Voices From Krypton

GREG WEISMAN on "The Spectacular Spider-Man"

Although forever branded as the creator of Disney's Gargoyles, Greg Weisman has a long career in writing for television animation. His additional credits include Max Steel, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, W.I.T.C.H., and The Batman. Come this January, he'll be bringing new adventures of Spidey to the small screen via The Spectacular Spider-Man, which will be airing on Kids WB. Seemingly inspired by both the classic Stan Lee/Steve Ditko comics from the 1960s as well as Ultimate Spider-Man, the new series will pick up just a few months after Peter Parker has been bitten by a radioactive spider and transformed. In the following four-part interview, Greg provides all the background you could possibly need on the show's early development and approach to the characters and story lines.

Click below for parts 2-4 of the interview:

MEDIA GEEK: WHEN HARRY MET DIE HARD

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ALEX KURTZMAN, PART 4

As the final part of Voices From Krypton's exclusive interview with Alex Kurtzman concludes, the discussion switches almost entirely to Star Trek and the intention of the new film to follow the original series' goal of looking at modern day society through the prism of the future.

ALEX KURTZMAN, PART 3

In this Transformers-centric portion of the interview with Alex Kurtzman, he addresses the positive and negative comments out there about Michael Bay directing the film, offering his feelings on the strengths that he is bringing to the project.

ALEX KURTZMAN, PART 2

In the second part of our exclusive interview with screenwriter Alex Kurtzman, he addresses the challenges of adapting both Transformers and Star Trek. He also details that both Jaws and Jurassic Park were models he and co-writer Roberto Orci looked to in adapting Transformers. Finally, there is a discussion of Star Trek's legacy from a creative point of view.

SCREENWRITER ALEX KURTZMAN ON TRANSFORMERS AND STAR TREK (PART 1 OF 4)

One of the hottest screenwriting teams in Hollywood at the moment is Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. Having gotten their training as producers on such shows as Hercules: The Legendry Journeys and Alias, they've made the leap to the big screen with the screenplays for The Legend of Zorro, The Island, Mission: Impossible 3, this summer's Transformers and next year's Star Trek prequel. In this four part interview with Alex Kurtzman, we discuss the challenges of adapting and updating both Transformers and Star Trek for modern audiences.

TIM KRING on "HEROES: ORIGINS"

There's no denying that Heroes took a ratings hit last spring following a seven-week hiatus, losing about two million viewers. For season two, executive producer/creator Tim Kring has devised a plan for a six-episode, standalone spin-off called Heroes: Origins which will fill that vacuum. In this exclusive interview, Kring offers some early details on that show.

Bruce Timm Interview - Part 3

Superman: Doomsday is DC's first effort in creating animated product that is decidedly more adult than anything it's done before. Producer/co-writer Bruce Timm, in the final part of Voices From Krypton's exclusive interview with him, details the challenges of embracing this mandate and his personal influence on the films' look.

Why Vampires Don't Suck

The horror genre has been a mainstay of the entertainment world from the beginning. In terms of motion pictures it has ebbed and flowed in cycles, striking a chord of terror with the movie-going public, inspiring hordes of imitators until the cycle burns itself out, and retreating until the time is right again.

“One of the things that intrigues me about horror is the longevity of the genre,” offers film historian and University of Southern California professor Leo Braudy. “In film, all of the other genres — from Westerns to musicals — come and go, but horror seems to have a perpetual life despite, or perhaps because of, its focus on the dead. Somehow the images of horror, the motifs, the characters and the plot structures have a greater metamorphic variety than some of the other genres. They can be refitted to new historical situations.”

One aspect of the genre that has rarely needed “refitting”, however, is the concept of the vampire. The legends predate Bram Stoker’s Dracula, although that novel is considered the one that first brought the notion to a mainstream audience. Hollywood was quick to jump on the bandwagon, beginning with the original Nosferatu (a blatant rip-off of the Stoker novel, though a well produced one) and moving on to Universal’s production of Dracula, which introduced the world to Hungarian actor Bela Lugosi and launched the big-screen vampire in a major way.

Avengers, Justice League and Teen Titan Movies? Prove It!

by Edward Gross

One of the things I enjoy doing each morning upon awakening is booting up, logging in and checking out the latest entertainment headlines. Unlike the days of old, there's no reason to wait for the daily newspaper, Daily Variety or news reports from Entertainment Tonight to arrive to update me on what's happening out there and pointing me in the direction of story/interview leads.

The downside to all of this, however, is the fact that every time a studio has an itch for publicity, it makes an announcement of some wild new project that is sure to whet the collective appetite of the fan base surrounding a particular subject.  And in terms of superhero related projects, it seems to be happening more frequently.

This is particularly true for films based on DC characters, for while at this moment Marvel has in release Spider-Man 3 and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, it's also got Iron Man in production, The Incredible Hulk in pre-production and numerous other properties in active development. But DC doesn’t seem to be faring as well.  Yes, The Dark Knight is in production, the Flash and Wonder Woman are trapped in development hell, there are rumblings but no official announcement of a sequel to Superman Returns, a possible Green Arrow film in development, and so on.