According to ICV2, Marvel has struck a deal where co-financers give them money to make movies. Then if any of those movies make less than $100 million, those financers own 100% the movie rights to the characters in those films. This is a crazy gamble and Marvel is insane.

If just ONE of their films bomb then they lose rights to all the characters involved. The characters that are part of the deal include Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Ant Man, Nick Fury, Captain America and the Avengers.

The two things Marvel gains from this is that they don’t take any finical risk and they get creative control over the films.

Bob Barker announced that he will end his 50 year television career next June. Zap2it has a decent article on it here.

I started Halloween by watching “Army of Darkness” so its fitting that later today I learned there will be an “Army of Darkness” crossover with Marvel Zombies. This is the greatest crossover I’ve ever heard of in my life! Come on, who doesn’t want to see Ash in all his chainsaw glory taking on a Marvel Zombie?

“It is absolutely a Marvel Zombies story, and it is absolutely an Army of Darkness story,” writer Robert Kirkman told Newsarama. “Fortunately, I think there is a lot of overlap, because they both contain a generous (even excessive) heaping of humor with horror, comedy with the grotesque. This is a story of a guy who is used to fighting the undead, who is used to being a hero, flung into a strange universe full of heroes …heroes who are not only all crazed flesh-eating zombies, but ones with hundreds of different crazy super-powers. ”

The series will debut in March and be five issues. It also takes place in continuity and runs at the same time as another “Marvel Zombie” prequel.

Went and picked up my copy of Final Fantasy XXII! The last true FF game came out FIVE years ago! These are my all time favorite games and I’m going to be playing nonstop for 100+ hours!

A brief message from Th3rdworld & Eskimo Dave (man I wonder who helps out with their marketing and comes up with this stuff):

With the nationwide pumpkin shortage, finding the Great Pumpkin is nearly impossible, which is why you should decide to spend Halloween with Eskimo Dave in an exciting two part webcomic! (www.th3rdworld.com)

In honor of ghoulish things and sweet savory candy, Dave is publishing a day early this week, but you can catch him and his traveling companion, Steve the polar bear, every Wednesday for FREE, as they travel to save their village from the destructive forces of evil.

Also, don’t forget to friend Dave on MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/eskimodaveandsteve)

Happy Halloween from Eskimo Dave and Th3rd World Studios.

Sometimes I like holidays just so I can see Google decorated. I wonder if there is an achieve of all the old designs?

I hate when I’m watching TV and I reach over to fast forward through commercials and then when it doesn’t fast forward I remember I’m watching TV live. It also happens a lot when I’m watching live-tv and there is a music montage or a slow scene with no dialgoue. I’ll reach over to fast forward, but nothing will happen. LOL

It’s all because I have 5 VCRs and watch more shows taped than I do when they are actually on (Yes. It is necessary to have that many VCRs. It’s so that when shows are on at the same time I don’t miss them). Even so, I’m watching less TV this year than I have in about eight years. It’s becuase there are less scripted dramas on TV and more reality/game shows. Last year I was watching 44 regular shows (by “regular” I mean I’m not counting cable or seasonal shows like “24.”). This year I’m down to like 26 show!

Brian Bendis interviews Ed Brubaker over at Wizard. Like all of Bendis’ interviews its long, but there are a few interesting parts, like the pullquote below:

BENDIS: It’s always fun to beat up a virtual hooker.

BRUBAKER: Actually, I’ve been trying to treat my girls right. At Jason Lutes’ I watched him play Grand Theft Auto once and he didn’t hit a single pedestrian and I was like, “What are you doing?” He said, “Those are innocent bystanders.” I was like, “Yeah, right! There’s no one innocent in this game. The only reason that they’re there is for you to hit them.”

Check in after the break if you want to know…

(Read on …)

And so we click in for another addition of Brevoort’s Brilliant Blog…

“The one I remember the best was a story in which it would be revealed that Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben was actually moonlighting as an underworld fence–that the burglar who shot him had actually come to the house looking to unload some hot merchandise, he and ben got into an argument about the price, and a gun was fired.” 2006-10-25 10:18:04

Hahahaha an MP3 player for Jesus Freaks! It’s called the “Saint B” digital player.

