It was yet another seismic week in Hollywood, beginning with runway cleared for Paramount's takeover of Warner Bros. The implications for that, from job losses to what kinds of movies we'll see, will take time to unfold and be scrutinized closely.
The week ends with a box office that harkens back to the '90s, when it wasn't just one tentpole that would dominate the multiplex, but a slew of offerings.
There are movies starring heavy hitters like Robert Pattinson and Brad Pitt out this weekend, plus Forgotten Island, an original DreamWorks animated movie with a stellar 95 percent Rotten Tomatoes score. But Avengers: Endgame Encore will take the top spot this weekend.
Folks seem to be loving the chance to revisit Marvel at its zenith, though others take issue with the ending of Endgame retroactively being saddled with "to be continued..." vibes. William Bibbiani delves into it all in this piece. But whatever the case, these numbers (and Brand New Day's record run) bode extremely well for Marvel, which is releasing the big-budgeted Doomsday come December.
This newsletter has helicopters, secret comic numbers, and Borys' biggest surprise from the star-packed Lucas Museum opening. (How's that for a teaser?) Let's get going. —Aaron Couch and Borys Kit.
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CALL IT THE RETURN OF THE HELICOPTER ACTION THRILLER.
OK, it's not a genre that has been particularly popular. 1983’s thriller Blue Thunder might be the last and only example, moviewise. (There was also that Airwolf TV series that hit a year after Blue Thunder.)
But Netflix is betting that in-house favorite Andrés Baiz is the man to bring it back. The filmmaker, known for the streamer's Narcos and Griselda, has signed on to direct Helo.
It's got high flying filmmaker Edward Berger producing with partner Luke Rivett and is described as “End of Watch meets Top Gun.”
Patrick Aison, known for his work on the recent live-action Predator movies, wrote the script.
Get to the choppa!
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COMIC BOOK COMPANIES KEEP THEIR SALES NUMBERS AS SECRET AS THE LOCATION OF COBRA COMMANDER'S LAIR.
But we got Skybound chief Robert Kirkman to make an exception and offer a rare look at the data for the company's Energon Universe, which combines both Transformers and G.I. Joe franchises.
Since its launch, the universe has sold over 7.6 million units. The Transformers comic is the standout, having sold 3.5 million units and representing about 47 percent of that total.
Transformers No.1, the comic that really ushered in the Hasbro comics line, has gone through an astonishing 14 printings since hitting shops in October 2023. The first printing sold 170,000 copies with another 180,000 sold subsequently, for a total of over 350,000 units. It is now prepping for a 15th printing.
None of this was a sure thing. Kirkman and Skybound aggressively pursued the rights when they came up, enlisting every big artist in their stable to create concept art to pitch Hasbro.
“Any time you try something that hasn’t been done before, you run the risk of not finding an audience,” Kirkman tells Heat Vision. “The fact that this has found a solid audience as it has, and that it’s on its 3rd year, and sales are not only holding but actually creeping up in some places, it’s something that we are very proud of.”
Kicking it with Kirkman.
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➤ RIP to Popverse, the news website from NYCC organizer Reedpop. We salute the journalists, including our friend and former co-writer of this newsletter, Graeme McMillan, the man responsible for the nifty graphics we still use to this day. Editor Chris Arrant wrote about what the site meant to him and his staff.
➤ Daredevil: Born Again is ending. Maybe we'll see Hornhead in a movie down the road?
➤ David Dastmalchian is getting in the lit business.
➤ Dynamic Duo finds its cast.
➤ Part two of Johnny Depp's second comeback in the first Daydrinker trailer. More trailers than you can shake a stick at: Driving in Hollywood in The Misadventures of Cliff Booth, getting a 70 mm theatrical run for Brad Bird's Ray Gunn, and are you ready for Brandon Sklener to become an action star with The Rescue? We sure are.
➤ Superhero on and off the screen: Christian Bale established a foster care village for up to 72 children.
➤ The mallard returns: Mark Hamill, Seth Rogen, Lizzy Caplan and Lilimar to voice star in the revival of Darkwing Duck.
➤ If you are a '90s kid, you may appreciate this. 30 years ago, Spider-Man: The Animated Series ended on a cliffhanger, with Peter Parker looking through the multiverse for Mary Jane. Creator John Semper Jr. has teased over the years that he'd like to tell the conclusion to that story ... and he finally is, in an upcoming comic book released by Marvel.
Catch up on these Heat Vision interviews...
➤ Interview with the Vampire director Neil Jordan tells THR's Brian Davids that Tom Cruise's casting controversy was a "pain in the ass" for the movie star.
➤ Austin Abrams praises the ending of Zach Cregger's Resident Evil: "A lot of movies nowadays are too afraid to do something like that." Will Abrams appear in Cregger's upcoming sci-fi film, The Flood? "I’m staying away from the script because I want to be able to watch it without knowing anything."
➤ Nathan Fillion explains how his campy-looking Green Lantern was integrated into the more grounded tone of Lanterns.
➤ Ethan Hawke, while grateful for his abbreviated time in the MCU, admits that the future hasn't gone as planned.
➤ Lanterns' star Kelly Macdonald isn't sure about her character's relation to Bruce Wayne.
➤ Lanterns' star Poora Jagannathan did not know the true nature of her Zoe Macon character until she received the script for episode four.
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Borys has this very special dispatch...
