It's a bird, it's a plane, it's ... a sneaker?

Chris Lee writes about Hollywood and pop culture for the Los Angeles Times and, through the years, he has spent a ludicrous amount of money on sneakers. He just sent over this post on some heroic new shoes.

It was as inevitable as the Hulk and Iron Man winding up in a Marvel Studios-produced movie together: that comic book geeks and athletic footwear fetishists known as “sneakerheads” would one day bond over shared cultural arcana.

This week marks the release of a trio of limited edition DC Super Hero Shoes, available at Limited Soles courtesy of sneaker purveyor ACI International. The cost: $110 a pop, each shoe’s look copped from the chunky-soled styling of Nike’s iconic Air Force 1 basketball shoe.

Respectively commemorating Batman, the Joker and Superman, the collectors’ edition kicks are a vibrantly-hued, small batch affair you’re not going to find at your local Foot Locker.

ACI International produced only 1,938 pairs of the Superman shoe (in homage to the year the Man of Steel’s debut issue was released), 1,939 of the Batman and 1,940 of the Joker’s model –- each individually numbered and encased in the kind of custom packaging that sneaker snobs make a primary talking point.

As well, each pair comes kitted-out with enough comic-specific details to make fanboys swoon: the words “BRUCE” and “WAYNE” on the heels of the Batman shoe, an embossed silhouette of Metropolis (with the obligatory Daily Planet logo) on the heel basket of the Kryptonian model and a purple caricature of the Joker on the tongue of the criminal clown’s shoe.

Of course Adidas beat ACI International to the fanboy punch earlier this year, releasing Hellboy-themed limited edition sneakers tied to the release of director Guillermo del Toro’s “Hellboy: The Golden Army” in June. Working in conjunction with the movie distributor Universal, Dark Horse Comics and original Hellboy comic book artist Mike Mignola, Adidas Originals produced two comic-inspired sneakers: the Forum Mid-Golden Army (which boasted an image of actor Ron Perlman as the demonic anti-hero on its outsole) and the Stan Mid-Hellboy (which came with a mini-comic, three extra footbeds and something called “lace jewels”).

And back in April, the custom designer Flawless Victory reworked a pair of Nike Vandals with images of Spider-Man’s nemesis Venom. “The disgusting details of Venom including his sharp teeth and overabundance of saliva show the designer’s skill with small touches,” noted the blog myairshoes.com.

Truer geek-speak was never spoken.

-- Chris Lee

Images courtesy of ACI International

'Dexter' and 'Sarah Connor,' up close

David Strick's Hollywood Backlot has some great new galleries featuring shots from the set of "Dexter" and "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles." If you haven't checked out Strick's impressive archive of stars and filmmakers photographed as they work, it's well worth a visit.

-- Geoff Boucher

Can Kenneth Branagh pick up Thor's hammer?

Thor is a Norse god, so I always liked to imagine that he talked like a big, bellowing version of the Swedish Chef, but in Marvel Comics, of course, the God of Thunder has always sounded more like a Shakespearean actor portraying one of the brawnier members of the Danish court from "Hamlet."

Maybe that turned out to be a selling point; Marvel Studios is now trying to lock in (or, according to some sources, already has locked in) Kenneth Branagh to direct a film adaptation of Thor's comics tale. Variety has a story about "negoitations" being underway but I doubt that Marvel Studios, still a very young and reputation-sensitive enterprise, would let this news out to circulate unless it was close to inking the deal.

I think it's a great choice if does happen. I think "Dead Again," "Hamlet" and "Frankenstein" proved the Shakespearean veteran to be a natural storyteller and one with a flair for keeping characters vivid and believable in the midst of sweeping tales.

-- Geoff Boucher

Image of Thor courtesy of Marvel Comics

Stephen Colbert is a swinger for Marvel

Plenty of television comedy stars have hung with Spider-Man, but Stephen Colbert may be the first to swing with him.

Colbert, the master parodist of Comedy Central, shares an eight-page adventure with the world-famous web-slinger in issue No. 573 of "The Amazing Spider-Man," on sale Oct. 15. The folks at Marvel sent over a page from the story and while I can't quite tell what's going on, it's pretty clear that Colbert actually takes to the rooftops of Manhattan with the arachnid hero.

Colbert and his name have been popping up a lot in Marvel pages lately (perhaps too much, actually), following the January announcement by the company's editor-in-chief Joe Quesada that Colbert's faux campaign for president in our world would be mirrored by a genuine bid for the White House within the Marvel universe. The references have been scattered in different issues (a cameo here, a campaign poster there, some T-shirts, etc.) but nothing quite as dramatic as this.

