Category Archives: Movie Adaptations

The Hunger Games Cast To Help The Fight Agaisnt World Hunger

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The stars of The Hunger Games have teamed up to aid in the fight against world hunger. (seriously, could they have picked a better organization to team with!) Stars Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson have recorded a video announcement for the cause which you can view below.

The message from the video reads: “The Hunger Games, the cast and producers are teaming up with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and Feeding America to raise awareness about hunger in the United States and around the world.”

I am loving that they did this. I think that with the popularity of the film, it will bring much needed attention to the cause and problem that is world hunger.

Frances Fisher Joins The Host

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Frances Fisher joins the cast of Andrew Niccol’s The Host. The project which is being helmed by Open Road Films is based on the 2008 novel of the same name, written by author Stephenie Meyer, of The Twilight Saga fame.

I was crestfallen too when I realized this wasn’t a Hollywood adaptation of Joon-Ho Bong’s 2006 cult classic film, The Host.

Here is a synopsis of The Host from the official Stephenie Meyer website:

“Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away.

Our world has been invaded by an unseen enemy. Humans become hosts for these invaders, their minds taken over while their bodies remain intact and continue their lives apparently unchanged. Most of humanity has succumbed.

When Melanie, one of the few remaining “wild” humans is captured, she is certain it is her end. Wanderer, the invading “soul” who has been given Melanie’s body, was warned about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the glut of senses, the too vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn’t expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.

Wanderer probes Melanie’s thoughts, hoping to discover the whereabouts of the remaining human resistance. Instead, Melanie fills Wanderer’s mind with visions of the man Melanie loves—Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body’s desires, Wanderer begins to yearn for a man she has been tasked with exposing. When outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off on a dangerous and uncertain search for the man they both love.”

Touted by Meyer’s as ‘Science fiction for people who don’t like science fiction’ it again tries to blend in genres from different walks of life. This time turning science-fiction horror into a romance story. It’s the romantic version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Here the parasites in your head will fight with you over the man you love. A far stretch from supernatural creatures fighting over a girl.

So that’s another nerd area of interest that’s been co-opted into teeny romance. First it was vampires, then it was zombies, now it’s science-fiction in general. What’s next? Chainsaw for hands action heroes that treat women with respect? Where will the sub-genre of blood obsessed nerds; which I dub Dark Nerd; take us next? What used to be the realm of socially inept males with no future romantic prospects has slowly turned into the goldmine for the romance infusion. The target demographic of teenage girls. Are these the girls that were raised by their single parent dads? The ones that manned up and took care of their daughters, only to infect them with their nerd values? Somehow I picture a D&D based romance coming on the horizon.

You know what would really bother me? A production company making a romantic bastardization of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. I can picture it now, teenage girls swooning over goth pretty boys with a unholy preference for knives.

Fisher will play the role of Maggie Stryder, Melanie’s aunt. Included in this film are Jake Abel, Max Irons, Saoirse Ronan, Diane Kruger and William Hurt. The movie is expected to hit theaters a few months after the end of the Vampire era, March 29, 2013.

Top 3 Scenes From The Hunger Games I Am Most Excited To See

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With the massively anticipated film, The Hunger Games, little less then a month away from hitting theaters, my personal anticipation for the film is growing. Yes, I preordered midnight showing tickets, and yes I read all three books in less than three days, and most certainly, yes, I am team Peeta (and no I can’t believe I just said that…) Either way, the point is, we are all excited for this film.

After reading the novel and considering the film, I have decided these are the three scenes from the book that I am most excited to see in the big screen adaptation. Unfortunately, we know that when it comes to movie adaptation of books, often things are left out for time purposes (although director Gary Ross maintains this is a very faithful adaptation) so hopefully these three scenes will remain intact for our viewing pleasure.

:::::Caution: there are a few tiny spoilers if you haven’t read the novel:::::

The Interview With Caesar Flickerman

I had to put this one, because I am girl who can’t resist a good proclamation of love. And I would be lying if I said my heart didn’t melt when Peeta professed his love for Katniss. I mean what girl didn’t enjoy that (even albeit slightly). It was a sweet moment, even if at the time you weren’t sure if it was a true revelation or manipulation. Thankfully, we all know it was a revelation of true love. When I read it, I read into its sincerity and thats something that Peeta isn’t able to fake during the games or even afterward. I hope Josh Hutcherson (who plays Peeta) will be able to pull off the sincere admission of love in the movie.

