| | | | | | Welcome back to the handy dandy Heat Vision Newsletter as we head into one of the biggest geek weekends of the year. Let us count the ways. Thunderbolts*, one of the better Marvel movies in quite a few years, opens today. Tracking suggests the movie will open in the $70 million to $73 million range domestically, which is lower than the $88.8 million opening of Captain America: Brave New World a few months ago. But this new film boasts among the strongest audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes (95 percent) in MCU history. (Plus, it also has a snazzy THR magazine cameo.) Saturday is Free Comic Book Day, the annual comic shop blitz that seeks to attract new readers. Publishers ranging from DC and Marvel to Dark Horse and Skybound are putting out special books, and it’s a great time to check out the local shop. Then we come to May the 4th, aka Star Wars Day, the annual blitz of Star Wars movies and merchandizing. In Los Angeles, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures has a slew of events and screenings of The Phantom Menace (with a pre-screening conversation with Ahmed Best, aka Jar Jar Binks), The Empire Strikes Back and The Rise of Skywalker. ( Empire is sold out while the others are not, tellingly.) Among the products, Hasbro has been killing it like Anakin and the younglings with items such as the Black Series Force FC Elite Ezra Bridger Lightsaber ($249.99) and the Vintate Collection Cantina Adventure 4-Pack ($64.99), which recreates the Kenner packaging for Hammerhead, Walrus Man, Greedo and Snaggletooth. Both will be available for pre-order May 4 on Hasbro Pulse. Before we move on, we want to offer our condolences to the family of Butch Guice, who passed away yesterday at the age of 63. The longtime artist was known for work on Marvel and DC titles such as Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme and The Flash. He had a run on X-Factor, where he co-created the villain Apocalypse, and he was involved in drawing two key storylines for both companies, DC’s Death of Superman in the 1990s and Ed Brubaker’s Captain America run in the 2000s. And let’s not forget Swords of the Swashbucklers and Ruse. He had fans in the professional community, the art community, and of course, among the readers his work captivated over the decades. Now, in honor of a certain team of misfits and outsiders…and we’re not talking about Thunderbolts here…let’s get this newsletter going....- Aaron Couch and Borys Kit ...— Aaron Couch and Borys Kit. |
IN THE AFTERMATH OF DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE, RYAN REYNOLDS remained firm that he did not see another solo Deadpool movie in his future.
That was despite the film grossing $1.338 billion, a number that validated the extraordinary amount of creative control he wields over the franchise.
Now, nine months after Deadpool & Wolverine became the top-grossing R-rated movie of all time, Reynolds is quietly plotting his return to the character, and true to his word, it won’t be as the lead of a solo movie.
The star is writing treatments for an ensemble film featuring three or four X-Men characters, sources tell THR. Deadpool could serve as a supporting player in the movie, as Reynolds believes he can explore the X-Men in unexpected ways by keeping his f-bomb wielding anti-hero more on the sidelines.
The film is separate from an X-Men movie being written by The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes scribe Michael Lesslie.
Reynolds is also writing a new draft of Boy Band, the feature he has set up at Paramount about a group of aging boy band members. It's part of Reynolds' emphasis on writing and producing in recent years.
Ryan wants it that way. |
THE SPEED DREAM TEAM IS BACK TOGETHER.
More than 30 years after their "Die Hard on a bus" movie became a phenomenon, Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock are reteaming with producer Mark Gordon for an untitled Amazon MGM Studios romantic thriller.
Noah Oppenheim, who wrote the 2016 Jackie Kennedy Onasis biopic Jackie and is one of the co-creators of the Robert De Niro political thriller Netflix series Zero Day, is penning the script.
Plot details are being kept at the back of the bus, but it is described as “propulsive.”
The pop quiz you actually want to take, hotshots. |
➤ Some good news: IDW's and Toho's one-shot comic Godzilla vs. America: Los Angeles has raised $40,000 for L.A. wildfire relief so far.
➤ European Medieval knights in feudal India: Dev Patel to star and direct the period revenge action thriller The Peasant.
➤ Vice squad: Joseph Kosinski and Dan Gilroy are working on a new feature adaptation of Miami Vice.