Marvel has always been open to daffy gimmicks like this -- hey this is the company built by Stan Lee, after all.

For instance, 30 years ago, "Saturday Night Live" was all the rage so, in the October 1978 issue of "Marvel Team-Up," Spider-Man met up with John Belushi and six other Not Ready for Prime-Time Players (Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Bill Murray, Laraine Newman and Gilda Radner) for a deliriously cheesy adventure. On the cover, Belushi is in samurai mode, but he looks vaguely like Anne Ramsey from "Throw Momma from the Train."

The "plot" has Peter Parker attending an "SNL" broadcast on the same night the evil Silver Samurai comes looking for a ring of great value that has accidentally ended up in the possession of Belushi (yes, that's right, he's basically Ringo Starr in "Help!").

The best moments in the story: Morris dressed up as Thor and the late Radner wondering to herself at one point, "Hm, what's that noise from Belushi's dressing room?" And I'm guessing that on most Saturday nights on the real set, that was a loaded question...

Hero Complex live chat: Jon Favreau will take your questions here next Wednesday

Here's your chance to get the latest scoop on the "Iron Man" sequel straight from director Jon Favreau or, if you prefer, this is a golden opportunity to spook him with your encyclopedic knowledge of his screen work in "Swingers" and "Rudy."

Either way, the filmmaker who brought you the summer's most fun super-hero movie (as well as the sublime "Elf" and the grieviously underrated "Zathura") will join us here for a live chat on Wednesday (Oct. 1), the day after the release of "Iron Man" on DVD from Paramount Home Entertainment. The chat will start at 11 a.m. local time here in Los Angeles.

If you can't join us Tuesday, feel free to post a question here in the comments section and we'll try to ask some from there as well.

-- Geoff Boucher

April 2008 photo of Jon Favreau by Ringo H. W. Chu\Los Angeles Times

Vote for Bill Murray as Mayor of "Ember"

Bill Murray has been a groundskeeper, a businessman in Tokyo, and a ghostbuster (and will be one again), but now he's campaigning for a new role: mayor. In "City of Ember," Bill plays the mayor of an underground city, a character who's funny and out for himself. The Oscar nominee has been out promoting the film and recently made a surprise visit to the the Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, to the delight of fans.

The marketing folks behind "City of Ember" earlier transported some of the press to Comic-Con on a train, actually the Tioga Pass, a 1950s former Canadian National "presidents car" and the Overland Trail, a 1940s former Southern Pacific club lounge car (with barbershop -- thanks Conductor Bill).  It was very cool.  This time, they've hatched a site and video touting the ex-'SNL'er as the right candidate to lead the city against the darkness.  It seems to fit in with this politically-charged environment.

-- Jevon Phillips

Photo: Jack Plunkett / AP

Who will Johnny Depp call Kemo Sabe?

Johnny Depp will play Tonto in a Disney revisitation of the Lone Ranger, but who will be the masked man?

The Hero Complex is officially supporting Viggo Mortensen for the role of mystery man of the Old West because, after seeing "Hidalgo" and the trailer for "Appaloosa," we just think he does the dusty-trail adventure thing with a nice flair.

George Clooney would also give Disney a powerhouse tandem at the top of this hoped-for franchise, as well as some major opportunity for the type of winking humor that gave "Pirates of the Caribbean" its box-office flair. Clooney may be too old, but we still think he has enough silver bullets in his ammo belt. Depp, meanwhile, may be just five years shy of 50 but still approaches his acting career like a kid rummaging through a trunk of dress-up costumes. Not only will the part-Cherokee Depp be wearing the fringed buckskin, he will also be donning the garb of a pirate, a vampire, a gangster and, um, a guy with a funny hat.

The Oscar nominee has a busy schedule, to say the least. On Wednesday at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Disney gathered the press for a preview of its upcoming major releases and announced that Depp will be back in eyeliner as Jack Sparrow, the rummy scoundrel of "Pirates of the Caribbean," which will have a fourth installment with Jerry Bruckheimer back as producer. The franchise has already pulled in $2.6 billion at the box office. (Bruckheimer will also produce the Lone Ranger movie.)

Other Depp projects coming include a turn as the Mad Hatter in a Tim Burton adaptation of "Alice in Wonderland," which will be a 2010 animated release with a motion-capture approach in the same vein as "Beowulf." It will be Depp's seventh major project with Burton -- and No. 8 will be "Dark Shadows," yet another black-cape affair for the movie-making partnership, this one a remake of the baroque soap opera from the late 1960s and early 1970s about an accursed family in Maine that, we suspect, had a lasting effect on a local youngster named Stephen King.