Either way, it was a great scene in the novel and I am looking forward to squealing in girlish delight when the scene plays in the theater.

Tripping of Tracker Jacker Venom

This was definitely one of the more intense moments of the novel. Katniss drops the nest of tracker jackers on the careers camp, killing two of them. However, in the process she gets stung several times and begins to hallucinate. I am very curious on how they are going to film this because basically, she was tripping. Her hallucinations are vivid and bright and incredibly weird.

I am excited to see this scene, because I think watching it will be pretty powerful compared to just reading about her tripping on the acid. I am also curious how the visualization of the weird things she sees will translate on screen.

The Feast

Easily my favorite scene in the novel. (The end with the berries is pretty awesome too, but c’mon you knew they would both live or there wouldn’t be two more books!) While reading, you know there is so much at stake when Katniss drugs Peeta to go to the feast and retrieve precious medicine and materials they need.  It was pretty intense and I couldn’t force myself to stop reading this. I can guess its going to be even more intense of the big screen. The feast scene adds more intensity when Katniss is about to be killed and Thresh saves her life.

While this is easily one of the most brutal scenes in the novel (I mean Thresh does cave in Clove’s skull) I know they will probably lighten it a little bit, however, even if it is a little less bloody, I really hope they retain the immense anxiety and fast paced imagery that the novel employs. Seriously, it was brutal.

I have mentioned before how much I loved this book series, and I still do. And frankly, I haven’t been this excited for a movie since Arrested Development announced chances of a movie. I will be moderately happy with the adaptation if at least these three scenes remain relatively intact. (But hopefully this really is a faithful adaptation and I will love it) I think all three are crucial turning points in the novel and should remain as they are.

The Untold Secrets of The Hunger Games

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The people over at The Hollywood Reporter recently did a photo shoot and interviews with the stars and director of the highly anticipated film, The Hunger Games. They also highlighted several “untold secrets” regarding the casting and production of the film adaptation.

The Hunger Games film is the big screen adaptation of the novel written by Suzanne Collins. The film is the first of a four film franchise that will adapt the two sequels to the novel, Catching Fire and Mockingjay. 

“After the trailer launched Nov. 14, we had 8 million views in the first 24 hours,” says Lionsgate Films president Joe Drake. “We were the number one Twitter trend on the planet. Since then, the book sales have jumped 7.5 million copies. That kind of data gives us enormous confidence.”

As you may know the film stars Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark, and Liam Hemsworth as Gale Hawthorne. The rest of the cast includes Woody Harrelson, Lenny Kravitz and Elizabeth Banks.

Some of the secrets included:

Jennifer Lawrence, the actress who plays Katniss Everdeen, took three days to accept the lead role. While several actresses were considered for the role, Lawrence was ultimately rewarded the spot. Even though she hesitated when it came to accepting the role. Lawrence has stated that she credits her mother for accepting the role.

“I called my mom and she called me a hypocrite, because when I was doing indie movies and everyone was asking why I didn’t do studio movies, I said, ‘The size of the movie doesn’t matter.’ And she said, ‘Here’s a movie you love and you were thinking of turning it down because of its size.’ I thought, ‘I don’t want to miss out because I’m scared. Me being scared, I never want that to stop me fromdoing something.’ But I knew in my heart that I wanted it — it was about working out all the fears.”

It was also revealed that Lionsgate operated on a very tight budget to make the film. It was reported that the film eventually cost a little more than $90 million, reduced to $78 million after subsidies.

They also confirmed that the lead trio are in fact contracted for the entire franchise which includes 4 movies based on the three books of the series. Also that director Gary Ross is committed to working on the sequel as well, which will hopefully begin shooting in September.

You might not know that Lawrence had an accident while training for the film that almost halted filming of the adaptation. The actress revealed during the interview:

“I had to do 10 ‘wall runs,’ where you run at the wall as hard as you can to get traction, I ran at it and my foot didn’t go up, so I caught the wall with my stomach. My trainer thought I had burst my spleen. I had to get a CAT scan and go into a tube where they put this fiery liquid in your body. I was still pretty bulked up from X-Men: First Class, So a lot of the training was getting muscle back, heightening the muscles without building them. I loved the archery — well, I have a love-hate relationship with it.”

