Rubberface star Jim Carrey is returning to mainstream acting since 2014’s Dumb and Dumber To. This time, however, he is making the leap to the small screen – his first series regular role in more than two decades.
According to Deadline, Carrey is starring in Kidding, a comedy series created by Dave Holstein and directed by Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind filmmaker Michel Gondry. The series recevied a 10-episode straight-to-series-order on Showtime, where Carrey executive produces the drama about comedians, I’m Dying Up Here, which was recently renewed for a second season. Jason Bateman (Arrested Development, Ozark) will also serve as an executive producer.
Here is the official synopsis:
Created by Dave Holstein (Weeds, Raising Hope) and to be directed by Gondry, Kidding stars Carrey as Jeff, aka Mr. Pickles, an icon of children’s television, a beacon of kindness and wisdom to America’s impressionable young minds and the parents who grew up with him – who also anchors a multi-million dollar branding empire. But when this beloved personality’s family – wife, two sons, sister and father – begins to implode, Jeff finds no fairy tale or fable or puppet will guide him through this crisis, which advances faster than his means to cope. The result: a kind man in a cruel world faces a slow leak of sanity as hilarious as it is heartbreaking.
Are you excited for another Jim Carrey/Michel Gondry collaboration?
Superstar Artist Greg Smallwood has been raising the bar for every title he touches. Ever since his stellar run on Moon Knight with Jeff Lemire ended, he’s been a floating feature artist on a number of titles. This time, he teams up with Dan Slott and Jordie Bellaire for an issue of The Amazing Spider-Man.
***SPOILERS LIE AHEAD***
Peter Parker isn’t the only character moving on from the Parker Industries era of ASM. Following a brief stint as an international terrorist, Norman Osborn is desperate to get back into the Goblin business. To restore that madness in his brain, he must seek the help of a secret order of monks to flush out the nanites that Spider-Man infected him with.
Amazing Spider-Man #32 is a cleverly crafted script, brilliantly illustrated, and vibrantly colored. Readers go on this journey of mystic findings with Norman as he sees what could have been if the monks had taught him the way of sorcery. Revealing that he never passed the first test, but now knows the madness is still inside him, is a satisfying misdirection.
Dan Slott gives us a breather, spending some intimate time with our favorite Goblin was a wise choice as we enter the Legacy era. Osborn is one of the best villains in Marvel Comics history. Slott successfully showcases a lost and broken man finding his way back to misguided hope and insanity. It’s been a while since Norman’s priorities and personalities were that of pumpkin bombs and gliders. Seeing him come full circle gets my blood pumping, I can’t wait to see where he goes next.
Smallwood’s artistic approach isn’t limited to characters with mental issues, but he sure has a knack for them. The final act of this issue is a liquid insanity swirling around the drain of reality. The grainy and sand paper looking visual style adds a layer of mystery and suspense. It almost seems like a dream sequence, which is all the more fitting once you reach the big reveal.
This was a fun snippet of what Norman would look like if he were to find a path to mysticism. With Peter Parker returning to a more humble financial state, seeing that Norman is also reverting to his former ways is exciting enough to make your spider-sense tingle.
With Marvel Legacy just around the corner, the world of Amazing Spider-Man is one to pay close attention to. This era of Spidey comics might not have been for everyone, but the fallout and graduation from it will no doubt be stimulating. Having Norman desperately back on the path to being the Green Goblin again promises future fun for our favorite web slinger.
If you were a fan of those hyper-stylized 90s sexual thrillers, films like Jade or Basic Instinct, then Red Sparrow looks to be right up your alley.
