#Chris Warner Artist

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

"MY GOD, JEAN! HIS HEAD GONE... HIS CHEST RIPPED OPEN... NO BAYONET OR SHELL!"

PIC(S) INFO: Spotlight on a lone yautja spotted on the battle fields of slaughter during the First World War, from the pages of "Predator: The Bloody Sands of Time" Vol. 1 #1-2. February-March, 1992. Dark Horse Comics.

Story/script: Dan Barry/Mike Richardson

Pencils: Dan Barry

Inks: Chris Warner

Colors/letters: Gail Beckett

"I -- I don't know, mon cher Jean. It appeared in a flash of lightning -- then it was gone. The shock... the sight of the lieutenant lying there... beheaded... boned like a flounder. The thunder... the shells whistling... the earth trembling. Who is to say, Jeannot, what such things do to the mind? Ghosts have been seen rising from the endless seas of the dead. Out there on the bloody fields of slaughter, who is to say what we saw -- or think we saw!"

-- CLAUDE, French Army soldier to Jean, c. 1916, during the Great War

Source: https://viewcomiconline.com/predator-the-bloody-sands-of-time-issue-1.

[isahotskii]

Draw fanart of a character... art trend!💙💊🦠✨

I wanted to join and draw Osmosis Jones... just because I love him too much💙💊

I hope you like it!💖✨

I had so much fun with this challenge! I actually took a lot longer with the cannon version, buy still, it was just so much fun to make! You can check out my IG to see my content a lot sooner! That's where I'm most active!

[popgirlsanthems]

[hmvw2015]

Can you believe that The LEGO Movie is now 10 years old?!

[the-imaginative-hobbyist]

Be honest, Chris Pratt is the first name you are thinking of with the Booster Gold news.

[kingofooo]

standee design by writer/storyboard artist Hanna K. Nyström

design cleanup by color supervisor Carolyn Ramirez

ADVENTURE TIME at SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON 2023!

———

WARNER BROS. TELEVISION SCREENINGS

WEDNESDAY, JULY 19th at 6:00pm – 9:30pm

Ballroom 20

Comic-Con and Warner Bros. Television proudly continue our annual Preview Night tradition featuring the world premiere of the highly anticipated series Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake, alongside all-new episodes of Riverdale and Teen Titans Go!, and screenings of Mrs. Davis and Superpowered: The DC Story.

———

MAX ORIGINAL ANIMATION

THURSDAY, JULY 20th at 11:00am – 12:30pm

Ballroom 20

Max Original Animation celebrates new and returning animated series' including an expansion in the Adventure Time universe, Adventure Time: Fionna & Cake; a new animated series, Young Love, based on the characters from Matthew A. Cherry and Sony Pictures Animation’s Oscar-winning animated short, Hair Love; and a preview of the upcoming fourth season for the fan-favorite Harley Quinn. The panel will feature exclusive sneak peeks, surprise panelists, and more. Moderated by Damian Holbrook (TV Guide magazine).

———

SUPERSONIC: The 15th Annual Behind-The-Music Panel

THURSDAY, JULY 20th at 10:00am – 11:00am

Room 25ABC

Get a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into creating the scores and sounds to some of today's most popular TV series and films. Panelists include Phil McGowan (score mixer, Star Trek: Picard), Amanda Jones (composer, American Horror Stories, ADVENTURE TIME: FIONNA & CAKE), Chris Bacon (composer, Wednesday), Sherri Chung (composer, Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai), Kurt Farquhar (composer, The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder), and Michael Yezerski (composer, Cabinet of Curiosities).

———

[doamarierose-honoka]

About a decade ago, Zack Snyder developed a storyline for the DC Extended Universe that involved Bruce Wayne impregnating Lois Lane.

The subplot in which Batman cuckolds Superman was poised to unfold in “Justice League,” with Batman dying in the sequel and Lois raising their spawn with Superman. Snyder’s vision for Wonder Woman was equally unorthodox, with visuals featuring a superheroine who brandished the decapitated heads of her conquered enemies like an ISIS jihadi.

Warner Bros. and DC Studios — which hold a firm grip on their intellectual property — rejected Snyder’s ideas, which were deemed “super creepy,” according to a source familiar with the back and forth. (DC declined to comment for this story. A representative for Snyder did not respond to a request for comment.) But in the next decade, artists and rival studios won’t need permission to create their own take on the characters.

A sad fact of Hollywood is that while superheroes never truly die, all copyrights do. On Jan. 1, Disney lost control of “Steamboat Willie,” and within 24 hours two horror-comedies starring Mickey Mouse were announced. The DC characters are the next major expirations looming on the horizon. Superman and Lois Lane will enter the public domain in 2034, followed by Batman in 2035, the Joker in 2036 and Wonder Woman in 2037.

