THE ZOCALO TODAY – February 25, 2008

JMS NEWS
Ranger Jan sent us an update from WonderCon so be sure to read all
the news from JMS' session on Saturday. The news of JMS no longer the
exclusive property of Marvel is BIG news in the comic book world. JMS
will now be writing for DC as well -- the house built by Superman and
Batman. For those of you familiar with JMS, you know that he has been
a BIG fan of Superman since he was a kid. Being free to write in that
environment must really be exciting for him. He has often said that
Superman gave him his sense of integrity and honor as a kid growing
up. Be sure to read Jan's report below.

JMS NEWS AT WONDERCON
Ranger Jan sent in this report:

JMS had his spotlight at WonderCon today and there's news and updates
on *lots* of things!

- Book of Lost Souls: JMS is waiting on a determination on the status
of this. The Icon line is sort of reserved as a prize for Marvel's
exclusive writers.
- Dream Police: Ditto
- B5 comic with Wildstorm: JMS is looking to turn that in within a
couple of months.
- Squadron Supreme: JMS decided to stop and regroup after he felt
that he'd lost track of the story after the move to a team story
rather than the focus on Hyperion. To be revisited later.
- Rising Stars Compendium: He doesn't know anything about it.
- Asked about more Lost Tales: No new word on more. JMS retold how WB
had started talks for more but refused to accellerate the process,
thinking that there wouldn't be a writer's strike. The good news is
that WB is now starting to realize that they've really got something
in B5 ('bout time!). JMS told us why there were sock puppets
sprinkled in the Lost Tales Diaries: When JMS was told the budget
he'd have to work with, his response was, "For that amount of money,
I can do it with sock puppets, not people."
- Asked about working with DC: JMS didn't give any specifics on
titles though he mentioned that people who know the characters who've
influenced him will know what he's interested in (I'd guess that to
mean Superman).
- He does have a deal to write two creator owned titles for Image.
One is called "Justice" and the other "Ten Grand".
- Now that the writer's strike is over he's got seven other feature
films lined up, two of them genre from film and print. When asked for
hints, he simply mentioned how nice it was that Ron Howard had
acquired the rights to the "Lensman" series.
- JMS is starting his own production company named "And the Horse You
Rode In On Productions". I believe that he's looking to
bring "Midnite Nation" and "Rising Stars" into this company.
- World War Z, the adaptation that he's written from the Max Brooks
bestseller is, if production goes as currently planned, slated to be
a big tentpole production with a possible 100 million dollar budget.
- The Silver Surfer movie he's written will be an origin story which
is why that wasn't in the FF movie.
- For Marvel, he's got two miniseries planned: one SubMariner and one
Captain America.
- Asked if he might ever write an autobiography, JMS told of having
begun the "JMS Historical Reclamation Project" a while back by asking
fans for pictures of the many places he'd lived as a child and that
he's begun writing an autobiography focusing on how, if he could
become a success, anybody can.
- He continued on by pointing out that he never sits when doing his
spotlights, hasn't for a long time. The reason for that is because
you always stand when reporting to your superiors and that's those of
us in the audience who he looks to to create the next great stories.
It was a fun panel, as usual, with lots of joking and fun with the
audience.

Go over to www.Newsrama.com and read the entire article. It talks
about Amazing Spider-Man, Thor, The Twelve, Bullet Points and Silver
Surfer: Requiem. For comic book lovers, you'll want to know if JMS is
continuing his efforts on these books.

KEEPING UP WITH CAST AND CREW

BRUCE BOXLEITNER
Bruce will star in a western entitled ACES AND EIGHTS to air on ION
TV March 15 at 9:00pm. Casper Van Dien from Starship Troopers also
stars in the film.

PAT TALLMAN/JEFF WILLERTH/ROBIN ATKIN DOWNES:
I am told that FOR PETE'S WAKE will be previewed soon in Oklahoma. I
will have specific details soon for those who may be close enough to
attend.

FOR PETE'S WAKE is a delightful comedy that stars PAT TALLMAN and
ROBIN ATKIN DOWNES. It was amazingly shot in 3 days and is an
absolutely hilarious look at the complicated life of one particular
family – and extended family.

BABYLON PODCASTS

WELCOME TO SHOW #100
Jeff wishes everyone a Happy Vorlontine's Day, and Tim, Summer and
Jeffrey take a moment to recognize a podcast milestone; okay, moment
over. Let's get to the geeking!

