Tonight, HOUR 42 goes Hollywood!

Tonight, @ThePeterPixie and I welcome our first guest with his own listing on IMDB - Ray Grimes, writer and director of the new independent superhero film, Super Capers! We'll talk to him about his experience so far as a relatively new filmmaker, and try to get a few good Adam West stories out of him.

Peter and I will also trade notes on G.I. Joe - what, you thought I'd let him get away without seeing it? Also:

* Just two weeks after San Diego, Chicago hosts its own comic-book convention - we'll bring you the highlights.
* We'll talk about some of the rather ... interesting creative choices that were published this week. Bottle of grappa, anyone?
* Plus YOUR comments and questions at 646-716-4799

In the meantime, if you want to catch up on last week's show, which featured even more guest-stars, just click on the handy-dandy player below - then come on back and join us at 7pm PST (10p EST) tonight for HOUR 42!

THIS JUST IN: It's officially G.I. D'OH!

Ok, so we all expected G.I. JOE: The Rise Of Cobra to be bad. Even in the best-case scenario, awesomely bad. But this story from Geek Tyrant tells me that not even Christopher Eccleston will be able to save this one.

The story goes that director Stephen Sommers was kicked off the project after a test-audience gave it the lowest score for a Paramount movie ever. A "fixer" editor, Stuart Baird, has been brought in to edit the film into something "releasable." Given all the hype so far, I can't imagine Joe won't be released. But poor Baird has to make something good out of somebody else's dreck. That can't be a fun assignment.

@ThePeterPixie and I will be talking about this more in depth on the show, for sure.

Update: GT posted a response from producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura here.

Shia LeBouf Is As Clueless as Megan Fox

Man, these Transformers stars sure love to talk nonsense. There must be a contest.

@ThePeterPixie already told you the story about Megan Fox's arrogant statements regarding Wonder Woman. Now it's Shia LeBouf coming down with diarrhea of the mouth. Y'see, LeBouf felt the need to put to rest any rumors he'd be playing Yorick Brown in a film adaptation of Y: The Last Man, a very-well executed and well-received book by Brian K. Vaughan.

Yorick, put simply, is the last man on Earth, the only male survivor - on the human side; his monkey, Ampersand, also survives - of a plague that otherwise leaves the Earth inhabited completely by women. It's an easy "franchise" if you don't bugger it up.

So anyway, LeBouf was asked about the role - again, I presume - and this is what he said, according to SuperHero Hype:

"You take Sam and you put a monkey on his shoulder," said LaBeouf [...]. "I don't know if it's that big a differential. It seems like he's the ordinary guy in an extraordinary situation again."

You mean besides a story that touches on issues of gender, race, and privilege besides sci-fi and action/adventure? Right. I'm sure the star of a classic like Eagle Eye is qualified to be the arbiter of taste here. Look, if LeBouf wants to avoid getting into another series of films and do a more varied assortment of roles, that's one thing. But statements like this just make him look ... well, as vapid as his "leading lady." And if I didn't have to watch Revenge Of The Fallen for the sake of the show, I wouldn't have to. This instance doesn't make me reconsider that stance.

-- ES

WHO YA GONNA CALL?

When I was a kid in 1975 there was 'The Ghost Busters' A staple in my Saturday morning ritual of cereal and mind numbing television. It was about 2 guys and a Gorilla who always ended up chasing down the supernatural to the old castle.

And then about 10 years later There was the GHOSTBUSTERS. A trio of guys who chase down ghosts in all kinds of places! From this I ate the GHOSTBUSTERS CEREAL, joined the fan club which sent me a certificate I still have certifying me as an Official Ghostbuster of my area, patches, soundtracks, t-shirts... I really enjoyed it a lot. Especally when they made the cartoon The Real Ghostbusters. NOT to be confused with the Ghostbusters cartoon which also came out at the same time based on the aforementioned The Ghost Busters television from the 70s.

'We are not calling it Ghostbusters II. We will burn in hell if we call it Ghostbusters II' - Bill Murray after Ghostbusters to Starlog Magazine

Of course, I became an adult. Not really growing up mind you - I was excited when the GHOSTBUSTERS decided to take another turn at making a movie. I was sad through most of it, but Segourny Weaver was still very nice to look at so it wasn't too bad. But bad enough to kill the cartoon and the franchise. Not even Bobbie Brown could save them with stunning lyrics like: 'Too hot too handle too cold to hold. Called the Ghostbusters and they're in control.'

'"See, to me this is the third movie. That's why I was so excited and passionate about getting it done." - Dan Aykroyd in UGO Gamesblog.

So now a lifetime after The movie and the original but not the same series came out, we are getting a real treat in what looks to be a very exciting and fun Ghostbusters video game! A totally new story created by loving fans of the franchise and - the best part - not in any way a game version of what is come in the MOVIE Ghostbusters III.

Its OK if you're confused. I was for a long time.

The makers of the much more famous Ghostbusters actually had to pay for the use of the name from the original series from the 70s. The actors and writers of the new Ghostbusters movie were inspired by the things happening in the upcoming video game when they wrote their script.

The good news is this is going to be a reunuion show but not dwell in the past. It will have a fresh and pretty new crew with rumours of Eliza Dushku and Alyssa Milano to star. So, stay tuned here and on HOUR 42.

Kevin Smith gets a shot at Green Hornet after all

Entertainment Weekly reported today that movie writer/director Kevin Smith, who has also written successful Batman and Green Arrow stories, will write a story for Dynamite Comics' upcoming Green Hornet series.

If you'll recall, we talked about GH as part of our Forgotten Heroes a few weeks back. The Hornet, originally created in the 1930s for a radio serial, has survived throughout the decades in various radio, television and comic-book stories. Smith's script for the story is reportedly based on a screenplay which he'd hoped would be used for a GH feature film due in June 2010. However, star Seth Rogen subsequently took over writing duties (with Evan Goldberg) for the movie.

Smith also told EW he will be writing a 12-issue Batman arc called "The Widening Gyre." No word yet on whether it's a follow up to "Cacophany," which was released this year and featured Batman, The Joker and Smith creation Onomatopeia.

We'll discuss this development further Sunday night at 8pm PST (10p CST) on HOUR 42!