Chris Sims, a comic book author and Batman expert, expects a flood of unauthorized Batman comics to hit the stands as soon as the copyright expires.

“There’s going to be 100 of them,” he says. “They’re going to have them ready to go.” Movie producers will also be able to make their own versions — much as they already do with public domain characters like Dracula and Robin Hood — though in the beginning they will have to stick to the original versions of the characters.

“You get Batman, but you don’t get Robin,” Sims says. “You get Superman, but you don’t get kryptonite.”

The initial Superman could only leap — not fly. “Those characteristics are going to fall into the public domain one by one,” says Amanda Schreyer, media and entertainment lawyer at Morse.

DC has been preparing for this for years. At a press event in 2023, CEO James Gunn noted that the next Superman film will introduce characters from “The Authority,” a comic series that launched in 1999, in part because the Superman copyright is about to expire.

Jay Kogan, DC’s deputy general counsel, laid out a strategy to protect characters that fall into the public domain in a 2001 article. Since only the older versions lose protection, he urged: “Keep ’em fresh and up-to-date.”

“By gradually changing the literary and visual characteristics of a character over time, a character owner can keep whatever the then-current image of the character is as the de facto standard in the public consciousness,” he wrote.

The company has done a good job of updating Superman, argues Steven Beer, an IP lawyer at Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith.

“The public’s perception is the contemporary Superman. It’s distinctive,” he says. “That gives them a lot of protection.”

Another tactic: Maintain a high level of quality control.

“The public should be conditioned to view any works from unrelated parties featuring a trademark owner’s characters as second-rate knockoffs,” Kogan wrote.

Kogan also suggested that trademarks could be used to block the use of a character’s name, image and slogan even after the copyright expires.

But trademark is not a cloak of immunity, argues Jennifer Jenkins, director of Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain. “That only prevents uses that are likely to cause consumer confusion about source or sponsorship,” she says.

In other words, the characters’ names should be fair game, so long as it’s clear that the depiction is not coming from DC.

“You could still create a Superman horror movie or Batman horror movie,” says Jonathan Steinsapir, an IP attorney at KHIKS. “You just need to be careful about how you advertise it and how you use images of Superman in a branding sense.”

DC has done a careful job of tying the characters to itself by trademarking the terms “Man of Steel” and “Caped Crusader,” as well as Superman’s “S” and Batman’s logo.

“The bat symbol is a very strong mark,” Schreyer says. “That is going to limit what subsequent creators can do.”

Even so, expect the mid-2030s to see a glut of off-brand superhero content.

“People will make a run at these characters because there’s money to be made,” says Mark Waid, a comic book author and historian best known for his work on DC Comics titles like “Superman: Birthright.” “Or how about Superman versus Godzilla. It’s a gray area. But this town works on the speed of capitalism, right? That’s how we work.”

Sims believes more superhero comics will be a good thing. But the idea that there will be a Superman renaissance is oversold, he says.

“It’s gonna come down to execution,” Sims says. “There’s one company that’s used to doing it.”

Steinsapir says nothing would keep Snyder from making a non-Warners film featuring the DC troika.

“Zack Snyder could reshoot it and make his own new iteration of it,” he says. “You just need to be careful. For example, he definitely couldn’t call it ‘Justice League.’”

[christianbalefanatic]

NEWS ON "THE BRIDE"

News on THE BRIDE in THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER in an interview with Peter Sarsgaard:

‘September 5’ Star Peter Sarsgaard on His “Rabbit Brain,” Live TV News and Why Wife Maggie Gyllenhaal’s ‘The Bride’ Is So “Punk” Sarsgaard opens up about his role in the Venice title about the Munich Olympics terrorist attack, why looking back on his career feels like death, and what makes Christian Bale such a great leader. BY CHRIS GARDNER AUGUST 29, 2024 9:00AM

EXCERPT: How was your experience working on it? You worked with Maggie on The Lost Daughter and you’ve been together for quite a long time. Do you get to pick who you want to play? How has she changed as a director?

