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• Series: Akira Live-Action, Spawn Animated Series, Cowboys & Aliens, Astro City, Green Hornet, The Dark Knight Rises (Batman 3), Batman: The Brave and the Bold

DARK KNIGHT Babes & Tech

Comics2Film: Catwoman by Adam Hughes
© Mania

Dark Knight casting female leads, teasing new tech. Plus: Eat it, haters: Green Hornet is awesome! Ninja Turtles a priority for Viacom. Busiek talks Astro City and more! It's your Comics2Film 10.11.12!

BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD on DVD

Warner Home Video has announced that the second DVD release for Batman: The Brave and the Bold is coming in March. The new release will collect "Season 1, Part 2" and include 13 episodes for a $19.97 SRP.

Episodes include, "Mystery in Space!", "Trials of the Demons!", "Night of the Huntress!", "Menace of the Conqueror Caveman!", "The Color of Revenge!", "Legends of the Dark Mite!", "Hail the Tornado Tyrant!", "Duel of the Double Crossers!", "The Last Bat on Earth!", "When Omac Attacks!", "The Fate of Equinox!", "Mayhem of the Music Meister!" and "Inside the Outsiders!"

Eat it, Haters! GREEN HORNET is Very Good

So, we've had our fun taking shots at Seth Rogen's Green Hornet movie over the past few years. But Rogen and Gondry have been consistently nudging us away from cynicism and towards intrigue (and maybe even excitement) about their take on the classic pulp character.

Now, word from outlets like The Big Picture Blog at the L.A. Times is that the movie is actually pretty durn good.

Sony held a test screening on Tuesday night in Long Beach and the reaction was positive, and well above studio expectations. 93% of the test audience said the movie was "excellent" or "very good" (the two highest check boxes on the survey card). 83% said they would "definitely recommend" the film to their friends.

The film releases in January and it remains to be seen whether or not it clicks with audiences, but Sony is said to be excited enough that chief Amy Pascal is now contemplating a sequel.

Thanks to AntoBlueberry for the submission.

SPAWN Animated Series Still in Development

Todd McFarlane told MTV Splash Page that he's still working to bring Spawn back to TV as an animated series. The comic book character enjoyed an Emmy Award Winning toon show on HBO back in the late 1990s.

The comics creator said plans are to keep things dark and edgy for the new series.

"[Cable networks] want stuff that isn't what you can find on ABC, NBC and CBS," McFarlane said. "They've covered that field. We have now an area where we can actually do shows that get a little grittier, a little darker, a little more risque."

He also said the networks that he's talking to want more of what McFarlane brought to HBO and aren't looking to change up what worked before.

COWBOYS & ALIENS Wrangles Herd of Writers

Heat-Vision has an interesting analysis of the brewing Writers Guild of America (WGA) dispute over the writing credits for Jon Favreau's Cowboys & Aliens movie. The current version of the movie was developed by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof and is being touted as being based on the graphic novel.

However, fans who have followed C2F over the past decade plus know that Cowboys & Aliens has been rolling around the Platinum Studios idea bin since 1997 and was in development as a move long before the 2006 comic ever bowed. As such there are several scripts by several writers and writing teams that were written well before the comic and the new movie. Furthermore, Orci and Kurtzman have said publicly many times that the movie retains little of the graphic novel.

Universal and Dreamworks have filed the paperwork with the WGA citing the current writing team and being "based on Platinum Studios’ Comic Book Created by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg." That filing has the early writing teams upset as it seems to be an attempt to cut them off from consideration for a writing credit.

Normally a long-developed tentpole movie like this will go through several writing teams and, when it's time to settle the credits, the WGA has to plow through all existing scripts and decide which of the teams made significant contributions to the final work. Should the WGA agree that the movie is based on the 2006 graphic novel, then it would effectively invalidate the efforts of previous writers who may have actually contributed to the mythology of the film.

So, expect to hear more about this as we get closer to the film's release next summer.

AKIRA Rumor Debunked

Word broke earlier this week that Zac Efron and Morgan Freeman were circling roles in the Akira live-action movie. However, Gossip Cop checked in with reps for the Hughes Brothers, who are attached to direct the movie and they say the Efron stories are "not true."

Busiek Talks ASTRO CITY Movie

In a Q & A with Newsarama , Kurt Busiek updates us on the status of the Astro City movie, based on his outstanding anthology comic of the same name.

Busiek says he's in progress on a treatment for Working Tile Films, a studio is more known for smaller, intimate pictures than supehero fare. But the core principle of Astro City is telling superhero stories from the man on the street's point of view, and dealing with how superhero events impact ordinary people.

"Everything they'd seen that in the superhero arena was about spectacle, about action or about fighting. So they it didn't seem like their kind of thing until seeing Astro City," Busiek said.

The comics creator also said that filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen were responsible for introducing the suits at Working Title to the property, although he doesn't elaborate on their involvement or his relationship to them and, strangely, Newsarama didn't ask the follow up question. It's unlikely that the Coen Brothers would stay involved, but it would be a very interesting movie if they did.

Busiek is mum on details of the movie but does talk a bit more about the process of adapting it to the big screen. Click through for the complete interview.

Thanks to AntoBlueberry for the submission.

DARK KNIGHT Wants Two Female Leads...going All IMAX?

Deadline.com reports that director Christopher Nolan has begun scheduling meetings for, not one, but two female leads for The Dark Knight Rises. According to their report, the first round of casting discussions will be with Rachel Weisz, Naomi Watts, Blake Lively, Natalie Portman, Anne Hathaway and Keira Knightley.

Most interestingly is the revelation that one role is for a love interest to replace the Rachel Dawes character. The second role is "a villain." C2F is going to have to presume that the villain is Catwoman, but that's complete speculation (and some wishful thinking on our part). If this is Nolan's last go-round with Batman, then how could he pass on such a great Batman character.

On the other hand, the Dark Knight has plenty of femmes fatale in his rogue's gallery. Another guess would see a Harley Quinn take up withere the Joker left off. Our understanding was that, before actor Heath Ledger's untimely passing Nolan wanted to bring the Joker back for this one, so bringing Harley into the mix might be a way to fulfill on his story goals. Again, that's all just speculation on his part.

Deadline also reveals that for all the groundless speculation on who actor Tom Hardy is playing in the movie, Hardy himself may not even know. He signed on to his role on the strength of his relationship with Nolan alone and hasn't seen a script. Whether he's a villain or other supporting character remains to be seen. One thing we do know is he ain't The Riddler.

In other Bat-news, Collider.com reports that while Nolan has resolved to shun the 3D fad on this movie, he is planning to flex some technological muscle with it. He recently told the site, "We’re looking to do something technologically that’s never been done before."

Nolan has been a huge advocate of IMAX but has only employed it sparingly in the previous two movies. The reason for that is that IMAX cameras are bigger, bulkier and louder than normal cameras, which makes their usefulness limited. But Collider has heard that IMAX has been working hard on "a smaller, less intrusive camera." Nolan aims to use the technology if it comes together.

Collider has confirmed this information with independent sources as well, so it seems the story is very credible.

Thanks to AntoBlueberry for the submission.

Rob M. Worley is the writer and creator of the all-new, all-cat kids comic book series Scratch9. Issues #1 and #2 are in stores now. Issue #1 is also available as a digital download via iVerse Media's iTunes app. Visit Scratch9.com for news and info!