[News Bites] Poe’s ‘Red Death’, ‘The Boys’ Goes Into Turnaround, ‘Walking Dead’ Lawsuit’s Second Blow

Movies
Posted by MrDisgusting on February 11, 2012 @ 5:46am
Category: Movies / News

As you can tell the EFM in Berlin is literally destroying our front page, so again we’re going to lump a few stories into a late night edition of “News Bites” (mostly for my sanity).

First, THR reports that Columbia Pictures is no longer part of The Boys club. The studio was developing the adaptation of the violent and edgy comic book from writer Garth Ennis and artist Darick Robertson but has put the project into turnaround. The book follows the adventures of a CIA squad, known informally as “the boys,” whose job is to keep watch on the proliferation of superheroes and, if necessary, intimidate or eliminate them. Writing duo Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay, as well as Seth Rogen, had worked on the screenplay since the project was first set up in 2009. Producers Neal H. Moritz of Original Film and Kickstart’s Jason Netter will now shop the project around town. It’s an amazing comic that deserves a small screen series treatment.

Robert Kirkman, the comic book writer who created “The Walking Dead” and the hit AMC television series by the same name, is firing back at the lawsuit filed Thursday by childhood friend and collaborator Tony Moore, who claims he was duped into signing away his rights to the lucrative franchise. In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Kirkman, repped by attorney Allen Grodsky, writes:

“The lawsuit is ridiculous, we each had legal representation seven years ago and now he is violating the same contract he initiated and approved and he wants to misrepresent the fees he was paid and continues to be paid for the work he was hired to do. Tony regularly receives payment for the work he did as penciler, inker and for gray tones on the first six issues of The Walking Dead comic series and he receives royalties for the TV show, to assert otherwise is simply incorrect.” Full story here.

On the heels of the news this week that is out of ’ ,

Sony Pictures confirmed the departure of 19-year-old singer and actress Miley Cyrus from the upcoming animated vampire flick Hotel Transylvania, 3D, featuring Adam Sandler voicing the lead role of Dracula. Cyrus would have played Mavis, his teenage daughter, but was quickly replaced by former Disney darling Selena Gomez, says THR.

Also inside, we’ve landed a new look at Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins from Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows, along with first details on the retelling of the classic Edgar Allan Poe tale The Mask of the Red Death. READ MORE