She always says that she writes every male part with me in mind, but then she offers me the part that she thinks that I’m best suited for. The Bride is punk, and it’s fast and really emotional. Also, it’s violent at times and it’s wildly romantic. I don’t think you could say anything of those things about The Lost Daughter except for maybe that it’s briefly violent but it’s a different kind of violence. The Bride is so ambitious because the script really is one of the best scripts. Look, my wife wrote it so I’ll just go ahead and say that it’s the best script I’ve ever read. It really was satisfying on so many levels. With Christian Bale, he’s such a phenomenal actor who has such devotion. Watching him on set… you know some actors try to stay in it. You have to call them by their character’s name and all that crap. They speak in the accent the entire time. It’s not like that with him. It is just that he can’t help but be in it. It’s not a choice. It’s not a pretension. It’s just the way that he is. That changes the set when you have that type of leadership with him and with Maggie. Then Jessie is the most abstract, random, free-flowing, in-the-moment actor you could ever work with. She can also sing and dance by the way — big time. There are big dance numbers and stuff in the movie. I’m so happy with the way that Warner Bros. has supported Maggie on the movie, too. It’s nice to work with Pam Abdy over there who I worked with on Garden State back in the day. It’s a great studio that has artistically-minded people running it.

[drifting-pieces-blog-blog]

In ur opinion,who do u think draw moon knight best?

Mine is Declan Shalvey

BOY DID YOU ASK A QUESTION!!!!!!!

I’ve waxed on and on about the writers of Moon Knight. The best ones, the worst ones, a few mediocre ones that got the job done…. 

But what about the art? 

Each artist has their own style, their own ideas, and their own grasp of Moon Knight. 

When you get very lucky, you get a writer and artist dream team that create something beautiful. 

Let’s start with Bill Sienkiewicz. 

(THIS WASN'T EVEN FOR A COMIC. HE JUST FUCKING DREW THIS FOR FUNZIES)

He was not the first to draw Moon Knight. THAT was Don Perlin!  Look at this cape design! 

He was relatively new to the comic scene, but quickly a very sought after man. New Mutants, Electra, and many others for many different publishers. 

And even after he left us he still pops in now and then to remind us that no one…NO ONE can draw Moon Knight like he can.  Look at Sienkiewicz JUST FLEXING. 

(2014 people!!) Someone came to him and went, "Hey we could use a Moon Knight Variant. Do you wanna dip back in and hand us a little ol' Moony?"

And he gave them this and I'm sure they went "...WTF we didn't even ask for this. We thought he'd just do him perched on a building or something in the distance. What do we do with this? It's too good holy crap."

(2022 because he felt like schooling us again with another cover)

But he gave us more than the cowl. He gave us the men who wear it. 

And as amazing as his art was: 

He also gave us the most important pieces: 

I could wax on and on about Bill all day… But let’s take a look at some other artists. 

Kevin Nowlan Kept the dark parts of the suit and the billowing cape. 

Bo Hampton is the one that teamed up with Zelenetz to give us a fantastic sleek and angry design. Here's MK punching some Neo-Nazi in the face! 

Chris Warner came later in "First of Khonshu" run and started with a very classic 1990s muscle bound and glitzy design. A design that might start to look familiar to those of you with a sharp eye (look at that belt. We're approaching the BLING age of Moon Knight.) 

This was a weird time in comics for Moon Knight. We were switching out writers a lot and he suddenly had a much more Egyptian style theme. 

Moon Knight art goes on a WILD ride after this. We get the "Marc Spector" run that spans late 80s and early 80s and the art gets very 90s. Solid, Dark, and BUSY.

Sal Velluto (With the Punisher! This was a fantastic pair up!) 

Ron Garney Plays with the sharp edges of the cloak and that’s nice. Also gives his mask a bit more of a definition. 

Gary Kwapisz comes in with a BOLD metallic Moon Knight. Just look at those fists! Time time in MK was just wild you guys. 

James Fry flies in and tries to make sense of those MUSCLES. 

1993 arrived and the 90s hit HARD. 

Stephen Platt deep in that 90s style. 

What’s happening here? I don’t know. You don’t know. No one knows. But man does it look ACTION COOL. 

Muscles got BIG in this period in the 90s. Anatomy got weird and chest size had no limits. 

Tommy Lee Edwards steps in and slims our pal Moon Knight back down.

Now THAT is a breath of fresh air. I love this. 

Look at the use of that cape! And the hood? The subtle mask outline… Yes please. 

Mark Texeira steps in after this. Let me tell you guys about this art. This is the start of the modern age. 2008! 

(Look at the little Moon Knight design in the upper right near the signature! OMG little cutie!) Also the details in that rugged face and wet hair. 

But how does the suit look?

Nice.

We leave behind the glorious Tex and head to David Finch! You might recognize some of these motiffs as we get to some more popular runs. 

Hello there fist spikes! This is when Moon Knight starts to get his reputation as being a bit…punchy… 

The point in his cowl gets defined in this style too. 