Jennifer Lawrence plays, for lack of a clearer term, a seductress and assassin. It sounds a little like Atomic Blonde, sure, but this trailer presents something altogether different. See for yourself:
“Dominika Egorova is many things. A devoted daughter determined to protect her mother at all costs. A prima ballerina whose ferocity has pushed her body and mind to the absolute limit. A master of seductive and manipulative combat. When she suffers a career-ending injury, Dominika and her mother are facing a bleak and uncertain future. That is why she finds herself manipulated into becoming the newest recruit for Sparrow School, a secret intelligence service that trains exceptional young people like her to use their bodies and minds as weapons. After enduring the perverse and sadistic training process, she emerges as the most dangerous Sparrow the program has ever produced. Dominika must now reconcile the person she was with the power she now commands, with her own life and everyone she cares about at risk, including an American CIA agent who tries to convince her he is the only person she can trust.”
That is not what I expected when I hit play. This looks like something totally different for Jennifer Lawrence, and I am on board for it.
Red Sparrow also stars Joel Edgerton, Mary Louise-Parker, Matthias Schoenaerts, Jeremy Irons, Charlotte Rampling. It will hit theaters some time in 2018. Stay tuned.
The Shape of Water is getting terrific buzz from the Toronto International Film Festival, and if it’s not on the list of your most anticipated fall movies I don’t want to know you.
The first trailer was hypnotic in its gentle nature, but this NSFW red-band trailer heightens tension, anxiety, and is quite frankly a perfect trailer.
Check it out:
“From master story teller, Guillermo del Toro, comes THE SHAPE OF WATER – an other-worldly fairy tale, set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1962. In the hidden high-security government laboratory where she works, lonely Elisa (Sally Hawkins) is trapped in a life of isolation. Elisa’s life is changed forever when she and co-worker Zelda (Octavia Spencer) discover a secret classified experiment.”
Who needs a Dark Universe from the Fast and Furious guys? We have Guillermo Del Toro doing his own Creature From the Black Lagoon love story to tell! I want to live inside the world Del Toro paints here, it’s stunning to see even in a two-minute stretch.
The Shape of Water stars the incredible quartet of Sally Hawkins, Richard Jenkins, Octavia Spencer, and Michael Shannon, who is in definite nut job mode. It opens December 8, see you there.
The 65 year old actor known for the Taken franchise says he’s done with action films. During an interview with SkyNews he revealed his age plays a big part in his decision.
“They’re still throwing serious money at me to do that stuff. I’m like: ‘Guy’s I’m sixty-f******-five.’ Audiences are eventually going to go: ‘Come on.’ ”
This isn’t the first time he’s talked about retiring from action. In a 2015 interview with Collider he said,”Well, there is a limit, of course. It’s the movies, you know. For myself, I probably – maybe two years if god spares me and I’m healthy and stuff. After that I’ll stop, I think.
Don’t worry we still have four more films coming up where Neeson will be showing off his action skills. Here’s a list of his upcoming movies and release dates.
Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House, September 29, 2017
Most Floridians are looking for something positive to focus on after the events surrounding Hurricane Irma. Let me bring the following Facebook post to your attention.
Omg! Just walked out the front door and found Spider-Man helping chainsaw down the huge tree covering our road!*Just…
It seems that Floridians are getting help from their friendly neighborhood Spider-man. According to the Tampa Bay Times, our favorite web-slinger isn’t climbing walls but is scaling down trees with a chainsaw and assisting members of the community. Here’s a closer look at our hero in action.
It’s heartwarming to see real life heroes emerging during this time of recovery. Seeing someone who is channeling their love of one of Marvel’s most characters to assist with the aftermath of a truly destructive event is wonderful. Who ever is behind that mask, we here at Monkeys Fighting Robots salute you.
The new Hellboy reboot without Guillermo Del Toro, but with the great David Harbour, gave us the first look at Harbour as the title character. It looks about like you would imagine, which means close to what Ron Perlman looked like, only with a little more texture.
The official Hellboy twitter page posted the photo, check it:
Mike Mingola’s creation hasn’t changed much over the years, so this feels right in line for a new take.
