Bleeding Fool |
- Who is Asking for a Gender-Swapped Zorro or ‘Robyn Hood’?
- Spider-Man: No Way Home Poised to Pass Avatar this Weekend (Without China)
- Review: Journey to the Middle Kingdom – Princess of Yelang (Part 1)
- ‘Call of Duty’ is Reportedly The Rock’s Next Videogame to Film Adaptation
- Comic Creators File Massive Lawsuit Against Action Lab Entertainment
| Who is Asking for a Gender-Swapped Zorro or ‘Robyn Hood’? Posted: 04 Feb 2022 03:55 PM PST
As audiences become increasingly frustrated with the way classic characters are reimagined on the big screen, the producers of these adaptations continue to brag about how progressive and ‘diverse’ their work is – usually achieved through token gestures like race-swapping the character, or even more commonly, gender-swapping fan-favorite characters from the source material.
For some reason, Hollywood’s proclivity for race-swapping characters has become a joke in and of itself, especially when it comes to red-haired ladies. Most recently in the ‘Witcher’ adaption, in which the fan-favorite blue-eyed and red-haired Triss Merigold is played by an actress who is eerily similar to the descriptions found in the novels and games. But we’ve talked about the removal of red heads in the movies to death already.
But on the heels of news that Robert Rodriguez is developing an updated, gender-swapped version of the classic old southwest vigilante tale Zorro for the CW network with writer-director Rebecca Rodriguez, comes this eye-roll inducing announcement that Canada’s Global Network is developing Robyn Hood, re-inventing the English folk hero as a modern-day tale of a woman of color who goes by the moniker ‘Robyn Hood,’ and is the leader of a masked hip-hop band, The Hood, from Sherwood Towers.
Julien Christian Lutz, aka Director X, known for his signature music videos for artists including Drake, Rihanna, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Wiz Khalifa, Usher and Justin Bieber — has created the Canadian indie TV drama Robyn Hood for Boat Rocker Studios and Global Television. The one-hour action drama, also from screenwriter Chris Roberts (Orphan Black, Frontier), will shoot in Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario, and debut on Canada's Global network in 2023. There's no word on casting, but the eight-episode drama will offer a modern take on the Robin Hood legend. The plot centers on a fearless young woman, Robyn Loxley, whose masked hip-hop band, The Hood — from Sherwood Towers, a cluster of rental high-rises in a working-class corner of New Nottingham — learns to fight for what's right and hold those in power to account by using their greed against them to help their community.
If there was doubt Robyn Hood will be as “politically correct” as possible, the director adds the following.
"This is the perfect time to modernize Robin Hood," Lutz said in a statement. "We are currently living in the gilded age 2.0, where billionaires have way too much and the poor have far too little. We need someone to fight for justice!"
Hollywood is truly bereft of ideas. The post Who is Asking for a Gender-Swapped Zorro or ‘Robyn Hood’? appeared first on Bleeding Fool. |
| Spider-Man: No Way Home Poised to Pass Avatar this Weekend (Without China) Posted: 04 Feb 2022 01:15 PM PST
While many recent box office hits have struggled to stay in theaters for more than a few weeks before being shipped out to streaming services, Spider-Man: No Way Home has now been released for almost seven weeks and is still climbing the list of the greatest films ever made. As it nears the end of its theatrical run, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man trilogy is just over $20 million away from overtaking Avatar’s $760.5 million domestic box office take to become the third-highest domestic box office grosser of all time. Spider-Man has been climbing the charts both domestically and internationally for the past few weeks.
After quickly passing the likes of The Dark Knight – Warner Bros. highest-grossing film ever with $534.8 million – the Marvel blockbuster now has Avatar's domestic total in its sights this weekend, which would put the movie behind only Avengers: Endgame and Star Wars: The Force Awakens with $858.3 million and $936.6 million hauls, respectively. For a film that was almost derailed by a short fallout between Sony and Marvel back in 2019, that is probably the surest sign that no such parting of ways will be considered in the future by either party when it comes to their most lucrative Marvel asset. Breaking box office records is nothing new for Marvel, but even by their standards, Spider-Man: No Way Home has surpassed even the high expectations of the biggest Marvel movies so far.
No Way Home broke records on its first day of release, grossing nearly $587 million on its opening weekend, automatically making it one of the top five Hollywood movies of the year. No Way Home is currently the sixth highest-grossing film of all time and the second biggest MCU film of all time. While Black Widow‘s performance was impacted by the Disney+ dual release, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Eternals both dealt with brand new characters to the MCU and didn’t have the pull to bring audiences back into theaters, Spider-arrival Man’s at the end of the year proved that well-known characters with exciting stories can certainly bring audiences out in large numbers, pandemic be damned.