Mico Suayan takes on this hard hitting run too. 

Clean lines, dark darks and white whites and that cape! The spikes are gone but the muscles are coming back.

This was a big action packed run and numerous artists got a chance. 

Now… This is about where I stop listing every single artist because it gets too fast pace with single issues, annuals, events, and all that fun business. SO here are some highlights. Also I have an upload limit so I'm sorry I can't show you all the beautiful art styles that branched off at this time.

Bong Dazo  gave us that little sad startled cat. 

Jerome Opeña Had such AMAZING action picks. I’ve never seen action done so well. And that outfit! 

I…I could go on forever about this artist and the run he did. But that’s for another day… Just know that I think about it all the time and it lives in my head rent free. 

I’m going to skip a lot here and jump to the BIG GUNS. 

Hate the run, LOVE the art. 

My dear Alex Maleev makes it worth it. 

The absolute SLAYING of the white in every image kills me. LOOK. LOOOK AT THE USE OF NEGATIVE SPACE.

It honestly brings me back to Sienkiewicz. 

I’m screaming inside holding this up to the moon. 

From there we slide SO easily into Declan Shalvey my precious. 

You know what I’m talking about. 

Ron Ackins Took over from there and it was stellar.

I am going to skip over THREE artists on purpose because not only was the RUN bad (the worst) but also the ART was just the worst. (See BEMIS run. Ugh. Nothing was good in that run.) 

Do I need to talk about Greg Smallwood? 

Do I really need to post anything about Greg? 

Or Cappuccio who works with MacKay's current run? 

Or Federico Sabbatini who also fills in with MacKay?

(I would but I'm out of picture space. Thanks Tumblr).

So who is my favorite? 

Hard to say… I’m caught up in the colors and designs of some, the action styles of others. Sometimes the raw power of MK’s fighting or just in how clever his cape and cowl are done. 

And sometimes I crave that amazing 1980s Sienkiewicz designs of Moon Knight in the rain, Stained Glass Scarlet’s everything, and the shape of Moon Knight (or shapelessness of him). 

I could argue that ANY artist that draws Moon Knight during a good run is my favorite. I could forgive most any style if the story is right and the style will weave into the words and the flow of his cape will settle into my heart once again. 

And sometimes…. 

Well…

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

THE BUTCHERY OF THE FIRST INDUSTRIALIZED WORLD WAR MEETS YAUTJA HUNTING-RITUAL SAVAGERY.

PIC(S) INFO: Spotlight on the two-issue "Predator" comic-book series set against the backdrop of World War I -- cover art to "Predator: The Bloody Sands of Time" Vol. 1 #1-2. February-March, 1992.

MINI-SERIES SYNOPSIS: "The discovery of a long-lost diary leads to an investigation of predator visits to Earth during World War I. With the planet coming apart at the seams, we discover that the Second German Reich weren't the only ones interested in world domination!"

-- DARK HORSE COMICS, c. winter 1992

Artwork by Dan Barry & Chris Warner

Script/Story by Dan Barry & Mike Richardson

Colors by Chris Chalenor

Source: https://viewcomiconline.com/predator-the-bloody-sands-of-time-issue-1.

[noellevanious]

watching smiling friends season 1 commentary. its dope just how many indie/social media-based artists zach and michael got to do bit work on the show, like the one artist they hired just to do all the liquids. zach and his friends' history sucks ass (see being friends with sh*dman) and the fact that he still talks about chris-chan/christina is disgusting. but like. i think smiling friends is a pretty big and notable success considering how fucking bad things are for cartoons in the west (and Adult Swim/HBO/Time Warner in particular)

[geekcavepodcast]

"Adventure Time" Returns to Comics

Oni Press, Warner Bros. Discovery Global Consumer Products, and Cartoon Network are partnering on new compendium collections of Adventure Time comics for 2024, followed by a new Adventure Time comic book series launching in 2025.

The compendium collections being with Adventure Time Compendium Vol. 1, collecting the first 35 issues led by Ryan North and containing artwork by Shelli Paroline & Braden Lamb, Mike Holmes, Jim Rugg, T. Zysk, Kat Philbin, David Cutler, Ian McGinty, Jesse Tise, Carey Pietsch, Yumi Sakugawa, Liz Prince, Becca Tobin, Missy Peña, Jeffrey Brown, Jess Fink, and Dustin Nguyen.

Adventure Time Compendium Vol. 1, featuring a cover by Chris Houghton, goes on sale in October 2024.