Neil Marshall is taking over for Del Toro, who has given his blessing already. It’s a strange transition, but bound to be a bit more grounded in some manner of “real world.”
Aside from David Harbour, this new Hellboy also stars Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane, and Sasha Lane. There is no set release date yet, but that will come as more information begins to seep out. Get Hype!
As reported by Monkeys Fighting Robots’ very own Aric Sweeny, the world of comic books lost a seminal figure last weekend. On September 10th, 2017, Len Wein died. And although he co-created several enduring characters for both DC and Marvel during his life, his name might not sound familiar, so read on …
The Wild Mind of Len Wein: A Marvel-ous Makeover
Introducing Thunderbird!! Oh, and Nightcrawler, Storm, and Colossus as well …
In addition to co-creating fan favourite Wolverine with Roy Thomas, Herb Trimpe, and John Romita for Marvel in 1974, his and Dave Cockrum’s revamp of the X-Men in 1975, which revived Lee and Kirby’s mutant superhero team after five years on the shelf, introduced Nightcrawler, Storm, and Colossus. This new team and the new characters on it shaped the face of Marvel Comics in the late ’70s and continues to even now. That the X-Men film franchise, troubled as it is, focuses more on Wein and his creative partners’ characters than it does on Lee and Kirby’s original team from the ’60s is strong testimony against anyone who thinks otherwise.
The Wild Mind of Len Wein: Distinguished Creator
Probably Wein’s most notable achievement for DC, on top of co-creating Swamp Thing with Bernie Wrightson, was his deft editorial work on Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’s genre-redefining series Watchmen, and if you’ve read Watchmen you know how difficult that must have been.
“OK Al and Dave, how the Hell does this pirate ship thing relate back to the freaking superheroes again?!”
Other notable characters created by Wein for DC include Batman’s corporate liaison at Wayne Enterprises Lucius Fox, who also made it to the big screen, and the murderous Clayface III. Really, it’s difficult to overstate Wein’s influence on contemporary comic books. But luckily, you don’t have to take my word for it: Chris Claremont, who scripted the 1975 Wein/Cockrum reboot of the X-Men said it best,
“The history of modern comics would be incredibly different if you took [Wein’s] contributions out of the mix. The fact he doesn’t get credit for it half the time is disgraceful. We owe a lot of what we are — certainly on the X-Men — to Len and to Dave [Cockrum].”
High praise indeed, and well deserved.
The Wild Mind of Len Wein: Beyond Comic Books
In addition to Wein’s work on comic books, which included work for both big publishers as well as Disney, Defiant, and Bongo Comics, he also wrote and edited for several animated TV shows. And although I never watched Phantom 2040 or Pocket Dragon Adventures, I watched the heck out of four other animated shows he worked on, the ’90s versions of Spider-Man, Batman, and X-Men, and the CGI epic ReBoot.
The Wild Mind of Len Wein: Read All About It
I was quite saddened to learn of the illustrious Mr. Wein’s death, but I’m comforted by the fact that his legacy thrives. Today’s average movie-goer or comic book reader might not know it, but they’re benefiting from Wein’s deft creative writing and editing — and, to think, he originally wanted to be an artist!
Sad as it is to lose a great talent like Len Wein, it’s good to reflect upon how much he shaped the medium he worked in. And happily, this brief article has only touched upon some of Wein’s most enduring work. There are plenty of great Len Wein stories out there, so get reading!
Comics have always been an escape for me. They have gotten me through bullying, adolescence, homesickness, and heartbreak. And now for the second time in my life (the first being Hurricane Andrew when I was a teenager, but that’s a story for another time), they helped me escape from the frightening onslaught of a major hurricane.
If you were in or anywhere near Florida in the past week, the name Irma was probably blaring out at you from every news outlet and social media source. And rightfully so, because as a Category 5 hurricane, Irma was destined to leave a Solomon Grundy-like path of destruction in its wake.