Dirty-old-man Bob Saget announced last November he was making a spoof of Oscar Nominated “March of the Penguins” called “Farce of the Penguins” that would be raunchy and “R” rated. The film was due to hit theaters next spring but it was just announced today that it will now be seeing DVD release on Jan. 30.

Saget wrote, directed and produced the project. He also did voices as did a billion other stars including, Christina Applegate, Lewis Black, Mo’Nique, Tracy Morgan, Jason Alexander, Jason Biggs, Dane Cook, Gilbert Gottfried, Damon Wayans, Norm MacDonald, Jamie Kennedy, Jon Lovitz, Dave Coulier, John Stamos and Abe Vigoda.

To further mock “March,” which was narrated by Morgan Freeman, “Farce” is being narrated by Samuel Jackson.

Some rumors as to why the film is going straight to DVD say that it is unfinished and having production problems while others blame “Happy Feet” and Saget desire to not go against it.

According to Variety, Bryan Signer, has signed on to direct the “Superman Returns” sequel. The film has yet to receive a script or budget and this does not signify an official greenlight. However, studio exects were sayings all summer that should the first film break $200 million in the domestic market then they would follow up with a sequel. Well wouldn’t you know? This past weekend “Superman Returns” broke $200 mil. World wide it’s total pull is just shy of $400 million.

It’s assumed the sequel will have a lower budget than the first film which cost an estimated $250 million. Singer has also said in previous interviews that the first films structure was required to be what it was and that a sequel could jump right into action and the heart of the story.

Expect to hear an officially greenlight sometime in the near future.

I registered for classes last night at midnight. It was a pain and took until after 2am because so many people were registering, but in the end I got the classes I wanted so it’s all good!

I’m signed up for masters screenwriting, advance TV writing, introduction into game design, and history of radical image. Two classes are on Monday and two are on Friday. I’m also trying to do an independent study and if I do I’ll use it to finish “DAD!” I already got approval by the department for the independent-study I just need to find a teacher to work with me. The two professors I have in mind are also ones I registered for classes with.

THEN another option is that one of the professors in the department is filming an independent movie. You can apply to be in his class and if you are selected you end up working on the film instead of doing a “classroom” type class. The cool thing about it is that the film is filming during winter-break so if you take the class then it’s one less class you have to take during the spring semester.

Since we only take 3 classes a semester this gives me a lot of leeway. If I end up doing an independent study with the teacher who I have on Fridays then I’ll drop my Friday classes and do Monday classes. If I do an independent study with my teacher on Mondays I’ll drop my Monday classes and then just do Friday classes. So no matter what, I should be good and have classes on both days that I need and want. Then if I do an independent study and work on the film, I just pick my favorite out of the 4 classes I’m signed up for.

The whole point is to have an easy schedule that allows me to work while also allowing me time to work on writing or whatever other projects I have going on. But I’m really excited!

Cheap gore ruled the box office this weekend as the “Saw” franchise claimed number one for the third year in a row. For such low budget films, Lions Gate really does well off them. The second movie, which cost $4, opened at $31 million and claimed $87 million. So its safe to say LG has another money maker on their hands

In other news the 3D version of “Nightmare Before Christmas” pulled in $1.8 million. That’s good considering it’s only playing at 168 theaters. I know here in DC there are only two theaters that can play it and only one in Baltimore. I’m actually excited to see this so Sarah and I are going tomorrow. We figure its a good way to spend Halloween

Continue after the break to see the box office chart.

(Read on …)

NBC sent out a press release that they are going to save $750 million in two years by runaway from primetime. Instead of sitcoms or dramas filling the 8p.m. to 10p.m. time slot, there will be a slew of game shows and cheap reality TV shows.

To the right is the main responsible for it all: Jeff Zucker, chief executive of NBC Universal Television Group.

Years ago, before Zucker had power, NBC was a primetime player, but since “Seinfeld’ and “Friends” left ‘must watch tv’ has been non-existent. Lately the network’s ratings have been horrible and the majority of their shows this fall have been tanking.

“The audience just isn’t there,” Chairman of NBC Universal Bob Wright said in the press release. “We have some of our best stuff at 8 o’clock, and it’s struggling.”

