyworth, and a sword swinging female sidekick named Katana. The new series will feature a new group of villains (that they will pull out of their asses) and some old foe from Batman’s rogue gallery. The man behind the Batman animated franchise, Bruce Timm hasn’t been mentioned in the project, but from the looks of it, WB and Glen Murakami is still squeezing as much out of Timm’s art style as they can (in which I don’t have a problem with…). As exciting as this might not sound, I just want WB to make more ‘Batman Beyond’. Is that really hard to ask? Seems like the right time to bring it back… don’t ya think?
This has been a huge weekend for ‘Green Lantern’ fans. Earlier last week, the attendees at CinemaCon got a ten minute glimpses into Warner Bros. new movie and the reviews have been mixed. Some say that it’s still terrible and some are raving saying it was amazing. One of the funniest comments I saw was someone described Green Lantern as the next ‘Howard the Duck’. Ouch! While CinemaCon was reserved for industry only, Warner Bros. released four minutes abridged version online from the footage shown at WonderCon during the weekend. I would have to say that the footage is much better than the first trailer and seems to have more of a serious undertone to the film that the trailer lead us to believe. While we will most likely never see the ten minute CinemaCon footage, I am still skeptical about whether this movie is going to be any good. Some of the scenes are very impressive, but four minutes of “good” footage doesn’t really say much. As of right now, I’m neutral and going to have to see it in the theatre to make my final judgement whether it was brilliant or just a hot mess. Expect a new Green Lantern trailer with the release of ‘Thor’.
‘Green Lantern’ opens in 2D/3D in June 17, 2011. Hit the jump and check out the WonderCon footage!
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Thunder, Thunder, THUNDERCATS, HO!
Following sad news over the murder of Stephen Perry (who was the original writer of the 80’s cartoon), there is some great news coming out of Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Animation is currently on the fast track in producing a brand new ThunderCats animated series for Cartoon Network. What interesting will be the fact that WBA will be hookin’ up with Japanese animation studio, Studio4°C for the new series. Studio4°C is the studio that contributed to Animatrix, Batman Gotham Knights, and Halo Legends.
“We at Studio4°C are excited to be in this creative partnership with Warner Bros. Animation to bring ‘ThunderCats’ to life,” said Eiko Tanaka, President and CEO, Studio4°C. “This collaboration combines the strengths of our two companies – high production values and great storytelling – toward reintroducing this classic fan-favorite to a new audience.”
This is definitely going to be a new type of ThunderCats and most likely be a bit different from what we remember from our childhood. It may concern many that an “anime” version of ThunderCats may not be as good as the original, but if you are aware of the quality of animation coming out of Japan, you can bet that these ThunderCats will be kickin’ some major ass. I wonder when the SilverHawks will get their turn…
Hit the jump to check out a teaser pix of the new ThunderCats and the official press release by WBA!
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Sad news today as Warner Bros. and Mattel will be parting ways on live-action adaptation of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. The studio and producer Joel Silver have been developing the project since 2007. Variety reports that Warner Bros. and Mattel couldn’t see “eye to eye” on the direction of the film and made a mutual decision to part ways on the project. Mattel will take back the property and most likely shop the project around at another studio. Director John Stevenson (Kung Fu Panda) may still be attached to the project, but not Joel Silver, who is exclusive to Warner Bros. Fortunately for everyone that is a MotU fan, you can still watch Dolpf Lundgren’s 1987 Masters of the Universe movie. I HAVE THE POWER!!!
Following the recent news of Walt Disney Company’s acquisition of Marvel Entertainment, DC Comics and Warner Brothers Entertainment is making news as well. Warner Bros. Entertainment will be revamping its DC Comics franchise into a new company called DC Entertainment. DC Entertainment will be tackling the task of exploiting there catalog of comic book characters such as Superman and Batman into blockbuster feature films, television, and other types of media. There seems to be a lot of confusion regarding this news and I just wanted to give you the simplified breakdown of what this change will bring.
Key Points:
- Paul Levitz who is the President and publisher of DC Comics since 2002 will be resign from his position and will become an writer, contributing editor and consultant for DC Entertainment.
- Diane Nelson (pictured above) has been appointed the President of DC Entertainment. Diane Nelson previous job was as President of Warner Bros. Premiere (WB Premiere produced all the DC Comics animated movies such as Green Lantern: First Flight) and Nelson was also in charge of overseeing the development of the Harry Potter franchise since 1999.
- Warner Bros. Entertainments move to revamp DC Comics was NOT due to Walt Disney Company’s acquisition of Marvel Entertainment. This move was being planned for months. Unfortunately for DC & WB, their press release happened AFTER Disney and Marvels. Always the bridesmaid. Never the bride.
- Other than the 3 mentioned above, there is nothing else.
There is no official word on whether the change will affect the comic books or not, but it is too early to tell. It is pretty obvious that DC and Warner Bros. wants to successfully break more into the different types of media outside of comic books like they did with The Dark Knight and Smallville. DC and Marvel may be rivals in the world of comics, but Marvel is king when it comes to producing blockbuster movies, video games, and more. In my opinion, the news regarding the creation of DC Entertainment was nothing more than an announcement of a name change and a changing of the guards. Only time will tell.
Source: Daily Variety