I was extremely lucky to attend the opening gala of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Arts on Saturday, which was one of the glitziest events this city has ever seen, attracting stars across the firmaments of entertainment, sports, politics, science and art. Everyone has now has seen that famous group shot of all the directors, which even featured comics legend Frank Miller, the man behind some historic Batman and Daredevil stories as well as the creator of Sin City and 300.
But even that didn’t prepare me for what was going to happen later.
The evening was banger. A-listers everywhere you turned, then Black Eyed Peas hit the floor for a loud and energetic performance that had Doja Cat front and center singing along, Orlando Bloom recording it from the back and Michael B. Jordan and Keke Palmer watching from the side. The whole evening was just a feast for the eyes…do you look at all the amazing art or do you gaze at Mark Hamill talking to Peter Jackson in front of a Luke Skywalker display?
So as the Black Eyed Peas were hip-hoping away on the fifth floor, I decided to slink away to the fourth, where most of the museum’s art galleries lay. I needed to get to a place where my brain wasn’t overstimulated. The fourth floor proved the opposite, in an eerie way.
Yes, there were a few like-minded people also checking out the various pavilions, and there was some museum staff, but it was ghostly. Imagine being at the Getty or the Met after-hours. Rooms with nobody in them, just me.
Then I happened upon the area that made me smile. The original comic art gallery. Now we were talking. I began my solo communion with the art. I took in a few pieces, then turned a corner and ka-pow, ran into two other people that had the same idea that I did: Frank Miller and his producing partner Silenn Thomas.
What happened over the next stretch was a singular experience that will stay with me for a long time. A private walk — a tour, more precisely — with Miller and Thomas in the empty maze of the comic art wing. He was on a mission to find his works (there are four of his pieces on the walls there), but he was in no rush, taking the time to not only absorb all the art but also marvel how a medium that had never been considered “art” was now a centerpiece in one of the most prominent museums in the world. I had interviewed Miller several times before and he graciously let me join him and Thomas.
Miller stopped to take in large pieces of Alex Raymond Flash Gordon art. He sat quietly in front of a Buck Rogers strip, maybe contemplating how he had once tried to tackle a live-action movie adaptation, maybe just admiring the story this particular Sunday strip was telling.
A lane with a row of historic covers found him traveling back in time to his early days of breaking into the business.
“This one stopped us all in our tracks,” he said, standing in front Neal Adams’ famous cover to Superman No. 233, published in 1970. It shows the Man of Steel dramatically breaking chains made out of Kryptonite. Adams would, a few short months later, become Miller’s mentor and door-opener into the comic industry.
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The Curt Swan-drawn cover to Supergirl’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane No.106 from 1970 left him smirking.
That’s the cover that featured Lane going into a transformation machine and coming out as a Black woman. “I Am Curious (Black)!” screams the line. It was an attempt by DC at the time to be hip and also tie themselves to the civil rights activities of the day.
“Do you know who was the editor of these books? Mort Weisinger,” he explained. “Mort was always years behind the times. If it was 1970, Mort acted like it was 1964.”
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Miller later stopped at a series of Carl Barks paintings, admiring them and then adding that Barks’ is the favorite artist of his friend Walter Simonson, the writer-penciller known for his influential run on Thor in the 1980s.
“He would love to see this,” he noted.
Somewhere deep in the maze, we found the grail, a trio of Miller pieces, two pages from his still talked about late-1970s/early 1980s Daredevil run and one page from Ronin, his mini-series for DC.
“Can you see a young artist trying to imitate an accomplished artist?” he mused, before going on to explain how much Jean Giraud, the French illustrator also known as Moebius, influenced him and a whole generation of artists.
I was in a heady martini of mindsets, trying to be journalist and capture a rare moment with a renowned artist but also be present to truly appreciate the unique personal experience that was unfolding by happenstance. This was Miller being unguarded, personal, and not Miller the celebrity or lauded artiste.
As we wound our way out of the comic art gallery, another person recognized Miller and came over, breaking the spell enveloping us. Miller and Thomas went on to go back up to the fifth floor and partied 'til late while I left the building and went home.
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AS WE WERE PUTTING THIS EDITION TO BED, a massive comic art auction was underway thanks to Heritage.
Big money was being spent on some key pieces. The page with the very first appearance of Elektra, drawn by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson, sold this morning for $450,000 (in fact, several Miller Daredevil pages went into the six-figures zone). A Jim Lee X-Men cover went for $437,500, a Carl Barks Scrooge McDuck painting went for $275,00, while a splash page by Gene Colan from the historic Iron Man No.1 went for 187,500. Even a Far Side panel sold for $112,500.
Our eye was on this great Russ Manning piece, the very first page from the very first issue of 1963’s Magnus, Robot Fighter. Yes, it’s historic but also timely. The designs and style are very mid-century, but the story could very well resonate today, what with all the A.I. destroying humanity talk. We've a future where robots have taken over humanity. We've got one lone man taking on the computerized oppressors with his bare hands. Why hasn’t Hollywood tackled this yet?!
Never one of the popular comic artists of his era such as Jack Kirby or Curt Swan, Manning nevertheless developed a following for his clean lines and straight storytelling. He later made his mark drawing not only the Tarzan newspaper comic strip in the 1970s but was the first writer and artist on the Star Wars comic strip. Magnus as a character has endured and was a cornerstone of the Valiant comics line in the 1990s.
The page went for $93,750. Seems like a piece that we could see hanging in the Lucas Museum.
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