➤ Rest easy, soldier: Sgt. Rock is discharged from DC Studios (for how long remains unclear).
➤ He's the guy: Guy Ritchie to direct Road House 2.
➤ Deep dive: Chris Hemsworth to star in submarine thriller Subversion for Amazon MGM.
➤ Stan Lee's daughter, J.C. Lee, settles a lawsuit against Max Anderson, the comic book legend’s former longtime road manager accused of elder abuse.
➤ Jeremy Renner says he was offered half his salary for Hawkeye season 2.
➤ Trailer time: Dwayne Johnson's Smashing Machine impresses.
Catch up on these Heat Vision interviews...
➤ Director Jake Schreier says Jon Watts kept him level-headed when the Avengers: Doomsday casting announcement spoiled Thunderbolts*.
➤ Andor creator Tony Gilroy comments on the recasting of Jimmy Smits' Bail Organa: "[Legacy characters] are very, very expensive"
➤ Julia Louis-Dreyfus looks back on the "silly" Seinfeld curse and whether there were ever discussions about a Christmas Vacation spinoff.
➤ Wyatt Russell wanted to make naysayers "eat" their words after their initial skepticism of Thunderbolts*.
➤ Thunderbolts* stars Florence Pugh and David Harbour miss Scarlett Johansson and Rachel Weisz.
➤ David F. Sandberg says Until Dawn was harder to make than both of his Shazam! movies.
➤ Andor answered Genevieve O'Reilly's decades-long question about Mon Mothma's appearance in Return of the Jedi.
➤ Sinners star Wunmi Mosaku talks the last-minute addition of the "Surreal Montage," as well as her Deadpool & Wolverine disappointment.
➤ Andor may be ending, but stars Diego Luna and Adria Arjona would still come back for a particular story between season one and two.
➤ Daredevil: Born Again directors discuss the making of the series, including the Foggy fake death theory: "Marvel will snipe me if I say anything else."
➤Lanterns director James Hawkes looks ahead to the "Americana heart" of the Coen brothers-inspired DC series. |
KIRBY KRACKLING.
While there have been plenty of tributes and spotlights on Jack "King" Kirby, and plenty of books written about the comic book legend, there has never been anything as cool and awesome as the Jack Kirby: Heroes and Humanity exhibition that opened this week at the Skirball Cultural Center.
Launching May 1, the exhibit traces the six-decade career of the man who co-created and drew Captain America, The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, Black Panther, Darkseid and Mister Miracle, among many other popular and reknowned characters.
It starts with his childhood in the Jewish tenements of New York’s Lower East Side, and follows him as he creates Captain America in the shadow the infamous 1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden. It moves to his early comics career of drawing romance and Western books, before settling in on his work at Marvel then DC.
There’s also looks at his work beyond the four-color comic world, such as his collage pieces and various side projects he tackled once he and his wife Roz moved to California. (We never knew that he designed costumes for UC Santa Cruz’s theater program’s production of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. But he did. In 1969.)
While the exhibit has some personal effects – the display of his Army uniform is striking — it’s the original art that packs a wallop and stirs both the soul and imagination.
Rare and never before seen pages draw you towards them or, in the case of some amazing splash pages, jump out at you.
The entire issue of X-Men No. 7 is up on the wall for all to see. Pages and pin-ups from Fantastic Four, Tales to Astonish (where Ant-Man first appeared), and Journey Into Mystery (Thor) inspire.
Double-page spreads from his DC era, featuring The Demon or the New Gods awe. There are millions of dollars worth of art behind those glass cases and frames. |
One seemingly innocuous frame is actually one of the most important pieces: the very first drawing of T’Challa, the Black Panther.
It doesn’t look anything like the character audiences the world over fell in love with, and it was a find exhibit co-curators Patrick A. Reed and Prof. Ben Saunders, self-described “world’s nerdiest Indiana Joneses,” made late in the game in their process of hunting down key Kirby artifacts.
“It may not be the most representative of Jack’s visual style, it may not be the character as you would recognize, but on a culturally significant level, it is just unheard of,” told us Reed before the exhibit’s opening. “There is a moment in time that this character existed only on this piece of paper, as Jack had a pencil and drew it. It’s as close as you can come to witnessing the moment of creation.”