Depp will also be robbing banks as the gentlemen bandit John Dillinger in Michael Mann's period gangster flick "Public Enemies," due in theaters next year. That film also stars Christian Bale.

-- Geoff Boucher

Johnny Depp photo from December 2007 by Liz O. Baylen/Los Angeles Times

Clayton Moore as the Lone Ranger and Jay Silverheels as Tonto, from the Los Angeles Times archives.

Virgin Comics gives it up, Liquid Comics hopes for a splash

Virgin Comics is dead and gone, and a new venture called Liquid Comics is picking up the pieces.

If you go to the Virgin Comics website, you will see that the new name is already up and running. This is the news that Virgin editor-in-chief Gotham Chopra was hinting at when I spoke to him a few weeks ago.

Virgin arrived on the scene in 2006 and stirred things up with some big ideas (looking to Asia and India specifically for concepts and audience and also tapping Hollywood talent to create comics that could be used as instant templates for film projects) and big names (Sir Richard Branson and Deepak Chopra on the corporate masthead, and Guy Ritchie, John Woo, Ed Burns and Nicolas Cage among its film-world creators, along with comics-industry notables such as Garth Ennis, Alex Ross and Mike Carey).

The venture was met with considerable interest and some cynicism (Alan Moore, for instance, took a thinly disguised swipe at Virgin here not long ago and essentially called it everything that was wrong with a Hollywood-obsessed comics industry). The formula certainly grabbed the attention of some Hollywood folks, who had watched the Dark Horse success story and believed that a small but nimble comic-book company could not only be a dynamic Hollywood player, it could in essence publish movie storyboards.

I talked to filmmaker Ritchie about this a year ago and he was intensely interested in the notion of writing a story, realizing it visually on a comic book page and then using that as project pitch and visual guide to a movie. The "Snatch" director told me that "Gamekeeper," his series for Virgin, became a hot commodity before it was even printed. "The irony," he said, "is there has been more interest in this from movie studios than anything I ever did before." But, in the end, it was money matters in the greater Virgin empire that forced the closure of the comic-book company's New York offices early this month.

I exchanged e-mails this morning with Gotham Chopra (who is the son of author Deepak) and he told me about some other things coming up that I will be able to share with you soon. Essentially, though, my sense is that he, publisher Sharad Devarajan and their team have lost the corporate backing of Branson's sprawling Virgin empire (which is grappling with the grim financial realities of the day) but that they were in comic-book  business before they had Branson as a partner and they will solider now without the British conglomerate.

The question now is how all this will directly or indirectly affect a number of projects underway (such as the "Ramayan 3392" video game with Sony, the partnership with the Sci Fi Channel and "Virulents," the movie property that director John Moore wants to make as his follow-up to "Max Payne").

Stay tuned ...

-- Geoff Boucher

Images from issues of Virgin's "Ramayan 3392 A.D" and "Ed Burns' The Dock Walloper," both courtesy of Liquid Comics.

Will 'Force Unleashed' be the next 'Star Wars' film?

Haden Blackman, the project leader on "The Force Unleashed" video game, has a daydream: He strolls into the movie theater, buys some popcorn and then sits down and watches his game's tale of Darth Vader and his secret apprentice flicker to life as cinema.

"Oh, that would be incredible," said Blackman. "And it's not impossible. Never say never. George [Lucas] has looked to tell new 'Star Wars' stories through the games and with the entire Star Wars Expanded Universe, and then he has also shown a willingness to let the characters come into the films. Look at Aayla Secura, a creation in the [Dark Horse] comic books who became part of the theatrical films."

More than that, "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," released in August, began as a television animated series (and still will be, with tie-in episodes premiering Oct. 3 on Cartoon Network), but when Lucas saw the work in progress he decided to take the tale to the cineplex. That film has gotten mixed reviews, to say the least, but Lucas doesn't seem to care a bit about the opinion of any detractors when it comes to his historic entertainment enterprise and its directions.

Dark Horse has also released a graphic novel version of "The Force Unleashed" and, to my mind, it's more satisfying than the game -- although in full disclosure, that's not saying much, because I am far more of a reader than a gamer. Blackman not only penned the story for the graphic novel, he also has a lavish 224-page book titled "The Art and Making of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" that celebrates the images and behind-the-scenes labor on the game as if it already were a major motion picture. An adapatation of the film in a traditional prose novel written by Australian sci-fi author Sean Williams also hit No. 1 on the New York Times list of hardcover fiction bestsellers and now, after four weeks, is at No. 14 on that tally.