Adventure Time: The Fionna and Cake Compendium collects Natasha Allegri's Adventure Time with Fionna & Cake #1–6 and Adventure Time with Fionna & Cake: Card Wars #1–6 from writer Jen Wang and artists Britt Wilson and Betty Liang, and shorts from creators N.D. Stevenson, Lucy Knisley, and Kate Leth.

Adventure Time: The Fionna and Cake Compendium goes on sale in November 2024.

New Adventure Time graphic novels and comic book series will begin publication in 2025.

(Images via Oni Press - Chris Houghton's Cover of Adventure Time Compendium Vol. 1 and Cover of Adventure Time: The Fionna and Cake Compendium)

[nancydrewwouldnever]

Backstage Magazine Sept 22-28, 2011

Chris Evans Takes On a New Fight in 'Puncture'

By Jessica Gardner all photos by Jamie Painter Young

Five minutes with Chris Evans and you feel like you've known him your whole life. Considering his charming smile, lingering Boston accent (complete with the occasional curse word), and high-fives—and even a call to Mom to check a fact—it's easy to forget you're chatting with Captain America and not just an old friend from high school. Asked if he ever read Back Stage, he responds, "I got my first acting gig through Back Stage in New York. It was a short film called 'The Paper Boy.' My first real audition outside of, like, community theater, and I ended up getting it. I was walking to work one morning when I got the phone call from the writer-director, whose name was Eric Ogden. I remember walking down the street with my hand in the air [pumps his fist]. We filmed in upstate New York for two weeks. I still have a copy of it. My first job on a film ever." Community theater was a big part of life in the Evans household while he was growing up. Evans, his two sisters, and his brother, Scott (whom you might remember as Officer Oliver Fish from "One Life to Live"), grew up acting at a community children's theater called the Concord Youth Theatre. "Each of us must have done at least 15 to 20 shows there," Evans says. Their family was so connected to the theater that when Chris was around 18, his mother, Lisa, took over as artistic director, and she's been working there ever since.

Seeing his elder sister, Carly, onstage inspired Evans to be an actor. "Her play would end, and she'd get flowers and candy, and it just seemed like such a good time. She was having a ball and hanging out with her acting friends—it just looked awesome," he remembers. "I was like, 'I'll give this a shot.' " He started doing plays at the theater and going to acting camp in the summer. "I fell in love with that, too. I started doing plays year-round. I was always onstage." In his junior year of high school, Evans started thinking he might want to pursue acting professionally. He convinced his parents to let him move to New York City for the summer and take classes at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. He also wrote casting offices and secured a summer internship with Bonnie Finnegan, who was casting "Spin City" at the time. "We got to go to the tapings every Friday for the show with Michael J. Fox, and I thought that was the coolest thing in the world," he says. At the end of the summer, his plan was to ask the two or three agents he was the most friendly with if he could read for them. "I was like, 'I know you know me as Chris from Bonnie's office, but I'm an actor—can you give me five minutes?' " One of the agencies was willing to let him read, so he did. The agency was interested in signing him, but it was the end of summer, and he had to go home to start senior year. "They said to me, 'You've got to get back [to New York] as soon as possible. Pilot season's in January.' So I went back and doubled up my classes and graduated early, in January. Went back to New York, got my agent, got the same internship with Bonnie, and I even got the same apartment."

Down the hall from Finnegan's office was casting director Marcia DeBonis, who one day asked Evans to come in and read for a pilot she was working on called "Get Real." Evans went in and nailed the audition, so the network sent him out to Los Angeles to test for it. "The first person I met in Los Angeles was Anne Hathaway," he remembers. "She was testing for it, too. We were both kids—she wasn't 'Anne Hathaway' then. I was 17, and she was pretty young, too." Because Evans was the only person there reading for his role, he was convinced he would get it. "I was like, 'I got this in the bag,' " he says. "But I didn't get the show. [Hathaway] did, but I didn't. It was so crushing to be that close that soon. My dad was out there with me, and I was so excited and then just so devastated. But then Warner Bros. said, 'Stick around—there's a couple of other shows you might be right for. We'll put you up for the week.' So I stuck around and auditioned, and I ended up getting a different pilot called 'Opposite Sex.' " The Fox show (which also starred Milo Ventimiglia) lasted only one season, but it was Evans' first break, and he stayed in Los Angeles. By age 20, he landed his first leading film role in the comedy spoof "Not Another Teen Movie" and hasn't stopped since. Gone Audition Gone "I'm pretty shitty at auditioning," Evans admits. "Auditioning is such a strange thing. It's like the opposite of acting. It's a strange environment. To act well, you need to be extremely comfortable. You need to be extremely in your skin. Even if you have to play someone nervous, you have to be neutral and let it come to you and listen. I get so nervous in auditions. My heart just pounds."