It was on New Comic Book day that we were pretty much told that the storm would be coming our way and for a moment it was hard to be excited about ‘funny books’. But I couldn’t help it because as a comics journalist, I was going to be receiving an advance copy of DC: Metal #2 and that was an especially exciting title. It was a book I had been looking forward to since reading issue one. With it’s over the top plot of a disaster of cosmic proportions coming, with only Batman seemingly able to stop it, it was for me the comic book event of the year. And now, of course, it had been swept by a very REAL disastrous event.
Now I’m not a kid and as an adult (and a home owner) I was very aware of how dangerous the situation with the storm was. The weather experts were using the term ‘catastrophic’ when it came to property damage. Predictions on storm surge were deadly. I both feared for my life and feared for my home. But there is only so much ‘doomsday prepping’ one can do. Only so much “The End is Nigh” (sorry Rorschach!) anyone can take. So I once again I turned to comics. I loaded that copy of issue two of DC: Metal on my tablet, and opened up issue one as a refresher. But then I wanted to go further back, so I found The Casting and The Forge one shots and just started there again. Soon I was transported. Batman’s race to face a catastrophe of his own head on was an eerie parallel for what I felt; city, friends, and family were all in danger for both of us. But Batman’s resilience started to become my own. I started becoming less scared, feeling MORE prepared. In a way, I had started thinking like Batman would. I had contingency plans, I was ready. And then I remembered something writer Scott Snyder had said about Batman in an interview. He said “He’s not a really a figure of intimidation so much as he is this broad almost international figure of bravery. And he says I’m going to fight these incredibly abstract huge monstrous things in the form of my villains so that you will go out and face the things that seem insurmountable to you.” One word stood out from that great quote: seem. It all came together then; it all fell into a very focused perspective. The stories, the title Metal, Batman, the hurricane. And to top it all off, I was even wearing a classic Batman symbol t-shirt (a detail I had forgotten as that morning I just pulled the first shirt I grabbed out of the dryer).
So when the eye of the storm hit, when the wind was howling like an escaped Arkham lunatic, when the roof was shaking like Gotham during the Cataclysm, when the water pushed under the door with enough force to bring in Killer Croc, I felt a sense of calm and focus I honestly didn’t think I would have. I patiently and serenely guided my mother (who was with me) and my dog to gather in the safest spot in the house, the cave-like windowless center. I used my smart phone’s weather radar and the radio broadcast of the coverage to track the storm as it crossed my path (the meteorologist serving as the Alfred Pennyworth in my ear). In short, I felt I was ready to react to anything that would happen, just like Batman in the books.
And then the storm passed. The waters never rose and the wind died down. Yes, there was damage, but it could have been worse. I had gotten through it all with the help of a fictional character. And as I always say, whatever works is always good. Value can be found in anything if it gives something to you. And DC: Metal gave it to me. I don’t know how THAT story ends yet, but I know Batman will pull through. That is the power of comics I think, of all stories really, to remind you of things you sometimes forget. That no matter the odds, we can always pull through.
*I know I was lucky to not have seen the worst of the outcome of this storm and I urge everyone to please research, read and educate yourselves on what happened. I was fortunate and many were not. That is not lost on me. We owe it to everyone to know their stories.
*I didn’t include any pictures of the storm from my end because I didn’t take any. I literally could not go outside. And besides, there are far braver and more talented photographers that captured those images.
“Taking out those who wronged him with military precision.”
The Punisher stars Jon Bernthal as the title role and also features Jason R. Moore as Curtis Hoyle, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as David Lieberman, Michael Nathanson as Sam Stein, Jaime Ray Newman as Sarah Lieberman, and Deborah Ann-Woll as Karen Page.
“Frank Castle is haunted and hunted after the murder of his family and becomes a vigilante known in the criminal underworld as “the Punisher”, who aims to fight crime by any means necessary.”
The Punisher hits Netflix in 2017; no specific release date has been announced yet.