Lucas is clearly pleased with this new entry to the broader "Star Wars" story and I would not be surprised for a moment to see it on a theater marquee at a CG-animated project in the next few years, especially with the intensifying Hollywood interest in video games and toys as film properties. There's also the very real power of putting Darth Vader on a movie poster in the theater lobbies of America.

If the "The Force Unleashed" does become a movie, Blackman said it would be a testament to the priorities and sophisticated ideas of his team, who he says puts storytelling and game-play on equal footing and emphasized "the artistic nature" of the quickly changing video-game medium. "It's an incredible time," he said, "to be telling powerful stories in this fairly young medium."

Perhaps, but like the most recent film addition to the Lucas universe, there was huge pre-release anticipation for "The Force Unleashed," followed by widespread grumbling. It hit stores Sept. 16 and topped the 1-million units sales mark in its first five days, according to industry retail reports, but the reviews have been decidedly mixed.

Here's the take, for instance, by Hero Complex contributor Pete Metzger, who reviewed the game for the Los Angeles Times and echoed many other underwhelmed gamers:

Most of the things that make up the "Star Wars" universe these days -- movies, TV shows, toys and video games -- are lacking the magic that made the original trilogy of films so incredible. Gone are the spectacle and awe. Instead, we get halfhearted disappointments (such as the current "Clone Wars" animated movie).

Sadly, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is no exception. It should be an amazing story bridge between Episodes 3 and 4 and one that boasts groundbreaking new artificial intelligence and gaming technology. But Unleashed fails to register the tremor in the Force we were hoping for.

Hari Puttar outduels Harry Potter

In a serious David vs. Goliath win for the little guy, Mirchi Movies, the makers of the Bollywood film "Hari Puttar," stood up to Warner Bros. and, in what turns out to be a last-second ruling, will be allowed to release the film this Friday (Sept. 26) in India.

The studio had claimed that the title sounded too similar to the boy wizard and J.K. Rowling money tree that is "Harry Potter," but the Delhi High Court threw out the case, basically saying that anyone who'd read Harry Potter would be able to distinguish the two films/titles.  Wand, meet gavel.

Attorney Pratibha Singh told the AFP: "The case has been dismissed. The court said that Warner Bros had known the title of the film since 2005 and had delayed bringing the case to court until the last moment."

The case also seemed to hinge on the fact that Warner Bros. knew about the title three years ago, and waited until the film was about to be released to bring up this suit.

Good for the film, the filmmakers and the legal system for giving a common-sense ruling.  If anyone should be mad, it's the "Home Alone" people!  Here's a look:

-- Jevon Phillips

D.J. Caruso says Shia LaBeouf is 'perfect' for a 'Y: The Last Man' film trilogy

Director D.J. Caruso now says he hopes to make a film trilogy based on the "Y: The Last Man" comic books that will star Shia LaBeouf and also tweak a basic element of the plot -- even though he knows any departure from the original risks the wrath of fanboy purists.

"It is tricky to suggest changing things. I'm sure the fanboys will stone me and my kids for daring to change a thing. But Brian K. Vaughan [the writer of the comics] loves the ideas we've come up with. He even said said, 'You have to think outside the box because the reason this story hasn't been made into a movie so far is that we haven't thought outside the box.'"

I sat down with Caruso the other day at one of his favorite spots in Los Angeles, the grand and venerable Union Station, a site used by Ridley Scott in his brilliant "Blade Runner," a film dearly loved by Caruso. "When I found that out, I started coming here and I just got taken by the place." We got together to talk about the tech-thriller "Eagle Eye," which stars LaBeouf and opens this Friday (that Calendar cover story ran Sunday in the Los Angeles Times) but eventually the conversation turned to Caruso's next project. There's been chatter for months about Caruso making a "Y" movie, and while he was careful to say it's not a done deal, he seemed very optimistic that "Y: The Last Man" would be at theaters in 2010.   

"It's at New Line and New Line is now under the umbrella at Warner Bros., and we're working it out. It's not a done deal, but I'm hoping that's my next movie. My favorite thing about the story is that it's about the last man on earth who is not a man yet, he's a boy. He's still a man-child. He has to become a man on this journey. I don't want to say it's a post-apocalyptic story, but it does have that feel. Every man, everything in their world that is male, in fact, dies. Everything with the Y chromosome dies, except for this one guy, Yorick, and his pet monkey, Ampersand. It's about them and this embattled world of women and the women who come after him."