Wright said NBC’s game show “Deal or No Deal,” CBS’ durable “Survivor” and ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” have built solid followings at 8 p.m. FOX also airs its “American Idol” performance shows at 8 p.m. And most reality or game shows like those are a fraction of the cost of scripted programs.

It’s a sad time when a former rating giant and home of many classic TV shows decides they are going ghetto and cheap with reality TV. Whispers and rumors speculate that the change is being headed by Zucker in a way to impress his bosses at General Electric. You see Wright, who is pushing mid-60’s, is going to be stepping down soon and it will be up to GE to pick who will take his place. To the right you can see a photo of Zucker that was taken AFTER end of primetime was announced.

I guess one thing is clear out of this, I soon won’t have to watch NBC anymore.

I read “Batman: a Death in the Family” for the first time. That’s the comic book story from 1988 where the second Robin is killed. Oddly enough, what I didn’t find disturbing was Robin’s death or the two panels that made me think Joker was going to rape him.

What did catch me off guard was how important terrorist are in the story. The main plot is about Joker selling a cruise missile to terrorist in the Mid East. This causes Batman to head over there kick some terrorist butt.

After the Joker kills Robin, he somehow becomes Iran’s ambassador to the UN and thus receives diplomatic immunity. Then, while at a meeting in the UN he tries to kill everyone there.

In this post-9/11 world, it was really strange to read this story because the terrorist were handled in such a corny nonchalant way. It also stuck out because it’s pretty well known that famous writer/artist Frank Miller is working on a book where Batman goes to the Mid East to find Osama Bin Laden, but I’m sure its going to dark and paced more like something like “24” or “Sleeper Cell” as opposed to this story which felt like a bad “G.I. Joe” cartoon.

It seems I’ll never escape the “Scott King Show” (above: photo taken during the filming of the classic “Jolly Rogers” episode). For those of you who haven’t known me for years, back in highschool I did three seasons of “The Scott King Show.” The first year started as improv/random things, like having a dead fish on the boardwalk. The following winter, Tom Green came out on MTV and since I didn’t want to be known as a “Tom Green wannabe” we switched the show to be more scripted.

In college, I got recognized all time. That sounds odd since my show was just a standard cable acess show, but you need to keep in mind that it aired in the summers in Ocean City, so any tourist with a tv in a hotel could watch it. I was a huge hit with families that had young kids and then the drunks that needed something to watch at random hours of the night (the show aired on a loop so it ran about 12 times a day).

Well a few days ago I got this crazy email and I’m just going to cut and past it:

Hello Scott King-

My wife and I discovered your Web page ( http://www.scottking.info ) after doing a Google search for you. The reason we searched? We recently transferred and watched our home videos from VHS to Windows Media format. We filmed these videos while on vacation with our kids in Ocean City in 1999. At that time, we discovered your hilarious “Scott King Show” shows on some kind of public acces cable TV channel that Ocean City had. I pointed the video camera at the TV and filmed you and your little cousin making French toast, with you sabotaging her French toast, and doing other goofy things. We watched several of your shows and got a big kick out of them. I distinctly remember predicting that you would someday go into television as an adult.

Do you have complete copies of those shows form 1999?

Anyway, best regards from Greensburg, PA!
—————————————————-
Stan Mohler, Jr.

Isn’t that crazy?

Then for the record I have almost all of my shows but they are all on VHS. As part of the re-design of the website I will be digitizing the episodes and posting them under the “films” section but it will probably be a month or so before I get it all finished.

Ever wanted to give someone a message written on a plant? Now you can! The “Message Bean” is a great way to tell someone “thank you” “good luck” “happy birthday” or “love” if you want them to get the message days after you give them a pot of dirt.

The beans work by having a message burned onto to them, so that when they grow the message appears. The plants can later be re-potted or planed outside. The cost is $12 and you can get one from here.

The season premiere of The OC is up on MySpace . The second episode will show up next Thursday when the premier airs (on tv) at 9p.m. Though, even with trendy MySpace marketing, the show is going to bomb against “Grey’s” and “CSI.”

“Hellboy: Sword of Storms” airs tonight at 8:30 p.m. on Cartoon Network. The animated special features the voices of Ron Perlman and Selma Blair. Rumor has it that it’s more like the comic book than the movie, which is a good thing.

