Official Press Release:

Batman Movie Reaches 20th Anniversary Milestone at Comic Con in San Diego

Legendary Producer To Talk Batman, The Joker, Archie, Pop Culture and Comic Books in the Movies

He helped make Batman an international movie star, spawned a generation of serious comic book movies and now he is marrying Archie off to Veronica. Michael E. Uslan, the executive producer of the Batman movie franchise – including the record breaking blockbuster The Dark Knight – is coming to Comic Con International July 23-28, 2009 to talk about his 30-plus years in the entertainment industry, as well as a slate of new projects in comics and film.

This summer movie season marks the 20th anniversary of the movie that spawned a modern explosion of comic book films. In 1989, Batman, starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson, was released, breaking nearly every box office record of the day. It made believers out of studio heads who began to see that you could make a movie about comic book characters without it being campy.

With Oscars and Emmys awarded to multiple projects, Uslan is the godfather of the modern comic book movie, and is currently being entrusted with icons like Archie, who he is marrying off to Veronica in September as writer of the comic books. As a speaker, his commencement speech to Indiana University (his alma mater) was named by USA Today as one of the top 10 commencement speeches of all time. Moreover, he has a slate of new projects that include live action movies such as Shazam! and The Shadow. His slate includes a multitude of writing and producing jobs, as well as a new film development firm called The Uslan Company, where Uslan will act as a “producer for hire” to help usher along other producers’ and companies’ projects.

Below is a list of the panels Uslan will be attending at Comic Con this year:

11:30-12:30 Archie Comics: Archie Marries Veronica. It’s the wedding of the century, but that is just the start, with plenty of surprise announcements about the future of Archie Comics, including the latest news about Archie on television and in feature films! Panelists include legendary The Dark Knight movie producer and Archie writer Michael Uslan, new Archie Comics CEO Jon Goldwater, iVerse CEO Michael Murphy, IDW Publishing COO Greg Goldstein, Archie Comics president/director of circulation Fred Mausser, and Archie Comics vice president/managing editor Mike Pellerito. The panel is moderated by Archie’s public relations coordinator Rik Offenberger and features a Q&A session. An “Archie Marries Veronica” poster will be given to everyone attending the panel. Room 4

6:00-7:00 Comics to Film with Michael Ulsan. Godfather of the modern comic book film Michael Uslan (Batman, Constantine, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight) celebrates the 20th anniversary of his landmark movie Batman (1989) by recounting what it took to make it happen and how the industry has changed since then, advising newcomers how to make their comic book movie dreams come true. Q&A and surprise announcements will cap off the hour. Moderated by Tony Panaccio. Room 7AB

10:30-12:00 Comics Arts Conference Session #9: Is the Joker a Psychopath: You Decide! Psychology professors Robin Rosenberg (The Psychology of Superheroes) and Travis Langley (Henderson State University) discuss the technical definition of a psychopath and review the criteria for antisocial personality disorder does the Joker fit the clinical definition? Is he more than just crazy? They are joined by Joker experts Jerry Robinson (The Superhero: The Golden Age of Comic Books, 1938-1950), famed “Joker-fish” scribe Steve Englehart (The Point Man), and film producer Michael Uslan (The Dark Knight). Room 30AB

Variety is reporting that director, Sam Raimi has signed on to direct the live-action movie adaptation of Warcraft (more specifically, World of Warcraft… though, a movie of an eagle eye view of a forrest with people chopping trees, mining gold, and building barracks’ would be sahweet!):

Legendary Pictures and vidgame publisher Blizzard Entertainment are mounting the film, and Warner Bros. will co-finance and distribute. The team boasts an impressive pedigree: In addition to the director of “Spider-Man,” the partners have added “The Dark Knight” producer Charles Roven to the creative mix.

The plan is for Raimi to supervise development of “Warcraft” and shoot the picture after he completes work on “Spider-Man 4,” which gets under way early next year for Columbia Pictures.

You can check out the full article over at Variety.

Need I say more?…

THR has posted a pretty in-depth article looking into the DC portfolio and what they have to offer in the film and TV venues. DC is toting that they have a larger and more marketable portfolio than Marvel and that they have yet to make the mistake that Marvel did out of the gate of licensing out some of their major properties to seperate studios. Looks like the Marvel v. DC battle is moving into new arenas…

In contrast, DC arch-rival Marvel moved quickly in the wake of its successful “Iron Man” to stake out a series of release dates for a slew of movies, branding them as part of one big Marvel universe leading to “The Avengers,” which arrives in 2012.

But DC and Warners have taken a different approach, arguing that DC has a wider breadth of books than other comics companies. They insist their situation isn’t comparable to Marvel, which already has licensed out to other studios a number of its biggest titles: Spider-Man is housed at Sony, and X-Men and Fantastic Four are at Fox.

With fewer marquee superheroes, Marvel works like an animation studio: It only develops select projects and makes most of what it develops, while DC is managing a much larger portfolio.

Still, in the wake of “Dark Knight,” DC and Warners have made strategic moves in the superhero realm, including centralizing the way DC’s titles and characters are developed. In the past, Warners optioned a property, paying DC a fee comparable to what a property could command on the open market. But while the projects ostensibly were being developed under one roof, many were spread out over a host of producers, each with different visions for how to approach each adaptation.

You can check out the full read over at THR.

This tip comes to us from www.bloody-disgusting.com and you can read the full article here. Check out their full article to see why this should be kept in your “badass if it happens” file.  This looks like it could be pretty damn awesome.  De Niro is De Niro so seeing him in something like this could be pretty damn entertaining.

Robert Rodriguez and Ethan Maniquis are teaming up to begin filming Machete on July 29th. They are co-directors.