The post Spider-Man: No Way Home Poised to Pass Avatar this Weekend (Without China) appeared first on Bleeding Fool. |
| Review: Journey to the Middle Kingdom – Princess of Yelang (Part 1) Posted: 04 Feb 2022 10:55 AM PST
Back in mid October last year, I covered indie comic title Journey To The Middle Kingdom, a story about three high school friends, Jason, Sabrina, and Michelle being transported into an ancient, folkloric past of China by a Phoenix named Xiao. Wielding magical calligraphy brushes that turn the kanji they write in the air into spells, the teens are given the mission to set right various legendary stories that have mysteriously taken a twist for the worst.
The first outing, as can be expected, is a bumpy one for the young heroes. Done in two parts, Princess of Yelang opens up where volume 1 (Legend of the White Snake Maiden) left off, Jason, Sabrina, and Michelle following their map, entering into the outskirts of a kingdom (Yelang).
The first person they encounter being a collapsed elderly woman they revive with water, Sabrina creating a cup of it with her brush, remarking that she wrote the kanji for water, but visualized a cup of water which was formed, revealing that the brushes are intuitive to a wielder's intentions.
Speaking to the old lady, Jason finds her dialect to be different from his dialect and can only ascertain that she was exhausted from overwork, but resolves to follow her back to town, suspecting that what they find there won't be particularly pleasant.
Hitting the nail on the head, it is apparent that things are not well in Yelang, the people looking worse for wear. When Jason is witness to a member of the local garrison trying to take food from a little girl, he intervenes, drawing the rest of his group into a conflict that lands them in prison, their brushes taken away.
While in prison, Xiao remains vague on details about Yelang while looking into where the brushes were taken. The teens garner hints through fellow inmates as to what is going on in the kingdom.
The Queen is running the place, and no one is happy about it.
Michelle manages to sleep, and through dream is able to glean something from the past. She sees the Princess, and the King, giving the Princess an ornate bow meant for a son that he hasn't conceived, indicating her right to the throne of Yelang.
Meanwhile, Xiao discovers that the brushes are in the castle in a chamber next to the Queen's room, the treasure room. Xiao also observes that much of the guard has been incapacitated. Flying back to the cell of Jason, Sabrina and Michelle, there's a prison break in process by a resistance group.
Xiao relays what he knows, and the heroes join the resistance in breaking out, manage an attempt at retrieving their brushes. The attempt proves costly. In the chaotic battle that ensues, they manage to retrieve the Princess's ornate bow, Jason's and Michelle's brushes but Sabrina's remains behind as they are forced to escape the castle, one of the resistance fighters captured in the process.
The Queen, now aware of the power of the brushes, contemplates the one left in her possession.
Regrouping, the teens learn that a soft usurping of power has occurred. The Queen has gained complete control of Yelang in light of the King becoming despondent and distant, forced to banish his daughter some time ago due to a disease she mysteriously contracted, the Queen claiming it was potentially lethal to everyone in the kingdom.
The circumstances are more than a little dubious.
Resolving to find the Princess, the teens ask where the Princess might be found, the resistance pointing them to a vast forest in the east, ending part 1 of the two part arc.
The team of Johnathan Hop (creator/writer), Novella Locritani (letter design), and Dimas Yuli (art) are all here giving The Princess of Yelang its centrifugal energy, but they clearly outdo themselves for part 2, the third volume of the series as a whole. 
Johnathan Hop shows his writing depth, not only intensifying the drama by setting the stakes higher in the forthcoming volume, but by capturing the emotional thread between the antagonist and protagonists when the Princess comes into play.
Novella Locritani's lettering is a pleasure, and Dimas Yuli's art speaks from the pages, the panels without dialogue saying just as much as the panels that do.
This first great journey into the Middle Kingdom is abundantly alive with action, adventure, and heart. Its conclusion is not to be missed 
Grab part 1 of The Princess of Yelang here, and back part 2 when the Kickstarter goes live. You won’t regret it! The post Review: Journey to the Middle Kingdom – Princess of Yelang (Part 1) appeared first on Bleeding Fool. |
| ‘Call of Duty’ is Reportedly The Rock’s Next Videogame to Film Adaptation Posted: 04 Feb 2022 08:15 AM PST
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson recently teased a cryptic videogame adaption, and according to a new source, the mystery has been solved. The Rock is getting ready to bring the world of Call of Duty to the big screen, according to Giant Freakin Robot. Johnson is also reportedly in talks to direct the Call of Duty film, according to their “trusted and proven inside source,” and while they go on to say that The Rock is only “in talks” at the moment, it is believed that the talks will “go through.”
That’s all we know at the moment, with the source unable to “confirm what the story will be” and thus which game the Call of Duty movie will be based on.