The opening night reception brought out a slew of Kirby aficionados, among them artists Mike Mignola and David Mack, writers Gerry Dugan and Mark Evanier, and producer Benjamin Simpson. Also getting a look at the exhibit were some of those who loaned their own Kirby art for the exhibit, among them Veep showrunner Dave Mandel, Carter Beats the Devil author Glen David Gold, and publisher Dinesh Shamdasani.
The exhibit runs through March 1, 2026. |
WITH THUNDERBOLTS* IN THEATERS, WE HAVE AN UPDATE ON ONE OF OUR FAVORITE STORIES FROM 2022.
Back then, we spoke with Devin Grayson, the writer who co-created Yelena Belova with artist J.G. Jones. For years, comic creators had complained about paltry payments from Marvel when their works were adapted for film and TV, but Grayson was the first to reveal her contract and share those numbers, which were indeed shockingly low. (You can read about it here, including just $300 per episode for Yelena showing up in Disney+'s Hawkeye.)
But in the years since, Marvel has attempted to build better relationships with creators, particularly after the comics brand shifted to report up to Marvel Studios in March 2023.
While the payments aren’t as high as the creator would like, Grayson reports back to us that she does indeed feel more positive about her relationship today with the company, which flew her to the Thunderbolts* premiere, where she reunited with co-creator Jones and Marvel Knights editor Jimmy Palmiotti, who commissioned the Black Widow story that introduced Yelena and is also responsible for creating Ghost, another character in the movie.
“We had a blast,” Grayson says. "The movie was fantastic, and we're very grateful to Marvel for including us." |
J.G. Jones, Devin Grayson and Jimmy Palmiotti |
CONVENTION SEASON IS UPON US, AND IS ONLY GOING TO GET MORE INTENSE with summer (San Diego, anyone?). And then there’s the fall film festival season. You’re going to be buying stuff, collecting stuff, given free stuff…where do you put it all?
Say hello to The Bag of Holding. We don’t even know how many pockets this thing has — but like, a lot. It is, in many ways, the ultimate bag to carry things at cons. It’s also built to last, thanks to sturdy craftsmanship.
The bag hails from Rollacrit, the tabletop gaming lifestyle brand, and is, like everything else in this modern age, very customizable.
There are various functional and cosmetic options that can be swapped out, including a zippered tech pouch for phones, zipper pulls and many interchangeable straps based on fan interests, the company touts.
The Bag of Holding is available at Rollacrit.com and sells for $165. |
WANT TO GET SOME ORIGINAL ANIMATION ART AND HELP A GOOD CAUSE?
If so, this one’s for you. Bidding is currently underway for AnimAID, a special fundraising campaign to support animation industry artists and professionals who were impacted by the Los Angeles wildfires earlier this year. ASIFA-Hollywood, the non-profit that runs the Annie Awards, is behind the fundraiser that is being run by Southeby’s.
The auction has a ton of original design and concept art, storyboards, maquettes, sheet music, and rare materials from films and television shows, including Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Hotel Transylvania, Inside Out, The Lion King, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, The Simpsons, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Wild Robot, amid a ton of others. There are also items such as VIP tours of Lucasfilm and Walt Disney Animation.
The Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros., DreamWorks Animation, Sony Pictures Animation, Pixar and Paramount, are among the studios involved.
The auction was to have wrapped up this week but due to strong demand and additional donations, the bidding period has now been extended through May 6.
Here’s an original illustration by Star Wars guru and Lucasfilm exec Dave Filoni, featuring Ahsoka Tano having fun with Grogu, a.k.a. Baby Yoda, with a Loth-cat joining in.
There’s some spirited tendering on that one, with bidding currently at $1,700. |
Sadly, this is likely the first, last and only edition of the newsletter for May, as one of us heads to Cannes (with hopes of seeing Tom Cruise do some sort of Mission: Impossible stunt). We tried to pack a lot into this one and we hope you enjoyed it. Thank you, as always, for reading us. Have a nice weekend, and we'll see you in June.
Look for us in your inbox most Fridays. We want your thoughts and suggestions. Email us: aaron.couch@thr.com, borys.kit@thr.com. And to share this newsletter with a friend, have them sign up here. |
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