Caruso made a big commercial breakthrough last year with "Disturbia,"a film that started LaBeouf's career-shaping run of big-time roles. He and the star clearly have built a rapport together. I got to watch them on the set in Los Angeles early this year and in talking to Caruso then it was very clear that the director has found his screen muse in LaBeouf. Caruso sounds absolutely locked in on the 22-year-old actor as his on-screen version of Yorick, the last man on Earth.

"Shia wants to be Yorick. So we're talking about reuniting again. I know he needs a little bit of a break but this looks like it will fit for him. He's perfect casting. Even if I did know him and hadn't worked with him, it's pretty clear that he's perfect. He is Yorick. Yorick has a sense of humor, he's self-deprecating, he has this wonderful relationship with 355, who is the female super agent. Ultimately I want that relationship to be very similar to Robert DeNiro and Charles Grodin in 'Midnight Run.'"

And what about that key plot change?

The architecture of Oz

The Venice Biennale, the preeminent international architectural exhibition that is now underway, isn't exactly familiar turf for the Hero Complex, but when we saw the design on display (at right) of a mobile city as envisioned by Chinese architects, our first thought was: "These guys obviously enjoyed Richard Donner's 'Superman.' " Then we heard that the entry pavilion incorporated images from the films "Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back," "Dr. Strangelove" and "The Wizard of Oz," and we decided that maybe there might actually be some unexpected fanboy enlightenment on display at the 11th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.

When visitors approach the entrance to the main hall (and 250,000 are expected to pass through that hall, the Corderie dell’Arsenale, before the close of the Biennale on Nov. 23), they are confronted with the 4,624-square-foot "Hall of Fragments." At the center of the exhibit is a glowing hourglass-shaped passage of moving images created by two giant convex screens, which flash geometric distortions of some classic Hollywood films. The vistors are watching the exhibit, but the exhibit is also watching them; the images change with the size, density and speed of the crowd passing through.

The "Hall of Fragments" was created by David Rockwell (the founder of the Rockwell Group in New York and the architect behind the Kodak Theatre, Nobu and the W Hotels) in collaboration with Reed Kroloff and Casey Jones. We invited Rockwell to write a bit about "Hall of Fragments" (which sounds vaguely Kryptonian to us), and he told us that, when it comes to inspiration, there's no place like home.

The first movie I ever saw was "The Wizard of Oz."

So imagine the excitement when asked by Aaron Betsky (director and curator of the 2008 Venice Biennale) to explore the relationship between architecture and film and create an entry pavilion to the exhibition. This gave us an opportunity to use Oz as the springboard to expand on the theme of “Out There: Architecture Beyond Building,” realizing the vivid crossroads of architecture and film and architecture in film.

Oz really makes me think of arrivals, even grand entrances, and how we arrive at a great city, building, exhibition or public space that just stops you in your tracks, in amazement, trying to absorb it. When it’s great, film has this same impact — it has the power to take you elsewhere. In fact, our design projects insist on keeping that goal in mind as well. This transition often occurs with architecture and public spaces, when you pass through a portal into a new reality, be it spatial or environmental.

There is the dramatic departure from the sepia-toned reality of Kansas into the dream with Dorothy (and Toto) then dropped into this wildly imaginative fantasy world and the hyper-saturated Technicolor of Oz -- a sensory-overload introduction to an outlandish place full of colorful characters.

Just as the journey to and through Oz is a magical dream world where the characters follow that iconic and unforgettable yellow brick road, the experience of architecture is also a journey, sometimes physical and layered and sometimes more experiential and fleeting.

M. Night Shyamalan might take another whack at 'Unbreakable'

Filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan, sounding a bit like a lost hiker with a balky compass, says that in hindsight he really should have taken a different career turn after "Unbreakable," his dour, underrated deconstruction of the superhero motif. Here's what he told MTV about a shoulda-been sequel to the 2000 film:

"I tell you I get asked about it all the time, so it’s not [an idea] I ever forget,” Shyamalan told MTV News. “I genuinely just asked this question the other day — should I make ‘Unbreakable 2’?

“I made the mistake of getting caught up in the hype of the immediate reaction of the movie, which, experience has shown me, is not accurate to any of my movies,” he explained. “And If I had been more confident and said ‘I believe in that movie, I love that movie, and I should just go start writing the second one,' that would’ve been the right move. I’ve still been thinking about it a lot and wonder if it’s too late.

“I do love the [comic book movie] genre, I just wanna make sure that I’m able to express who I am,” explained Shyamalan. “I don’t want to get so lost in the subject that I have to neuter everything that’s me in it, so maybe ‘Unbreakable’ is the comic book thing I should do — I keep coming back to that.”