Probably the most unnerving parts of filming the project was the fact that the set was 100 degrees and included bears. During the interview with THR, Ross related that not only were there bears in the woods they were shooting but also 100-degree heat and rain that was almost daily. He added:

“we’d only get to shoot four or five hours a day,”

Liam Hemsworth also revealed that when he got the role of Gale in the movie, that his brother gave him a little bit of advice regarding his new project.

“My brother Chris texted me before shooting and told me to lose weight. He said, ‘It’s called The Hunger Games, not The Eating Games!’ “

You can read the entire article from The Hollywood Reporter here or watch the behind the scenes video from the photo shoot below:


The Hunger Games Teaser # 4 Revealed

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We have about a month left till the big screen premiere of The Hunger Games and in case you are like myself, you are probably overly excited for the film. If you need to be satiated till March 23rd, then we have a new teaser you can watch. While it shows pretty much the same stuff that we have already seen in the previous trailers, it is still worth watching.

The Hunger Games is the movie adaptation of the bestselling novel by Suzanne Collins. It is followed by the sequels Catching Fire and Mockingjay. 

The plot for the film is as follows:

Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the governing body, the Capitol, of the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games. A twisted punishment for a past uprising and an ongoing government intimidation tactic, The Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which “Tributes” must fight with one another until one survivor remains. Katniss Everdeen volunteers as a tribute to save her sister from going in to the ghastly arena. She is joined by Peeta Mellark, a boy she knew who once saved her life.

You can see the official cast below:

  • Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen
  • Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark
  • Woody Harrelson as Haymitch Abernathy
  • Willow Shields as Primrose “Prim” Everdeen
  • Liam Hemsworth as Gale Hawthorne
  • Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket
  • Lenny Kravitz as Cinna
  • Paula Malcomson as Mrs. Everdeen
  • Amandla Stenberg as Rue
  • Alexander Ludwig as Cato
  • Dayo Okeniyi as Thresh
  • Isabelle Fuhrman as Clove
  • Jacqueline Emerson as Foxface
  • Leven Rambin as Glimmer
  • Jack Quaid as Marvel
  • Donald Sutherland as President Snow
  • Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickerman
  • Wes Bentley as Seneca Crane
  • Latarsha Rose as Portia
You can watch the new teaser trailer for The Hunger Games below:

Brett Ratner’s Hercules is the Peoples Champion?

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Turns out that Dwayne Johnson, The Peoples Champion, the Rock is in talks with MGM about starring in Hercules. The film which is to be directed by Brett Ratner; who directed the comedians version of the Expendables. I believe it was called Tower Heist.

The film is based on the Hercules comic book by Radical Publishing. They have two series which are called, “Hercules: The Thracian Wars” and “Hercules: The Knives of Kush.” The last one just makes me think there are blades made of marijuana. Both series are written by Steve More with artist Cris Bolsin.

The Thracian Wars is described as follows:

“Fourteen-hundred years ago, a tormented soul walked the Earth that was neither man nor god. Hercules, powerful son of the god king Zeus, received nothing but suffering his entire life. After twelve arduous labors and the loss of his family, this dark, world-weary soul turned his back on the gods, finding his only solace in bloody battle. Over the years he warmed to the company of six similar souls, their only bond being their love of fighting and the presence of death. These men and woman never question where, why, or whom they go to fight; only how much they will be paid. Knowing this, the King of Thrace has hired these mercenaries to train his men to become the greatest army of all time. Hercules begins to question King Cotys’ motives when he takes his army out to battle and sees them practice on innocent men, women, and children of their neighbors. Deep in his soul something stirs, but is it enough to stop a mad king and his army of the damned from marching across Greece – or even Olympus itself?!”

So if I’m to understand this correctly, Hercules roamed the earth in seventh century as an emo, laying the smack down for Kings while the Thracians were being wiped out by Goths. It’s okay, I’ll suspend my belief on this because I too have watched Marvel’s Thor film adaptation. I can’t believe I paid to see that either though.

This might be MGM’s bid to find their own Conan movie for reinvention, but I’m skeptical about Ratner more than I am about The Rock; sure it puts the movie at risk for being associated with the Scorpion King, but “you keep what you kill” and man did that movie die horribly.

So what’s wrong with Ratner? He’s done a great job directing Red Dragon and an X-Men movie, but he’s also been the force behind the Rush Hour movies. While the Radical Comics Hercules title does look serious, it’s still a comic. The comedic moments makes me wonder if if any Rush Hour will leak a bit into the film.  Maybe it’ll just have to take a really good script to really tell.

