FilmRoar

It is amazing that in all my movie watching I had never before ran across Broadway stage star and three time Tony Award winner Zero Mostel. In The Producers (1968) he plays Max Bialystock, a manipulative play producer / con man. From his first moments on screen he is an absolute riot as he plays on the insecurities of accountant Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder) and the laughter does not stop until the movie’s end. The ridiculous plot of two stage producers who want to put the sure-fire flop ‘Springtime for Hitler’ on Broadway in order to bilk investors out of their money proves an adequate vehicle for Zero and Wilder to play their odd characters to their over-the-top limit. The Producers has the odd trivia claims of supposedly being the first place the world saw a high five as well as the first use of the term creative accounting.

The first time I saw TNG: Home Soil I remember thinking didn’t we see this one already? I do not know that the title is of the original series episode where miners are being attacked by a monster that turns out to be defending it’s eggs, but the plot is essentially the same. All the crew has to do is realize that what they thought was an inorganic mineral found in the mines is actually a life form so they can apologize and make peace before heading on their merry way. An interesting concept, but why recycle a plot so closely?

Today Comics Continuum has an update from comic adaptation producer Avi Arad on Spiderman2 as well as other upcoming comic adaptation projects

Spider-Man II (2004): “The accident (that fuses the tentacles to Otto) is both a personal tragedy, a major loss, a loss of pride. And everything, again, is blamed on Spider-Man. And he goes through a journey with his arms. What’s unique is each one has a personality and they sort of take control of him. As our tradition is, our villains aren’t complete villains, they’re complex characters, especially in time of tragedy.”

Blade: Trinity (2004): “We have a great script, Wesley (Snipes) is back and we are doing our thing,” Arad said. David Goyer is writing and directing.

Hulk 2: “We are just waiting for a script,” Arad said. “We are going to make another Hulk, absolutely.”

Punisher, The (2004): Arad said production starts in two weeks. “Awesome. Great casting. Great movie,” he said.

Fantastic Four (2004): “We have a release date and we are all working hard to get there,” Arad said of the Christmas 2004 film. Arad confirmed that Ralph Winter, producer of the two X-Men movies, is on board.

Other Marvel adaptations in the works produced by Arad include:
Ghost Rider (2004)
Iron Fist (2004)
Elektra (2005)
And
Man-Thing (2003)

Sophomoric
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Latinoreview.com has pictures of Doctor Octopus from the spiderman sequel presented at the San Diego Comic Convention.

A description of some footage screened at the convention comes from Darkhorizons.com [Spoiler Warning: Do not read the rest of this entry if you wish to be surprised]:
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There are two things I particularly enjoyed about TNG: The Big Goodbye. The first was seeing Crusher in a 1940s costume. She wears it well. The second is the concept of a race with a very complex and meticulous language that demands they be spoken to with full lingual decorum. I thought the series was more willing to innovate on how aliens may look or behave in the early seasons and I really do wish they had kept this adventurous spirit. I know that adventure equals risk and risk is not a word that the people putting up money for the show want to hear, but it was the risks they took that made this show stand apart from the others.

A teaser trailer has been posted for director Robert Rodriguez’s second sequel to El Mariachi (1992), Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003). I highly admire Rodriguez’s directorial talent and am very much looking forward to this release.