–DANNY TREJO is returning (obviously) as “Machete”, the madman bent on revenge.
–MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ (“Lost”, Fast & Furious, Avatar) is said to be playing “Luz”.
–JONAH HILL, the comedian who has starred in such films as Superbad and the forthcoming Adam Sandler comedy Funny People, will play “Julio”.
-Lastly, a legend of our time, ROBERT DE NIRO, will take on the role of “Senator McLaughlin”.

The UK’s Telegraph is reporting that it seems as though Doctor Who’s David Tennant is in the front running to play everyone’s favorite burglar, Bilbo Baggins in Guillermo Del Toro’s Hobbit movies.

The Scottish star leads a list of stars, including James McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe, vying to play the title role of Bilbo Baggins in “The Hobbit.” The film – which may be split in two – is based on Tolkien’s children’s book prequel to The Lord Of The Rings hit series.

Tennant is due to make his debut appearance at the world’s biggest science-fiction and fantasy convention Comic-Con in the US next week.

And Rings director Peter Jackson is also expected to announce his choice for the role when he attends.

Geoff Boucher of the Los Angeles Times, said yesterday: “David Tennant just happens to be making his very first trip to the San Diego expo to promote “Doctor Who,” a television series that he will soon be leaving behind. “Peter Jackson, the producer of the two-film “Hobbit” series that begins its theatre run in 2011, is also slated to appear this year, and, well you can see the dot-connecting possibilities. …

“I think Tennant would be exceptional in the role.”

Personally, I quite like all three of the actors on that short list for Bilbo, though for some reason when I heard David Tennant for the role the first time, it clicked more than the others.

If there’s going to be an announcement at Comic-con, trust that I’ll work my hardest to report on that as quickly as possible. Peter Jackson and Guillermo Del Toro panels are always the best and I try not to miss them. Knowing that something of this magnitude may get announced motivates me twice as much to go.

My excitement circuits were so overloaded with this news I couldn’t write it up fast enough. So pardon my lack of commentary on how much I love Star Trek and how sahweet these special features sound as I just give you the information straight up!

Special features are going to include:

• Commentary by director J.J. Abrams, writers Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman, producer Damon Lindelof and executive producer Bryan Burk
• Deleted scenes: “Spock’s Birth”, “Klingons Take Over Narada”, “Young Kirk, Johnny, and Uncle Frank”, “Amanda and Sarek Argue After Spock Fights”, “Prison Interrogation and Breakout”, “Sarek Gets Amanda”, “Dorm Room and Kobayashi Maru (original version)”, “Kirk Apologizes to the Green Girl”, “Sarek Sees Spock” -All with optional commentary.
• Four featurettes: “To Boldly Go”, “Casting”, “Aliens”, “Score”
• Gag Reel
• Digital Copy

The Blu-ray release will include all of those special features, plus a few more:

• Featurettes on the Starships, Gene Roddenberry’s Vision, and The Sounds of Star Trek
• Starfleet Vessel Simulator

Official box art for the releases have yet to be revealed, but I assure you I will post it when it becomes available.

For all you Trekkers and Trekkies out there, if you’re anything like me November is a long ways off to wait for the release of this, but it’s nice to know what’s coming. Star Trek is not yet available for pre-order at Amazon.com, but you can sign up to be notified when it does.

EW.com has posted pics from their latest issue featuring the cast from Iron Man 2! You can check out the full article over at their site, here’s an excerpt, and here’s the pics!

When Marvel Studios first announced the sequel, no one was sure what the movie would be about. Downey, director Jon Favreau, screenwriter Justin Theroux, and the rest of the creative team struck upon the idea of introducing two very different foes for Stark. On one side is Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), a fast-talking weapons manufacturer who fancies himself the next Tony Stark; on the other, Vanko, who, while incarcerated in a Russian prison, creates his own battle-suit, which shoots devastating, whip-like beams. Hammer and Whiplash join forces to take down Downey’s character, Tony Stark. Rourke, for his part, wanted to instill some lightness into the role of the heavy. “I told Favreau, ‘I don’t want to just play him as a one-dimensional p—-,'” he says. “He let me have a cockatoo, who I talk to and get drunk with while I’m making my suit.”

Just a small blurb from an MTV interview with Mr. Cage and what he would like to see in a sequel to Ghost Rider:

TMNT25.com has put out an open casting call for matrial artists for the new live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie that will be going into production for a 2011 release.  So, if you’re going to be in the LA area, and want to get your ass kicked by Raphael on screen as a Foot Soldier, then here’s the details! The coolest part? Keno (Ernie Reyes, Jr.) will be judging!

Martial Arts Experts – Open Casting Call Auditions – Martial Artist Wanted for New Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Motion Picture

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, in association with Mirage Studios, 4Kids Entertainment and TMNT Productions will host an open casting call for martial arts experts to audition for the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, hitting theatres in 2011. We will select the best from the auditions to be a part of the stealth TMNT nemesis, the Foot Clan.

The casting call is part of the 25th Anniversary Shell-ebration of the “Heroes on a Half Shell” in 2009, and a great way to bring together all schools of martial arts to become part of the new generation of TMNT.

We’re reaching out to ask for your participation in spreading the word to your associates, friends and family within the martial arts community. Details of the event are below, and final rules/regulations will be posted shortly.

When: Saturday, July 18, 2009 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Where: Hollywood & Highland

6801 Hollywood Boulevard

Los Angeles, CA 90028

*At Grand Staircase

Who: Judges to include actor and martial arts expert Ernie Reyes, Jr., Jason Morgan from the American Taekwondo Association, and 2011 TMNT movie producers Scott Mednick and Galen Walker.

Audition: 30-Second Martial Arts Demo (Single Person Only)

No metal, sharp or bladed weapons of any kind allowed

Photo and updated resume with contact information

Fourteen years or older (under 18 must have adult permission for audition)