Hey, is it my imagination or does Hercules on these covers look a little like a time lost Judge Dredd?

The Demonologist: Which Came First? The Movie or the Book?

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In a bold move, Hollywood is going to make movies based on the potential popularity of unreleased books. The film production companies are no longer content with just adapting movies on popular books, they’re going to go the extra step.

Universal Pictures recently has acquired the rights to the upcoming novel The Demonologist, Deadline reports. The story is was written by Canadian author Andrew Pyper; who’s known for his serial-killer thriller The Killing Circle, wilderness drama The Wildfire Season, and haunted-house horror The Guardians. Pyper won the Arthur Ellis award for one of his first novels, the crime story Lost Girls in 1999.

Robert Zemeckis; director and co-writer of Back to the Future, so I’m already impressed because hey, it’s time travel; and his ImageMovers studio are currently in the planning stages of how they will translate the text for film. Remember, the book is unreleased but quite finished. It’s probably for the best, because if the story is as good as they believe it to be, then it won’t give time for religious sects get involved.

Let’s examine the early description for The Demonologist:

“Professor David Ullman is among the world’s leading authorities on Christian religion and myth. Not that he’s a believer. He sees what he teaches as nothing more than entrenched fiction – the “things that go bump in the mind”. It’s why when he’s offered a trip to Venice to be a consultant on a case study based on his expertise as a “demonologist” he accepts, seeing it as a free vacation for his teenage daughter and himself. But what he witnesses in an attic room at an address amidst the decadent splendour of the old city will change what he believes forever. Terrified, David races back to his hotel. But now he has the unshakable feeling that he is no longer alone. And that the voice that passes from his daughter’s lips before she jumps from the hotel’s roof belongs to a being he has long studied, but until now never thought could ever be real…”

Think of the hype over The DaVinci Code, Passion of the Christ, and the Harry Potter series. Now picture a popular novel that makes everyone all a twitter about Christian religion and myth being added to the mix. We’re talking instant money here. If the freakin’ Pope steps in, then it becomes epic money!

If this book and film is to succeed, it’ll need to focus on the translation of learned fear. So in the story, a skeptical man is exposed to the supernatural world. As he’s the foremost educated authority on the matter; just an unbeliever; he’s able to quickly realize how screwed he is. So how will the reader react? If they’re skeptics, will they be able to identify with Ullman’s pragmatic ways enough to also learn his fear? Pyper and Zemeckis will have their work cut out for them to pull this off. If they do, just think how much a pushover those that ‘want to believe’ will be.

The Hunger Games Beats Twilight’s Fandango Ticket Sales

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I will go ahead and admit it, I bought tickets to The Hunger Games midnight showing  on March 23rd. I am so excited for this film and apparently I am not alone. Many theaters sold out within hours of the preorder sale hitting the web. Many online ticket retailers began selling tickets for the upcoming film on February 22, almost a month before the movie is set to hit theaters.

Fandango, one of the worlds leading movie ticket sites, announced that the advance ticketing records were set by the big screen adaptation and that the film has already sold out hundreds of showtimes in advance of the film’s March 23 release date.

Even more stunning was that (as we have predicted would happen at this site) tickets for The Hunger Games preorder tickets broke the previous first day advance ticket-seller record held by The Twilight Saga: Eclipse on Friday, May 14, 2010. We all kind of knew this was going to be a huge movie, but it definitely looks like it will be the next huge trilogy to grace the silver screen.

“‘The Hunger Games’ is off to a fantastic start,” says Rick Butler, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Fandango. “Yesterday we saw the biggest first day advance ticketing sales in our company’s nearly 12-year history – which is especially impressive for a March release and a non-sequel.”

Many theaters are continuing to add new showtimes as a way to please fans and accommodate the demand for opening weekend tickets.

It definitely looks like Lionsgate made the right choice picking up The Hunger Games trilogy. These movies are going to be huge and with three more movies to follow, you can safely say it is going to be dominating the movie franchise world for a while.

The Hunger Games is the movie adaptation of the bestselling novel by Suzanne Collins. It is followed by the sequels Catching Fire and Mockingjay. 