Evans thinks plenty of amazing actors aren't working because they can't audition well. "It's like those races in the Olympics," he says. "You could race 100 times, and the same guy's not going to win every time—it's just who's going to win that day. Everyone here is fast. Everyone here can run well. But who's going to run well today? I used to sit at these auditions and look around, and I know all these actors. I've seen them. Everyone here can act. No one here is a bad actor. But it's just a matter of who's going to act well in the next five minutes. If you're not going to, someone else is. I'm sure I've gotten parts where I wasn't the best man for the job; I just happened to have a really good audition that day. And the guy who was the right man for the job had a bad one. It's that type of uncertainty that makes acting such a crapshoot." The audition-gone-wrong story he recalls as being worst was meeting with Ben Affleck for "Gone Baby Gone." "I don't get starstruck," says Evans. "I'm fine. Especially Ben—he's a Boston guy, I should be fine. I walked in and I'm walking down the halls looking for this room, and as I passed a room I heard 'There he is.' In my head I was like, 'That's Ben.' I turned around and it was, and for some reason I instantly was nervous. I went in and shook his hand, and the first thing I said was 'Hey, how ya doing—am I gonna be okay where I parked?' And he said, 'Where'd you park?' And I said, 'At one of the meters.' And he said, 'Did you put money in it?' And I said, 'Yeah.' And he said, 'I think you'll be all right.' From that moment, I just wanted to get the f*** out of the room. I just wanted to be anywhere but there. I sat down with my heart beating out of my chest; I was so mortified that I started this meeting off that way. I started giving him one-word answers. They put me in a rocking chair, so I'm just rocking and twisting, just nervous. 'So, what was your last movie like?' 'Good.' 'What was it like to work with Danny Boyle?' 'Good.' I just wanted to get out of there. It was horrible, a complete disaster. So obviously, I did not get that job."

Character Choices In Evans' upcoming film "Puncture," a law drama based on a true story, he portrays Mike Weiss, lawyer and drug addict. This was Evans' first experience playing a role based on a real person. He spoke to the deceased Weiss' brother, father, college friends, and colleagues and even read the transcript of what was said at Weiss' funeral. "The problem is, I could tell you 100 stories about someone, but is that going to make you able to embody their speech pattern and posture and nuances?" he says. "It's not like I'm playing JFK, where you can watch videos and get cadence and inflection." Evans decided his best option was to tell Weiss' family and friends he would have to have some artistic license. He told everyone he would do his best, "but don't expect to see the Mike you know." Evans worked hard not to second-guess his character choices or worry about what Weiss' family and friends might think. "If you start second-guessing yourself, you're f***ed," he says. "The family and the friends couldn't have been more accommodating, but it was still pretty nerve-racking." He admits to being similarly nerve-racked when bringing beloved comic book characters Steve Rogers/Captain America and Johnny Storm/Human Torch to the screen. "Most times you make a film and you say, 'I hope it does well.' [With 'Captain America: The First Avenger' and 'Fantastic Four'] I knew people were going to go see them. There would be a response, positive or negative. There's this phenomenal built-in audience. There's going to be a huge opening weekend; there's going to be a shit ton of merchandise. That's intimidating." Evans realized the best way to approach playing a superhero was to try to get in the same headspace as all the fans. "To me, the fans are the most important—if they're not happy, you didn't do your job. So let's try and essentially become a fan. Try and understand what they understand. To see what they're expecting." For "Captain America: The First Avenger," Evans says he and director Joe Johnston read many comic books before coming together to create the film version of the Steve Rogers character.

"Steve Rogers is a tricky character to play because he doesn't have too much conflict," says Evans. "He's such a selfless person. There's very little that can rattle him. If [your character] doesn't have conflict, it's easy to become boring. It's nice [that in the upcoming film 'The Avengers'] he struggles a little bit. He struggles with being a fish out of water. He's from the '40s; he's from a different mentality. Today the world is text messaging and impersonal and selfishness, and in the '40s there was much more of a human connection and camaraderie among the country. It's an old-fashioned way of thinking. So I think he's struggling with trying to find his place in modern day." The Evans Method Although he studied for a summer at the Lee Strasberg Institute, Evans says he isn't sure that Strasberg is his "cup of tea." He believes that acting is an ever-evolving thing, and if you get stuck in one method or approach, you might get stagnant. He says Keanu Reeves, his co-star in "Street Kings," helped him put his method into words. He asked Reeves what his approach to acting was, and Reeves answered, "It's constantly changing." "I was like, 'That's a good answer,' " Evans says. "It's like art. You want to constantly change your style and find new things to spark your creativity and keep you excited about it." Evans is a fan of asking his fellow actors for their thoughts on acting. His friend Jonathan Tucker gave him his favorite advice: "Don't forget that the audience doesn't know what's coming next. It's very easy to forget when you're acting and you do the scene over and over again. Don't forget this is brand-new for the audience. You can push them in any direction because they don't know what's coming."