The guy sounds conflicted, to say the least. I actually liked "Unbreakable," although I can understand why some people found it a bit smothering and plodding. I wish that Shyamalan had made a sequel to it, but I'm not sure that its a good idea to retrun to that story and those characters at this point, especially since there's a fair number of people in Hollywood ready to write him off.

Josh Neufeld reflects on 'A.D.'

Josh Neufeld is the writer and artist of  "A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge" at SMITH Magazine, a nonfiction work about Hurricane Katrina that now stands as one of the most compelling achievements in the still-nascent medium of Web comics. "A.D." was the brainchild of Neufeld and Larry Smith, the founder of SMITH, who accompanied the artist into the disaster zone. The Hero Complex invited Neufeld to reflect on the project, which will be published next year in a print edition.

I recently finished serializing a 15-part nonfiction graphic novel about Hurricane Katrina for SMITH Magazine. Titled "A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge," the comic follows the experiences of six New Orleanians before, during and after the Aug. 29, 2005, storm.

I volunteered with the Red Cross soon after Katrina (working in Biloxi, Miss., for three weeks in October 2005) and started the research on "A.D." in late 2006, and SMITH posted the first chapter — a prologue, actually — in January 2007. So "A.D." has been nearly three years in the making, and an intensely personal experience throughout.

Although we timed the ending of the online comic with the third anniversary of Katrina, it was pure chance that I was finishing the work just as another hurricane was building in the Caribbean. Attempting to focus on meeting my Aug. 28, 2008, deadline, I couldn’t help being horribly fascinated as Gustav inexorably mutated from tropical depression to tropical storm to hurricane, and then grew from a Category 3 to a Category 4 — all the while heading toward New Orleans. It was all so familiar, and I took time out from my deadline to check up on my subjects (most of whom still live in New Orleans) to make sure they had evacuation plans. (They all did, except for The Doctor, who has the good fortune to live on high ground, in the French Quarter — and is stubborn, to boot.)

A large part of my job as the writer/artist of "A.D." has been to act as a journalist, and SMITH editor Larry Smith and I have met with our subjects many times, including making a number of visits to New Orleans for face-to-face interviews and photo sessions. I’ve become quite close with "A.D.’s" subjects over the last two years, and by virtue of their involvement, a number of the characters have become closely attached to the project as well. As a result, I’ve come to more deeply understand my responsibility toward them personally and to the project as a whole.

Eoin Colfer will give 'Hitchhiker's Guide' a new ride

The late Douglas Adams created a brilliantly daft universe in “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” and now it looks as though his literary baton will be picked up by Irish writer Eoin Colfer, author of the “Artemis Fowl” series.

Adams used to say that he hatched the idea for “Hitchhiker’s Guide” while staring up at the stars as he lay drunk in a field in Austria after a day of wandering countryside and feeling like a clumsy alien for reasons of language and booze. There’s been debate whether that’s an authentic account, but, really, how much unvarnished reality should be expected from the man who cooked up the Vogons and Zaphod Beeblebrox? Adams died in beautiful Montecito in 2001, the victim of a fatal heart attack at age 49.

“Hitchhiker’s Guide” began as a radio series, became a massively successful run of novels and has also been adapted (with mixed results) for television, film and gaming. Now, according to Colfer and an essay he posted on his website a few days ago, the series will resume with a sixth installment. It’s clear that Colfer is excited and a bit intimidated by the notion of adding to the Adams canon.

“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” was like nothing I had read before, or since for that matter. If you have read it then you know exactly what I am talking about. If you haven’t then read it now, moron. The problem is the hyperbole puts people off. If it’s so popular then it must be middle of the road, brimming with clichés and easily digested on the sands of Ibiza.

All false assumptions. "The Guide" is a slice of satirical genius. A marvel of quantum tomfoolery. A dissection of the absurdities of our human condition. A space odyssey that forces us to face ourselves and collapse in hysterics. Imagine if Messrs. Hawking and Fry were locked in a room with the entire cast of Monty Python and forced to write a book which would subsequently be edited by Pink Floyd, then the result would need a lot of work before it could be cut from Douglas Adams’ first draft.

For the next couple of decades I followed the exploits of Arthur Dent and his intergalactic troupe as they stumbled through space and time befuddled and bereft, drinking tea in the face of impossible odds and generally failing to find enlightenment at every turn. It’s like a quest for the Holy Grail where the Grail is neither holy nor grail-shaped. I traveled with Arthur Dent as he lost his planet, learned to fly, found love, made sandwiches, got to know his daughter, found his planet again briefly and finally got blown to atoms.