The plot for the film is as follows:

Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the governing body, the Capitol, of the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games. A twisted punishment for a past uprising and an ongoing government intimidation tactic, The Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which “Tributes” must fight with one another until one survivor remains. Katniss Everdeen volunteers as a tribute to save her sister from going in to the ghastly arena. She is joined by Peeta Mellark, a boy she knew who once saved her life.

You can see the official cast below:

  • Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen
  • Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark
  • Woody Harrelson as Haymitch Abernathy
  • Willow Shields as Primrose “Prim” Everdeen
  • Liam Hemsworth as Gale Hawthorne
  • Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket
  • Lenny Kravitz as Cinna
  • Paula Malcomson as Mrs. Everdeen
  • Amandla Stenberg as Rue
  • Alexander Ludwig as Cato
  • Dayo Okeniyi as Thresh
  • Isabelle Fuhrman as Clove
  • Jacqueline Emerson as Foxface
  • Leven Rambin as Glimmer
  • Jack Quaid as Marvel
  • Donald Sutherland as President Snow
  • Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickerman
  • Wes Bentley as Seneca Crane
  • Latarsha Rose as Portia

You can see the two official television trailers for the film below:

The Amazing Spider-Man Viral Hunt Comes to an End

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What began as a viral marketing campaign has ended with cities covered in (authorized) graffiti. It’s lead to websites and Twitter accounts, all wrapped in more riddles and clues. So what was the payoff? Some cool Spider-Man swag and an opportunity to get all meta with the Spider-Man storyline.

You can read about the initial hunt here.

The viral hunt that lead to websites and Twitter accounts, contained more cryptic clues and locations. Then it lead to some pretty cool gifts that fans could take home. Some of the cool stuff included Spider-Man hoodies and cellphones that sent them instructions via calls and texts on what to do next.

I think this is how official supporters got selected to put up the marks of the Spider-Man around the city.

“We’re supporting Spider-Man,” Abigail Flynn told MTV News of the campaign in New York. “We’re putting up the mark of the Spider-Man around the city to spread awareness and spread his message.”

That’s right. Even MTV covered the news in New York about the appearance of supporters for the masked vigilante known as Spider-Man. You know how they’ve always been a reliable news source. Heh. It’s all very meta though and very well done. The idea is that these Spider-Man supporters are needed to remind whoever the Spider-Man is that he’s made a difference. Especially in light of the Daily Bugle constantly thrashing him. I really wouldn’t be surprised if some of this footage appears in the movie; or maybe a reenactment of the graffiti vandalism.

In addition to New York, these events also took place in Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Seattle. To ensure that no one screwed it up or that separate professionally trained graffiti artists weren’t needed for each location, stencils were handed out. Tape up – Spray red – Tear Down – Pose for pictures. Easy enough right? I’m still having problems coloring within the lines.

Just to be sure everyone is on the same page though, the Mark of the Spider-Man official marketing website had this to communicate:

“These activities were conducted by trained and supervised persons acting with all necessary permissions and authorizations. Columbia Pictures does not condone or support the propagation of unauthorized graffiti and must insist that no one attempt to recreate, re-enact or perform such activity without all required permissions and authorizations.”

Which hopefully frees them for legal issues if by chance a street gang adopts the signature as their own. Like the black spiders in “The New Guy.” Actually, I think that was a comic book storyline entitled, “Spider-Island” where everyone in New York gained the power set of Spider man and a bunch of thugs dressed as Spider-Man. They ended up using their great power for great larceny, so other Marvel superheroes crossed over and laid the smack down on everyone; including Peter Parker.

If the Spider-Man supporters ever got out of hand, I’m sure the riot police wouldn’t have problems gassing them all. Just like the superheroes would do! It’s better to be safe than sorry.

Columbia Picture’s The Amazing Spider-Man hits theaters this July 3rd.

If you go to the official viral marketing site and click on the red image of Mark of the Spider, it’ll take you to a trailer.  Check out the trailer below!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tnxzJ0SSOw

Warlord of Mars Sued. John Carter Movie is Still a Go!

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More clothed than other images in question.

Dynamite Entertainment and Dynamic Forces, have been sued by ERB.