Meanwhile, MTV aired an interview with “Helboy 2” director Guillermo del Toro where he said, “We are literally in the early stages of preproduction. We’ve been designing the thing, and we are going to be shooting in April or May of next year. It’s a bigger story than the first one, and it is actually a larger scope. It’s similar to [del Toro’s upcoming flick] ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ in the fact that the everyday world is grinding fantasy into the ground. Everyday life is creating a mundane reality and destroying fantasy. All of the main characters are coming back.”

The sequel is slated for a 2008 release.

Major Major “Gilmore Girls” spoiler. Don’t read if you don’t want to know.
(Read on …)

“Scrubs” will return on Nov. 30! This is due to NBC shuffling around their schedule and making Thursdays a two hour “comedy block.” The bad news of “Scrubs” returning is that the Peacock is putting it up against “Grey’s Anatomy” and “C.S.I.” If their “Deal or No Deal” can’t stand up against the highest rated shows on TV, I don’t see how they expect “Scrubs” to manage.

“We are excited about the prospect of two-hours of top-notch comedy on Thursday nights, which includes the return of ‘Scrubs,’” NBC President Kevin Reilly said in a press release. “We will stay on-brand with the best comedy block on television, which will position us for the future on the night.”

The full NBC lineup for Thursdays will be “My Name is Earl,” “The Office,” “Scrubs,” and then “30 Rock.”

This pic is for my photography class. It’s for our second assignment, which is due in two weeks. I’m either going to use this as a “portrait” or “composition shot,” but I really love it!

Last Saturday, Sarah and I went canoeing. She made reservations and we were really excited about it. The two of us have been trying to go canoeing for three years and five months, but literally every time we tried it rained.
(Read on …)

In my photography class we just learned about lighting and basic lighting setups. Since I’ve done all of that in my film classes I volunteered to modeled while the rest of the class played with backlighting/keylights/fill lights. I mean come on… being the center of attention like that while being able to act goofy, how could I not pass it up?

This photo (click it to enlarge) was taken by Brandon, who is an amazing photographer. I hoping he focuses on cinematography so then I can have him shoot my projects for me. I’m also excited to see what photos everyone else took of me. Since there were so many people I’m sure there were at least two or three funny/good ones.

Well I seem to have worked out the major kinks in the new blog coding. I was also able to import all of my old post with only a few format problems. So all in all things should be up and running now. It will still be some time before the inside pages are “done.” I feel like I have a hundred billion things to post about, but I’ll spread them out over the weekend so I still have time to continue working on the site.

I’m busy coding and re-desiging the site. So its going to continue to be quiet for the next few days. I’m thinking I’ll re-launch with the new design next thursday or friday.

On campus today and tomorrow for my ‘long days’ so the blog will be quiet. To hold you over until then here’s a riddle for you:  Why are boys smarter than girls, but not?

Continue after the break to see the answer.

(Read on …)

   Why aren’t you watching “Venture Bros?” If you were watching it, you would have seen David Bowie & Iggy Pop in a special two part episode. One of the best lines was “Holy Crap! That guy from the labyrinth turned into a giant bald eagle!”

The first few minutes of “The O.C.” season premier is up on Your Tube. The show in full can be seen on Thursday Nov. 2. The screenshot to the side is Ryan all torn up from cage fighting. I kid you not. It seems he cannot deal with his emotional pain from Marisa’s death so he converts it into physical pain that he can deal with.

Apple shipped video iPods last month infected with a virus. In a press release, Apple said only 1 percent of all Video iPods shipped since Sept. 12 were infected. The virus named “RavMonE.exe” only affects PCs and so far only 25 reports have been confirmed.

“Tales From Earthsea,” the first film directed by Hayao Miyazaki’s son, may not get U.S. distribution until 2009. The reason for this is that animated film is based off the Earthsea novels and Sci-Fi channel owns the rights to those books in the U.S. There’s more here.

Woah. According to here there may be a Rosie O’Donnell spin-off to the character she has been playing on "Nip/Tuck." On the show her character won a 300 million plus lottery and then used the money to get some plastic surgery done as well as pay to have nasty sex with Dr. Christian Troy. In all fairness though, it was one of the better episodes of the new season.