Blown to atoms! Surely not, but no need to panic, Douglas Adams would surely reassemble Arthur somehow in the next book.

But as we all know, the next book never came and the legions of Hitchhiker fans were left with their hearts beating a little too quickly for all eternity.

It became a whimsy of mine to finish the story, just for my own peace of mind. I often wondered how Douglas Adams would have resurrected his beloved characters. And now, almost a quarter of a century after first reading Hitchhiker, I have been given the incredible opportunity of writing the next chapter in the saga myself. In an actual book rather than in my head.

My first reaction was semi-outrage that anyone should be allowed to tamper with this incredible series. But on reflection I realised that this is a wonderful opportunity to work with characters I have loved since childhood and give them something of my own voice while holding onto the spirit of Douglas Adams and not laying a single finger on his five books.

Once again I am terrified by a Hitchhiker book and this time it is my own. I feel more pressure to perform now than I ever have with my own books, and that is why I am bloody determined that this will be the best thing I have ever written. And if it isn’t then I will make sure that the cover is extremely pretty.

This is an interesting but volatile endeavor. Adams told interviewers that he hoped to add a sixth book to the series, and one that ended the epic with a more upbeat tone. How will fans feel about a new author’s name on the cover, though? We’ll find out. Jane Belson, Adams' widow, has given her blessing to the project, which will be entitled “And Another Thing…” and will be published by Penguin. The book is scheduled to hit shelves in October 2009.

There’s more information on this at our sister blog, Jacket Copy, which tracks authors on this planet and beyond.

-- Geoff Boucher

Eoin Colfer portrait courtesy of the author's website.

Cover image from a vintage paperback copy of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

Photo of the late Douglas Adams courtesy of his website.

Stephen Chow named director of 'Green Hornet' and the next Kato

Loved "Kung Fu Hustle," and "Shaolin Soccer" was an epic romp of martial arts fun, but now comes word that actor/director Stephen Chow will direct Seth Rogen and star opposite him as Kato in Columbia Pictures' "The Green Hornet."

Quick legendary recap: From a radio program in the 1930s to film serials in the 1940s to a television program in the 1960s and multiple comic book series from the 1940s to the 1990s, the Hornet's been around for a while. Newspaper publisher Britt Reid would go out at night in his mask and with his Asian sidekick Kato, fighting crime with a gas gun and a cool car called 'Black Beauty.'

The news of the movie has also been around for a while, with Rogen attached.  Getting Chow has always been a priority for the writer/actor, who will play the title character.  Chow's comic sensibilities could bring a lightness to the movie, which to the uninitiated, may sound a bit like its more famous Batman and Robin counterparts.  Kato, though, is no Robin -- who has gone on to great things sometimes -- and his casting was always in question because of the iconic status of Bruce Lee.

William Shatner has a message for J.J. Abrams

Bill Shatner sat down for coffee with the Hero Complex a few days ago and made it clear that he feels left out because he wasn't invited to be in the new "Star Trek" film. So I was surprised when I read this quote from J.J. Abrams, the director of the new film, who was asked about Shatner's ire during an interview with AMC.com.

"It was very tricky. We actually had written a scene with him in it that was a flashback kind of thing, but the truth is, it didn't quite feel right. The bigger thing was that he was very vocal that he didn't want to do a cameo. We tried desperately to put him in the movie, but he was making it very clear that he wanted the movie to focus on him significantly, which, frankly, he deserves. The truth is, the story that we were telling required a certain adherence to the 'Trek' canon and consistency of storytelling. It's funny -- a lot of the people who were proclaiming that he must be in this movie were the same people saying it must adhere to canon. Well, his character died on screen. Maybe a smarter group of filmmakers could have figured out how to resolve that."

This quote got back to Shatner and he has responded via video in an interview with his daughter, Elizabeth:

Clearly, Shatner is smiling through gritted teeth. He's trying to chide Abrams but also sweet-talk the director into finding a last-minute spot for him in the film. I don't think it's going to happen (principal photography was completed in March) and it's going to be an awkward situation for Abrams, who certainly doesn't really need a 77-year-old Shatner in a film that follows young Kirk and his crew in their earliest adventures when they are fresh from Starfleet Academy.