A favorite acting exercise of Evans', that he recommends all actors do, is to buy scripts of good films, work on a character's scene or monologue until you feel you've nailed the role, and then watch the movie to see how the actor did it. "It's like training with Michael Jordan in basketball," he says. "Go train with De Niro. Make your choices, and then watch Bob show you how to do it right. It's a real eye opener. The thing you'll learn is to not follow the words so closely. The words are not always the indication of the character. A lot of time, actors look at the words as clues as to who the character is and how the line should be said. But it's not always a direct link. If [casting directors] are going to audition 100 people for a role, the majority of the actors are going to use the words as indicators. Be different. Go another route. Take the dance somewhere unique. If nothing else, you'll stick in their mind." Outtakes - Raised in Sudbury, Mass. - Other films include "Cellular," "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World," and "The Losers" - In the final stages of auditions for "Not Another Teen Movie," the director brought Evans and co-star Chyler Leigh to Jennifer Coolidge's house to workshop their scenes: "[Coolidge] was so clever, funny, smart, and awesome. I felt so lucky." - On returning to the theater: "The stage, in my opinion, has the best actors. I'd love to get back to the stage, but it's a big commitment. You've got to find something you really want to do everyday for months and months. It's tricky." - Also starring opposite Anna Faris in the comedy "What's Your Number?," opening Sept. 30.

[shefanispeculator]

Warner Music Nashville Artists

Ashley McBryde

Austin Snell

Avery Anna

Bailey Zimmerman

Braxton Keith

Chase Matthew

Chris Ryan

Cody Johnson

Cole Swindell

Dan+Shay

Devin Dawson

Drew Parker

Gabby Barrett

Gavin Adcock

Giovanne and the Hired Guns

Ivan Munick

Ingrid Andress

Jordyn Shellhart

Kenny Chesney

Matt Schuster

Michael Ray

Patrick Murphy

Randall King

Randy Travis

Redferrin

Roan Ash

Shy Carter

The Band Loula

The Castfellows

Trea Landon

Tyler Brandon

William Beckmann

Zac Brown Band

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Suddenly, it begins to make sense.

Not that I'm considering the recent report from this "Puck" publication legit, but the rumor that Warner Bros. plans to roll out some long-term Looney Tunes project four years from now, under Warner Bros. Pictures Animation's current head Bill Damaschke... It all tells me...

The offloading of THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP, and the black-holing of COYOTE VS. ACME and BYE BYE BUNNY makes "sense" now. As much as it can, that is. I am not *at all* justifying what CEO David Zaslav has done to those movies or the company in general...

But this is typical merger/transition shit... Just on a whole new, worrying level...

Where the new leaders have a "new" idea for what to do with a property, and whatever was in the works when they got there that doesn't "factor in" to those plans? It just gets nerfed or neglected.

Hence why Warner Bros. isn't distributing a Looney Tunes animated feature, and opts to not release two other pretty-much completed Looney Tunes films...

Most studios would've just dumped the films, quietly released them. Warner Discovery DOES have a streaming service where they could've done that, but Zaslav chose to shelve the movies. And other projects that didn't fit the vision of what he and his brigade want to do with Warners' divisions going forward. BATGIRL, SCOOB! HOLIDAY HAUNT, and others would like a word...

Kinda-sorta similar to what happened when John Lasseter and Ed Catmull were installed as the heads of Walt Disney Animation Studios after Iger's Disney purchased Pixar in early 2006. Lasseter and Catmull looked at what was in the works there, and dramatically changed almost every movie. Chris Sanders got kicked off of AMERICAN DOG and it became BOLT. RAPUNZEL UNBRAIDED went through two iterations before Lasseter found what he wanted in TANGLED. JOE JUMP was eventually scrapped and reimagined as WRECK-IT RALPH, and an Elton John musical called GNOMEO & JULIET got dropped entirely from their slate.

Instead of cancelling GNOMEO, Lasseter just offloaded it to another animation studio. Disney still distributed the film, curiously, as a Touchstone Pictures release. It's a G-rated movie. Touchstone was always meant for adult-oriented stuff.

