AnimeNation Anime News Blog

From Hobo With A Shotgun director Jason Eisener:

Source: Twitch

Director Ridley Scott has agreed to direct another film expanding the world first depicted in his seminal 1982 film Blade Runner. Alcon Entertainment (The Blind Side) will produce.

I’m not sure how I feel about this.

Source: Deadline

87 year-old director Irvin Kershner passed away on November 29. The director of films including The Flim-Flam Man (1967) and Eyes of Laura Mars (1978), Kershner is best known and most respected as the director of 1980′s Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back.

Rest in peace, my good man.

Source: Ain’t It Cool News

The first theatrical Winnie the Pooh movie from Walt Disney Animation in over 35 years is an original hand-drawn feature opening July 15, 2011. Burny Mattinson, key animator on the 1974 short “Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too” serves as senior story artist.

I grew up with two bears, Winnie the Pooh and Paddington. I’ve always been a fan of A.A. Milne’s literary Pooh, but the singular problem I’ve always had with Disney’s adaptation is its voices. How come Christopher Robin sounds British but none of the critters do?

Source: Ain’t It Cool News

Just because I’ve been a rabid Bloom County fan since the late 1980s I’m pointing out that Ain’t It Cool News has published a new, lengthy interview with Berkeley Breathed on the subject of his most beloved creation.

“It’s a weird feeling. But a good one. Like sex with cows.”

China Lion Film Distribution Inc. has signed an exclusive distribution deal with the AMC theater chain that will see up to 15 Chinese langauge films per year released theatrically simultaneously in China, the United States, and Toronto and Ottawa, Canada. The partnership will begin with the current Chinese blockbuster Aftershock. The film, currently playing in Chinese theaters, will get a limited North American theatrical release on October 29. Future releases will hit theaters day-and-date simultaneously.

The Peugeot BB1 concept car.

Watchmen movie producer Lloyd Levin has acquired the rights to film a movie adaptation of comic artist/writer Matt Wagner’s acclaimed 1984-1986 comic mini-series Mage: The Hero Discovered. Levin called the story, “One of the great untapped comic books from the ’80s renaissance that also spawned Watchmen and Batman: Dark Knight.” The comic series is a heartfelt Authurian tale set in modern day. Levin plans to follow the production model that director Matthew Vaughn used to produce the Kick-ass movie: independently finance and produce the film before seeking a major studio to handle distribution. That strategy allows for filming with more creative freedom and less studio oversight/interference. Wagner’s Mage franchise has been optioned for movie development before but has never been filmed.

I just had to report this, as I’ve been a Mage fan since the late 80′s.

Source: ICv2

This isn’t anime, but any anime fan that isn’t just a little bit intrigued by the first trailer for director Zac Snyder’s next picture, Sucker Punch, isn’t an anime fan.

Iconic illustrator & painter Frank Frazetta passed away yesterday in Fort Myers, Florida, of complications following a stroke. He was 82. Frazetta’s work included comics, movie posters, and well-known cover illustrations for pulp fantasy novel franchises including Conan, Tarzan, and John Carter of Mars. Animation fans may be most familiar with Frazetta’s work through his 1983 film collaboration with animator/director Ralph Bakshi, Fire and Ice.

Source: ICv2

Twitch, via a series of links, has secured the first official trailer for director Sylvain Chomet’s (Les triplettes de Belleville) upcoming film The Illusionist. The trailer’s text is in Russian, but that does nothing to hinder the trailer’s effectiveness. The movie opens theatrically in France on May 5th. It presently doesn’t have a U.S. distributor.

Gorgeous.

IESB reports that Lucasfilm is developing a new Star Wars animated television series titled “Star Wars: Galactic Heroes.” This new series is based on Hasbro’s line of Galactic Heroes super deformed figure toys. The animated series will target a primary audience of Pre-School to kindergarten aged children.

Okay, I recognize that Star Wars has always been a kids’ franchise, but did the Droids and Ewoks animated series teach us nothing?

With a movie version of Missile Command essentially set up at Fox and an adaptation of Asteroids in development at Universal, it was only a matter of time before a studio decided to take on the grandfather of all video games, Space Invaders. And now it looks like one could. Warner Bros. is negotiating to acquire feature rights to the landmark shooter from Taito, the Japanese company that originally manufactured the game.

From The LA Times

A copy of Detective Comics issue 27, the 1939 first published appearance of Batman, sold Wednesday at auction in Dallas, Texas for a record setting $1,075,500 (including buyer’s fees). The sale narrowly surpasses the record for most paid for a single comic set last week when a copy of Action Comics issue 1, the first appearance of Superman, sold for one million dollars. The Detective Comics issue is one of only two known copies graded in 8.0 CGC condition. No copies in better condition are known to exist.

Some folks have clearly got more money to spend on their hobbies than me.

Source: ICv2

A copy of Action Comics issue 1 in CGC 8.0 condition sold at auction yesterday for a record setting one million dollars. The 1938 comic features the first published appearance of Superman. Only 100 copies of the comic are known to still exist, and only two known copies are in 8.0 condition or better. A copy of the comic in CGC 6.0 condition sold for a, at the time, record setting $317,200 last year.

Wow.

Source: ICv2