Activision revealed in 2015 that they were working on a cinematic universe. While there has been no further word on the project, it appears that the studio and The Rock have finally figured out a method to bring Call of Duty to theaters. Dwayne Johnson is no stranger to video game adaptations, having starred in Doom and Rampage, among others.
On July 29, 2022, The Rock will join another tremendously successful genre, comic book movies, with the upcoming Black Adam, directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. The post ‘Call of Duty’ is Reportedly The Rock’s Next Videogame to Film Adaptation appeared first on Bleeding Fool. |
| Comic Creators File Massive Lawsuit Against Action Lab Entertainment Posted: 04 Feb 2022 05:59 AM PST
It would appear that Action Lab has literally entered the “danger zone.” Almost 40 comic book creators have recently joined a proposed class action lawsuit alleging that Action Lab Entertainment, the ailing indie comic book publisher, has failed to meet a slew of contractual duties. As reported by ClassAction.org, the 46-page complaint alleges that, despite promising to print, promote, and market creators’ works, report quarterly sales and income numbers, properly maintain social media accounts, and make a reasonable effort to sell comics, Action Lab has largely failed to do any of these things, and even failed to notify creators when its office closed “without reason.”
The lawsuit also asserts that thousands of content creators have been left hanging, and that the Uniontown, Pennsylvania-based comics company failed to put a “large number of projects” into print, retain enough staff to fulfill its publisher agreements, and pay the individuals timely royalties for their work, among other apparent transgressions, between December 2019 and the spring of 2021.
The plaintiffs include John Reilly, the creator of Herald: Lovecraft & Tesla, Jeremy Whitley the creator of Princeless and Raven the Pirate Princess, the creators of Archon: Battle of the Dragon, Bigfoot: Sword of the Earthman, Baby Badass and Aberrant, among many other titles and creators. The plaintiffs claim that publisher’s agreements for content creators with Action Lab Entertainment were "unconscionable" and should now be declared “null and void”.
According to the complaint, Action Lab president Bryan Seaton, who is also a defendant in the case, left the company in late 2019 without informing the creators, leaving Shawn Pryor in control of day-to-day operations. The Action Lab offices were then closed “without reason” from December 16, 2019 until January 6, 2020, according to the lawsuit, during which time content creators were not paid and no marketing was done. Pryor quickly left Action Lab in January 2020, and Seaton finally informed the comic creators that he “had been incapable of handling the company,” according to the lawsuit. Seaton claims to have quit the next month, leaving Action Lab without a leader.
The lawsuit further asserts that Action Lab stopped down operations again in March 2020 without informing any of its content contributors, and that the defendant “did not perform any work” throughout this time. According to the plaintiffs, all content creators were once again left unpaid. Action Lab’s problems were exacerbated when its distributor, Diamond Comic Distributors also shut down operations in March in response to the pandemic. Action Lab cancelled all scheduled comicbook new releases, stopped distributing sales reports, paid out no money for books sold earlier in the year, then notified creators that Diamond reopened in June 2020 and began shipping new releases that were already in its inventory.
When interviewed last year, Seaton claimed that Action Lab attempted to reopen in July 2020 but was unable to do so until the spring of 2021. Seaton apologized to comic creators in that interview for his lack of communication and “whatever problems our shutdown has caused,” and claimed that Action Lab is “financially very strong and available for business,” but “it takes time to put the pieces together and we need your help,” according to the interview.
According to plaintiffs, Action Lab also did not communicate with creators regarding publishing delays, and frequently outright ignored them, forcing comic creators to have to resort to spending their own money to market and promote their work. They also allege that Action Lab has consistently failed to produce their projects in a timely fashion, frequently failing to publish books on the originally solicited dates, leading to returns, cancellations, and diminished orders from retailers.
"Failing to release a book on time means that it cannot be adequately advertised by creators, who are then unable to schedule signings or events around the release," the complaint relays. "Creators are not informed of changes to solicited release dates and plans."
Apparently Action Lab has even canceled entire series because they concluded that the books had insufficient pre-order numbers, and further compounded the problems on the poor accounting of its business. Per the lawsuit, the publisher not only failed to provide creators with promised sales numbers, but failed to share accurate reports that included sales numbers for ComiXology, a digital comics platform which the plaintiffs add, does not promote any current, upcoming or even their back-catalog books.
Despite Seaton’s claims, the proposed class action presents a picture of a comic book publisher that is terminally mismanaged and has allegedly failed to do the right thing by its content creators on even the most basic level.
Clownfish TV had this to say about the situation.
Other indie creators have told us that when they tried to work with the publisher last year, that the representative was slow to respond, and very cryptic in the communications. This now makes sense given that problems the publisher was going through. How much longer will Action Lab Entertainment be around? That probably depends on how this lawsuit shakes out. The post Comic Creators File Massive Lawsuit Against Action Lab Entertainment appeared first on Bleeding Fool. |
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