So who are they and why is this so important? Well Dynamite Entertainment is responsible for the Warlord of Mars graphic novel series and Lord of the Jungle, while Dynamic forces produces collectibles based on the same works. What’s this to the ERB? Well it stands for Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. You see, he’s the one who originally created Tarzan and the Mars adventurer known as John Carter back in the day which both comic series and products seem to base their work off of. So the family-owned company which holds the existing rights to the works filed a lawsuit last week Thursday in federal court. This was first reported by The Wall Street Journal

ERB accuses the publisher and merch producer of trademark infringement and unfair competition with the release of the two aforementioned comic series. ERB further claim that the comics were published without authorization.

Apparently ERB already told Dynamite Entertainment President, Nick Barrucci back in 2007 that Dark Horse held the licenses for the John Carter of Mars and Tarzan novels. Dynamite Entertainment had approached ERB originally about the possibility of publishing comics based on John Carter and Tarzan.

This was the same year that ERB licensed Disney to make the film John Carter, and also a toy company to come out with 12-inch John Carter action figures.

So the complaint is that the comics released by Dynamite Entertainment, compounded by the fact that there are other titles officially licensed out there, is likely to “Deceive, mislead and confuse the public” about who exactly is legitimately supported by ERB as these comics are “confusingly similar”.

Which titles are in question exactly?

  • Lord of the Jungle
  • Warlord of Mars
  • Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris
  • Warlord of Mars: Fall of Barsoom

If that was the intent, then yes, it would be confusing. That would be like if Disney ripped off the Harry Potter series and made a show about magical humans going to school. It is said the confusion may cause, “irreparable injury” to ERB Inc.

The comic has been in publication since 2010, so why all the commotion now? Is it a coincidence that this happened two weeks before the official release of the Disney movie in two weeks time? As convenient as this is; marketing wise; the case raises questions about public domain and the boundaries between copyright and trademark law.

The copyright term has since run its course in the states as it begins at the time of publication to a fixed number of years. Burroughs, an American author, wrote the first John Carter story back in 1912, in America. Even with the fixed number of years which I believe maxes out at 70, we’re well cleared 1982; who said those math classes were useless. This means that the works is part of public domain. This however might all be side stepped if this goes to copyright law outside of the states. In most parts of the world, the copyright length lasts the life of the author plus 50 to 70 years. So Burroughs died in 1950 which means the copyright could potentially last up to the year 2021 outside of the United States. This is exactly the angle that ERB is approaching as they attempt to get a New York federal judge to enforce UK copyright law. Did I already mention the author is American?

To top it all off, ERB also claims trademarks over John Carter and Tarzan. If successful, it would mean that ERB could possibly get perpetual copyright. Before you know it, they’ll be sandblasting images of comic book version John Carter off of elementary school murals. Hmmm… I see a pattern here.

Wait a tic. Didn’t I write about this public domain for John Carter nonsense back on February 1st?

An excerpt about the John Carter movie from one of my earliest articles:

“When I first saw the trailer for John Carter in theaters, my mind immediately went to the graphic novel, “Warlord of Mars” from Dynamite comics, which I saw similarities in costume; for the men because they actually wore clothes unlike the women. I thought this was a theatrical adaptation of the comic book and wondered why they would go to the trouble of changing the name.

As it turns out, after nearly a hundred years in print, the copyright for this story has since expired and is considered public domain. So both the movie and the comic book can be treated as separate entities, which is a good thing since the comic book version is rather risqué; strippers tend to wear more then the females depicted in the graphic novel.”

I did write about this. So it’s also not a surprise that ERB is also harping about the comic’s costume design like I did; to me at least.  I’m always mostly right.

The official complaint states that the content for Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris “border on (and in some cases are) pornographic”

“In each issue, [the female character] Dejah Thoris appears with greatly exaggerated feminine features”

“On some covers – covers which defendants refer to as ‘Risque Nude’ exclusive covers – Dejah Thoris appears topless.”

I’d like to be the first to welcome ERB to the wonderful world of comic books. Aimed at boys with a lowered chance at copulation, the comic book industry has been ‘cheesecake’ for a number of decades.  Empires have been built on this collective hormonal drive.

The lawsuit doesn’t specify any damages, but it does seek to recall all the comics distributed in the United Kingdom. Oh, and also the complete and utter surrendering of profits made by these works forthwith.

I wouldn’t be surprised at this point if ERB went after DC comics for Martian Manhunter, which is very similar to the martians in the John Carter series.  Heh.  “No man escapes the Manhunters.”  I know. I know.  Wrong manhunter.

Almost a hundred years in the making, the theatrical adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs classic sci-fi novel is due to hit theaters March 9.