-- Geoff Boucher

July 2008 photo of J.J. Abrams by Dan Steinberg/Associated Press

DC heroes jump into 'Mortal Kombat'

We have a new contributor here at Hero Complex. Pete Metzger, whose video game reviews have been published for years in the Los Angeles Times, will be writing about gaming culture as well as toys and action figures. He's checking in today with some "Mortal Kombat" action:

It’s the classic vs. the familiar

Last week, Midway finally announced the complete roster of DC characters appearing in "Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe," the latest chapter in the fighting series coming this November to video game consoles everywhere. (They’ve been teasing us with one name at a time for the last 40 years it seems…) Scorpion, Sub Zero and the rest of the uber-violent brawlers will do battle with Batman, Superman, Catwoman, Green Lantern, the Joker, Captain Marvel, the Flash, Wonder Woman, Deathstroke, Lex Luthor and Darkseid.

Okay, so if Superman truly is the "Man of Steel" how exactly will Scorpion be able to "Finish him!" (as the game implores when you are poised to deliver the shut-down move) and rip his spine out in a bloody mess? Somehow, in the interest of good video-gaming, we bet Midway will find a way to even the playing field. This cross-mojonation will either work as well as Danger Mouse’s classic mash-up "The Grey Album" (Jay-Z’s "Black Album" meets the" White Album" by the Beatles), or it will land with a thud, like Britney Spears at the MTV Video Music Awards, circa 2007.

Sit tight, dear readers. When we have more info, so will you.

-- Pete Metzger

Photos by Midway

Alan Moore on 'Watchmen' movie: 'I will be spitting venom all over it'

For the record, Alan Moore has not softened his view on Hollywood nor its plan to bring his classic graphic novel "Watchmen" to the screen next March.

"I find film in its modern form to be quite bullying," Moore told me during an hour-long phone call from his home in England. "It spoon-feeds us, which has the effect of watering down our collective cultural imagination. It is as if we are freshly hatched birds looking up with our mouths open waiting for Hollywood to feed us more regurgitated worms. The 'Watchmen' film sounds like more regurgitated worms. I for one am sick of worms. Can't we get something else? Perhaps some takeout? Even Chinese worms would be a nice change."

Moore is often described as a recluse but, really, I think it's more precise to say he is simply too busy at his writing desk. "Yes, perhaps I should get out more," he said with a chuckle. In conversation, the 54-year-old iconoclast is everything his longtime readers would expect -- articulate, witty, obstinate and selectively enigmatic. Far from grouchy, he only gets an edge in his voice when he talks about the effect of Hollywood on the comics medium that he so memorably energized in the 1980s with "Saga of the Swamp Thing," "V for Vendetta," "Marvelman" and, of course, "Watchmen," his 1986 masterpiece. The Warner Bros. film version of "Watchmen" is due in theaters in March although the project has encountered some turbulence with a lawsuit filed by 20th Century Fox over who has the rights to the property. Moore has no intention of seeing the film and, in fact, he hints that he has put a magical curse on the entire endeavor.

"Will the film even be coming out? There are these legal problems now, which I find wonderfully ironic. Perhaps it's been cursed from afar, from England. And I can tell you that I will also be spitting venom all over it for months to come."

Moore said all that with more mischievous glee than true malice, but I know it will still pain "Watchmen" director Zack Snyder when he reads it. The director of "300" absolutely adores the work of Moore and has been laboring intensely to bring "Watchmen" to the screen with faithful sophistication. But I don't think there's any way to win Moore over, he simply detests Hollywood. Moore said he has never watched any of the film adaptations of his comics creations (which have included "V for Vendetta," "From Hell," "Constantine" and "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen") and that he believes "Watchmen" is "inherently unfilmable." He also rues the effect of Hollywood's siren call on the contemporary comics scene.

"There are three or four companies now that exist for the sole purpose of creating not comics, but storyboards for films. It may be true that the only reason the comic book industry now exists is for this purpose, to create characters for movies, board games and other types of merchandise. Comics are just a sort of pumpkin patch growing franchises that might be profitable for the ailing movie industry."

'Iron Man,' 'Hulk' movies extended ... in digital comics

The profile of the Golden Avenger keeps rising.

Instrumental in the biggest things Marvel has going on right now [Secret (Skrull) Invasion and the earlier Civil War storylines] and the biggest thing Marvel has ever done onscreen (by itself), the comics company continues to let Tony Stark lead them in interesting directions, this time with an assist from Bruce Banner.

The latest venture is the new Iron Man digital comic book, along with an Incredible Hulk book as well. No, they are not the first digital comic books that the House of Ideas has produced, but they are the first it's used to tie directly into and extend the storyline for a movie. 

"Iron Man: Fast Friends" concentrates on the Tony Stark-Jim Rhodes relationship, while "Incredible Hulk: The Fury Files" shows how S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury gets involved with the green Goliath.  The Iron Man series launches Wednesday (Sept. 17), and the Hulk smashes computers on Oct. 8.