Deep Geeking: We have a Deep Geeking treat for you: a guest geeker!
Mike McCafferty Mike McCafferty, actor and geek, joins us to share
his long pent-up Babylon 5 theories. He believes that `War Without
End' is the Grand Retcon of the series, and we all discuss a lot of
points from casting to plot adjustments and future Retcon necessities
in the series.

We argue about time travel and the story changes necessitated by
Sheridan replacing Sinclair, the differences in the time compression
between `Babylon Squared' and `War Without End', and so many more
nitpicks, that most B5 geeks should be quite satisfied.

Visit Mike's website and say hello. And we'll let you know when the
Invisible Man DVD hits the shelves!

Second Life Info: FarPoint Media's castle is at
http://slurl.com/secondlife/beraudes/203/151/49.

If you go to Starship Sofa, check out the episode containing `Going
Through Changes' by Pat Murphy. Summer read the story, and people
have been enjoying the reading.

To catch up on all the wonderful podcasts, go to
www.babylonpodcast.com.

NEWS AROUND THE WORLD OF SCIENCE FICTION:

UNIVERSAL UPCOMING PROJECTS
Now that the WGA strike is over, many studios have turned their
attention to future projects, in some cases, making extensive changes
to their 2009 line up. Variety broke down plans for Universal
Pictures and some possible issues for them now that director
Guillermo del Toro may have two Hobbit productions to contend with
for New Line & MGM.
The studio gave him a first-look deal, picked up a sequel
to "Hellboy" with a budget of more than $80 million, and even bought
the rights to his dream project, the H.P. Lovecraft epic, "At the
Mountains of Madness." Studio brass was stunned to see Del Toro
emerge as the likely director of the next two "Hobbit" movies for New
Line and MGM. That would lock him down for four straight years in New
Zealand. Langley acknowledges, "We're in discussions with how to
rectify that with Guillermo." There was also yet more hints that a
BOURNE 4 film was hitting theaters sometime in the near future and
more points about Universal's MUMMY franchise splitting it off into a
new spin-off franchise. All this bodes well for us, the viewer.

IRON MAN TRAILER
Marvel has indicated that the trailer for IRON MAN will debut during
the episode of LOST on February 28. It will probably be available for
the web shortly thereafter.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE
According to Variety, moviegoers switched their gaze from Presidents
Day holdovers yesterday to Sony's "Vantage Point." Snapping up $8
million from 3,149 theaters, the Pete Travis political thriller is
positioned to take the top spot at the weekend box office. Last
weekend's No. 1 film, "Jumper" took a 57% dive from its previous
Friday figure into second place. The Fox-New Regency sci-fi actioner
collected $3.8 million from 3,430 engagements moving its cume to
$47.4 million. Disney-Summit's "Step Up 2 the Streets" lost 53% of
its box office beat from last Friday, grossing $3 million in third
from 2,480 playdates for a domestic cume of $34.6 million.
Paramount's "The Spiderwick Chronicles" charted the softest drop
among last weekend's Presidents Day entries with a -33%. The kid lit
pic captured $2.96 million in fourth place from 3,847 for a current
running cume of $33.9 million. Warner Bros.' "Fool's Gold" placed
fifth, collecting $1.96 million in coin from 3,075, off 49%. In the
midst of its third frame, the $48 million domestic B.O. for the Kate
Hudson-Matthew McConaughey headliner is trailing 15% behind the duo's
previous 2003 outing "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" which finaled at
$105.8 million.

ABC FAMILY SUCCESS
Variety writes that ABC Family has evolved into one of Disney's
biggest success stories as of late -- a dramatic turnaround for the
property, which cost Michael Eisner a staggering $5 billion seven
years ago. Eisner was widely lambasted at the time for the
acquisition, which had struggled to shed its old image. Fueled by
original hits like "Kyle XY" and "Greek" -- as well as off-net fare
like "Gilmore Girls" -- the cabler is coming off its top-rated year
to date. ABC Family ended 2007 with its most-watched month ever, 2.23
million viewers in December, and just netted its best January marks
yet in key demos. Cabler is also aggressively bulking up its series
output, picking up the comicbook-themed drama "The Middleman" and a
teen-oriented romantic hourlong from "7th Heaven" creator Brenda
Hampton. ABC Family has also ordered "Samurai Girl," based on the
young adult novels about a teen-turned-samurai, as a six-hour event,
to run over one weekend in August, and the project "Roomies."

Knowing that you are all interested in any JMS news that comes our
way, I thought I'd drop you a quick note to send this along. Be sure
to drop over to the website to get more current information as it
comes my way.

Take care.
Sandy

Sandra Bruckner
Editor/Publisher
ISN News: The Zocalo Today
http://www.isnnews.net