Marvel just let out the solicitations for January and I was a tad suprised when I saw this:

"To all those who HAVEN’T been buying NEXTWAVE– Thanks a lot, jerks! This is the last issue! To all those who HAVE been buying NEXTWAVE– YOU RULE!! Do not miss this pulse-pounding conclusion to the greatest work of western literature EVER! Hamlet? Horrible. War and Peace? What-a-joke! The Great Gatsby? The Great Lame-by, maybe. Those works are going to be moved to the Bad Section of your local bookstores after this issue comes out. Don’t miss this or you won’t know what your children’s children are reading in school."

I was surprised because I thought the numbers for the title were good. Thats when I learned Warren Ellis sent out a press release via email:

"Sales on the singles are okay, if not great. Sales on the first collection have apparently been terrific.

We were on such a roll with NEXTWAVE that I was actually into the idea of doing a second year, which is highly unusual for me and work-for-hire properties. So Marvel sat down and looked at the numbers, as they wanted to do a second year too.

What they found was that, at our current sales levels, they could afford for me to write it, but not for Stuart to draw it. Stuart, as a Marvel-exclusive artist, commands a fee commensurate with his astonishing talent. I’m WFH-exclusive too, but they just send me whisky and loose women and I’m fine. So, basically, I could continue to write NEXTWAVE, but we’d need to find another artist. This, to me, was just wrong. I mean, Stuart would obviously be given a far better job that had actual readers attached to it, but it still seemed a bit like the numbers were conspiring to fire him for doing his job too well. Everyone at Marvel pitched in to try and make it work, but the numbers were just against us.

So NEXTWAVE #12 will be the final issue of the ongoing series.

(To clear up a common misconception: NEXTWAVE was always pitched as an ongoing series. However, my original intent was to do 12 and then pass it on to someone else. This got garbled, somewhere down the chain of communication, and so the first issue or two got solicited as “part xxx of 12″.)

However. The numbers game changes when you posit things in terms of limited series.

NEXTWAVE #12 will be the last issue of the ongoing series: but there will be more NEXTWAVE to come, presented as a sequence of limited series.

This was all worked out some months ago, so I had plenty of time to work the final NEXTWAVE sequence into a conclusion of sorts. #11 even features a twelve-page spread that you’ll have to buy six copies of the comic to assemble into its full splendour. Everyone wishes I’d thought of that eight or nine months ago.

That was the news. Return to your duties."

Don’t want to wait to find out how the car-crash cliff hanger on last night’s “Heroes” resolves itself? Then check out NBC’s weekly online-comic that gives a peak at what happens.

Allan Heinberg (most of you comic book readers know him from “Young Avengers”) made his first post on the “Grey’s Anatomy” blog. His new job (being part of “Grey’s” writing staff) is what has been keeping him from comics. Although there is nothing juicy in his post, writers or fans of Heinberg may find it interesting how he relates the themes of last week’s episode to real life.

    Wizard sucks because the magazine/website is more about marketing and publicity than news or in-depth coverage. If you want proof of this, then read this headline: “TURNER VARIANT REVEALED FOR ‘ONSLAUGHT REBORN’ #1! Variant cover for hotly anticipated Marvel series makes its debut!”
    Onslaught was partially responsible for driving away tons and tons of readers in the 90’s, yet Wizard claims it’s come-back is “hotly anticipated.”  I’m sorry but that’s a straight up marketing spin, not a news headline.
    And for you OCD fanboys that care about variants, here is the cover:

“7^th Heaven” aired for the first time on a Sunday night. The CW moved it from it’s Monday time slot, which it held for 10 years, in hopes of boosting ratings. Instead, it lost roughly a million viewers, only pulling in 3.1 million. I bet CW president Dawn Ostroff is kicking herself for killing “Everwood” and resurrecting “7^th Heaven.”

Speaking of “Everwood,” the show’s creator is now running ABC’s “Brothers & Sisters and I’m sure most of us are happy that it was just picked up for a full 22 episodes. Take that Ostroff!

Salma Hayek’s, executive producer of “Ugly Betty,” will be getting some screen time during November sweeps. According to ABC’s press release, she will be playing, "a newcomer to the Mode scene who will leave a lasting impression on Daniel Meade (Eric Mabius) and Betty Suarez (America Ferrera)."