Lasseter had of course canceled films every now and then, like GIGANTIC and COSMIC 3000. Like most executives do, but these weren't near-completed movies made into tax write-offs.

After Disney bought 21st Century Fox film/TV assets, the gutting happened. Fox 2000 was discontinued, several in-the-works films - such as Wes Ball's CG MOUSE GUARD adaptation - were halted, Blue Sky Studios was completely shut down and all of their in-development films - such as a picture called FOSTER - were abandoned... NIMONA, their swan song, had gotten pretty along, so Disney didn't completely kill that one, they just let someone else have it.

Other similar stories: When MGM bought United Artists in 1981, THE SECRET OF NIMH was in the works. MGM had seemingly little interest in promoting that film upon its summer 1982 release, and kinda just left it to fend for itself; it didn't do all that great theatrically but later found its audience on video. Warner Bros. bought Turner in 1996, and Turner Animation's picture CATS DON'T DANCE didn't matter to them much. They dumped it in early 1997, and it flopped hard.

What Zaslav is doing is a more extreme version of this kind of thing that happens during and after mergers.

His Warner Bros. could've quietly dumped BATGIRL, SCOOB! HOLIDAY HAUNT, and COYOTE VS. ACME if they weren't interested in them. At the very least, but they chose to play this game. And look, their stocks fell, their financial situation ain't lookin' too hot!

So, now it's starting to make sense to me in THAT PARTICULAR WAY. Again, not a justification of this. I hate this, honestly. If you're like 80-90% done with a movie, just fucking release that thing.

COYOTE VS. ACME, BYE BYE BUNNY, and THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP were already in the works by the time Zaslav got there, and he and the new heads just didn't care about them. Okay, fine, but... Still release them. So EARTH BLEW UP saw mercy, but COYOTE VS. ACME and BYE BYE BUNNY didn't... Because they just didn't factor into WB Pictures Animation's new game plan going forward. Neither did SCOOB! HOLIDAY HAUNT, TOTO, and METAL MEN, among other pictures that were in the works there.

Sucks. But if it's true that some new Looney Tunes initiative happens starting in 2028, then that to me is my full answer for why they chose to nerf these movies.

Anyways, keep protesting. Release all of these movies/shows. Zaslav gotta go.

[angstics]

From The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More by Chris Anderson (2006)

Reprise found a perfect example of just that kind of fan base with a punk-pop fivesome from New Jersey called My Chemical Romance. Although the band’s album Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge came out around the same time as McKee’s, it was their second album. The first, on an independent label, had sold 10,000 copies, which suggested a small but strong core following. So five months before the second album’s launch in May 2004, Reprise started giving tracks to Web sites focused on that core, such as Shoutweb.com and AbsolutePunk.net, to get the buzz going among the faithful in hopes that it would spread.

The label also pushed the band on PureVolume.com and MySpace.com, two relatively new (at the time) music-heavy socialnetworking sites with an exploding user base. It gave exclusive live tracks to PureVolume for promotions and premiered an Internet-only video for the band’s first single, “I’m Not Okay (I Promise).”

Once the tracks were out there, Reprise could watch how they did. Using BigChampagne file-trading data, the label could see growing interest in “Not Okay,” but also heavy trading and searching on the track “Helena.” On the basis of that, it made “Helena” the next single, and, helped by requests from the band’s core fans, the song got airplay. By the end of the summer, “Helena” had become the band’s biggest radio single by far.

As the band went on tour in September, Reprise extended the promotions to Yahoo! Music and AOL, including audio, video, and a heavily promoted live performance from Yahoo!’s studios. Meanwhile, fans flocked to the band’s Web site and MySpace page. My Chemical Romance now has Warner’s largest email list.

The album went on to sell 1.4 million units, making it one of the biggest hits of the year. Most of that came after radio and MTV embraced the band and brought it to a larger audience, but it all started online, where the band’s core audience had cemented its credibility.

What was the difference between My Chemical Romance and Bonnie McKee? Talent differences aside, My Chemical Romance had the advantage of an existing base of fans, both of its first album and its live shows. There were thousands of people already hungry for more from the band, and when the label gave them what they wanted, in the form of early online content, they returned the favor with strong word of mouth, including radio requests. And that, in turn, got the band the airplay that took it to the next level of popularity, acquiring a new, larger, set of fans.

McKee, by contrast, was a relatively unknown artist, who had rarely played live. Although people liked what they heard on Yahoo!, it wasn’t enough to trigger real fan behavior. They didn’t buy the album, and they didn’t clamor for more. On MySpace today, My Chemical Romance has more than 1 million “friends”; McKee has 12,000. Word of mouth makes all the difference.