Mutant movies, ‘Twilight’ and Mortal Kombat vs. DC, all in Everyday Hero headlines

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Today’s Everyday Hero report, your handpicked headlines from the fanboy universe ...

Mutant possibilities: Remember the ‘X-Men’ films? They sure seem like a looong time ago to Marc Graser, apparently, because he suggests that Fox is dragging its feet in getting its valuable mutant brigade back in theaters. To my mind, after Brett Ratner’s lurching, messy finale to the X-trilogy, a bit of a break seemed like a good idea. Anyway, here’s an excerpt from Graser’s piece: ‘Studios have turned summer into a playground for superheroes at the box office. But the X-Men have quietly been waiting on the Fox lot for their turn to have some fun at the megaplex again. When the studio releases ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ next May, it will be three years since its comicbook franchise last appeared in theaters. Fox is looking to change that, reducing the number of years between appearances of its power-possessing mutants by developing spinoffs that lead to a new series of sequels. Those include [1] ‘X-Men: First Class’: Josh Schwartz, who created the teen-friendly TV shows ‘Gossip Girl’ and ‘The O.C.,’ is penning a script, based around the conceit of the 2006 comic of the same name, that focuses on the young mutants enrolled at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. Books revolved around the Cyclops, Jean Grey, Angel, Iceman and Beast characters, which already have been featured in the three previous ‘X-Men’ films. [2] ‘Magneto’: ‘Batman Begins’ co-scribe David S. Goyer is attached to direct the origins story of the ‘X-Men’ arch-villain (played by Ian McKellen in the previous pics) and his relationship with Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart). Both characters would be played by younger actors, given the earlier timeline in which the plot takes place. And [3] ‘Deadpool,’ which would revolve around the sarcastic mercenary played by Ryan Reynolds in ‘Wolverine,’ should the character in that pic prove popular with auds.’ [Daily Variety]

Funny books? Funny how?: Here’s the latest snapshot of the comics marketplace, pulled from the quite thorough sales report over at ICV2: ‘Event books remained the bestsellers at the top of the chart, with ‘Secret Invasion’ #7 (154,675 copies) and ‘Final Crisis’ #4 (115,666 copies) taking the top two spots. There seemed to be an unusually high percentage of late books among the top sellers, with no September issues for nine of the top 25 titles (six DC and three Marvel). Marvel had a fairly typical seven out of the top ten titles, and 17 of the top 25. There were no titles not published by the Big Two in the top 25 comics list. In fact, to find a non-Big Two title you have to look all the way down to #65 and #66, where IDW’s new ‘G.I. Joe’ comic (two covers, 50/50) and ‘Angel: After the Fall’ landed, to find anything from another publisher.’ [ICV2]

Gleaming ‘Twilight’: The young, female moviegoers of America have spoken: ‘Twilight’ is, like, to die for. The numbers from Carl DiOrio: ‘Preliminary estimates show the youthful vampire romance rang up a huge first-day tally of $35.7 million from Friday. The big first day gross — which included a multi-million-dollar haul from midnight Thursday performances — makes a $70 million-plus opening likely for the PG-13 pic. In a highly unusual move, Summit itself on Saturday morning projected a possible three-day tally of $74.3 million. The fledgling producer/distributor also said in a separate press release Saturday that it already has greenlighted a ‘Twilight’ sequel, ‘New Moon.’ ‘Moon’ will be based on the second of a series of best-selling ‘Twilight’ books by Stephenie Meyer. ‘I don’t think any other author has had a more positive experience with the makers of her movie adaptation than I have had with Summit Entertainment,’ Meyer said. ‘I’m thrilled to have the chance to work with them again.’ ‘ [Hollywood Reporter]

Spineless, but fun: Gamer Ben Fritz tried out the high-concept ‘Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe’ and comes away with a smirk and that suspicion that, despite unpolished gameplay, Midway could have a much-needed hit with the rock ‘em, sock ‘em holiday season release. Here’s his smartly written review: ‘Though the game features 11 of the most popular ‘Mortal Kombat’ characters, players will likely care more about the equal number of superheroes and villains who have never been in an arcade-style fighter before. Whether it’s Superman’s freeze breath, Wonder Woman spinning her enemies in a lasso, Green Lantern conjuring a giant hammer or the Joker’s electric hand-buzzer, ‘MK vs. DC’ does them right by giving each dozens of satisfying, character-specific moves. Some longtime franchise fans may be disappointed, though, that ‘Mortal Kombat’s’ signature bloody ‘fatalities’ — the most infamous of which featured a spine ripped out of someone’s body — are distinctly less gory here and have been downgraded to heroic brutalities for the DC heroes. (And it’s annoying that learning these requires either guesswork or looking them up on the Web.)’ [Daily Variety]

More ‘Twilight’ ... Edward, onward: I read that Robert Pattison doesn’t own a cellphone, which is probably a good thing because 12-year-old girls get so nervous when they work up the nerve to crank call that they usually just giggle, hang up and text the phone number to their friends. Pattison, who seems charmingly bewildered by the ‘Twilight’ sensation, will be talking to his fans from space this morning: ‘Robert Pattinson, star of ‘Twilight’ will sit down for an interview with The Morning Mash Up crew on SIRIUS Hits 1/SIRIUS channel 1 on Monday, November 24. The 7a.m. ET interview will be rebroadcast on Monday, November 24 at 8:00 am, 9:00 am and 10:00 am ET. For more information and video highlights of the interview (available at 11:00 am ET), please visit: www.sirius.com/hits1.’ [Sirius press release]

‘Iron Man 2,’ the writer’s view: Movie blogger Jenna Busch chatted with Justin Theroux the actor (remember him as Evil DJ in ‘Zoolander’?) turned screenwiter (‘Tropic Thunder’) who is just back from London where he was working with Marvel Studio’s exec Kevin Feige and Robert Downey Jr. on the protean early draft of an ‘Iron Man 2’ script. ‘We were talking with Robert, who’s out there doing ‘Sherlock Holmes,’ he was giving his input and his notes. We’re sort of there. It’s just sort of chugging along. The crews, I think, are now starting to see what they need to make, and the places that we might be going and all the rest within the story. That’s sort of one of the more exciting times.’ The Busch post is mostly about the ‘Tropic Thunder’ release on DVD/BluRay, but Theroux also touched on the arrival of Don Cheadle to the ‘Iron Man’ cast: ‘I haven’t met Don, and I think I’m going to in a little bit and I think once I get a better sense of his voice and also hear what he has to say about what he likes about the character and just pick his brain a little bit, then we’ll obviously start to tailor it to him. Once he sort of gets more involved in the process then we’ll start tapering the length of his character ... making it fit just right.’ And who will the villian be in the ‘Iron Man’ sequel? ‘I think it’s Evil DJ. He could be the villain in this movie. I don’t know. I mean, I do know but I’m not going to let that cat out.’ [Ugo]

-- Geoff Boucher

‘X-Men First Class’ art courtesy of Marvel Comics. ‘Twlight’ photo courtesy of Summit Entertainment. Robert Pattison photo from Getty Images. ‘Iron Man’ image from Marvel Studios and Paramount Pictures.