Boy, It's Vintage! BAT-GIRL (Ucan Kiz)

Seems like no matter how far you go, you can't escape the grip of Bat-mania --err, Batgirl mania. From the 1966 television series that took the Caped Crusader and Yvonne Craig's straight to camp, to the resurgence of Bat-babe interest spawned by DC Comics' newly retooled Batgirl series, the Dynamic Damsel is as strong and popular as ever.  

But we'd never have guessed that Batgirl was big in Turkey, too. The one-sheet we found for Semih Evin's 1972 film Ucan Kiz -- which roughly translates as Bat-Girl - proves that apparently she was, especially when out of costume.  The posters (or at least the one below) might borderline being NSFW, and it certainly leaves us pondering what  the good director  had his Batman and Robin wear.  Either way, this is one Bat-tastrophe we'd love to see. [via]

Finland's First Superhero: THE NIGHT GUARDIAN (Yövartija)

We've always said that Yövartija would be an ideal name for a superhero flick,  and indeed, it now will be. Thanks to one fine Finnish filmmaker, the movie -- which translates into English as The Night Guardian -- may very well be Finland's first-ever superhero movie.  While Finland has been filming since 1896 (the first motion picture screening in the world was in 1895), the country's first produced feature didn't debut until 1907; indeed, it's only been since the mid-1990's that the Cinema of Finland has been reinvigorated. 

It's interesting to note that Finland's film industry is financed by its government; the Finnish Film Foundation provides funds for all aspects of film production and distribution, and thus is subject to the rises and falls of the nation's political and economic climates, the films themselves often politico-centric. Of the average 15 to 20 films now made annually in Finland, no Finnish film has ever breached a budget of more than $5M, and commercial success has only recently become acceptable to movie makers.  

All that said, Yövartija (The Night Guardian), which began production last August, is an intriguing new development, especially because adding a superhero genre film to the country's relatively very short list of feature credits seems a bold departure from the norm. After all, Cinema of Finland is no Bollywood; Finland's films tend to stand on their own without mimicking Hollywood franchises and story lines. For an industry not motivated by profit margins, the allure of superhero cinema has nevertheless found a foothold, and it's a curious thing.

Aside from the notorious Tom of Finland, comics themselves have only recently found a more mainstream acceptance within the country and while beginning to find audiences beyond its borders. Three comics festivals  are held in Finland each year, the largest being The Helsinki Comics Festival, an annual event sponsored by the Finnish Comics Society and which draws 5.000 - 10 ,000 visitors from across Northern Europe every autumn. According to the Master List of Comic Book and Trading Card Stores, three comic book stores call Finland home, and comics remain staples at newsstands (or kiosks) and supermarkets throughout the country. 

As the first of its Finnish kind, Yövartija promises superhero comic book themes and modern special effects set within a film noir setting.  Its hero, The Night Guardian, is a masked superhero, brought to life by the shimmer of hope from a lonely dreamer. (Yes, we think the explanation there is just a bit vague, too.)   And the movie's website asks: Courage and passion are weapons in the hands of superheroes, but is their world really all black and white?

From the few screen caps posted to Yövartija's website,  The Night Guardian character seems to be the low-budget blood brother of Gabrielle Macht's The Spirit. Another featured character resembles Sam Raimi's first filmed superhero, Darkman. Beyond just those few images, little else can be learned about the movie; its first teaser is promised to appear any day, although no date has been given for the film's intended release -- at least in English.

From the United Kingdom to Mexico to Japan, Spain, Italy, and more, superheroes have found new interpretation through international cinema.  Though Hollywood's obsession with its men in tights and body armor may stem from box office receipts and licensing deals, superheroes' popularity with audiences is driven by different stuff, from the cultural to the symbolic and psychological.  Yövartija''s arrival in Finland may be nothing more than one movie maker's fan-boy dream -- but it could be much more than that.  A film very worthy of our label 'Coming Attraction,' only time will reveal exactly what lies behind The Night Guardian's mask.

Do you want to keep current with Finland's first hero, The Night Guardian? Check out the film's very own Blogspot blog HERE.

Box Office Record for 2009 Is SFX Not Attendance

If you can't recognize the sound from your open window, pumping up the volume of Entertainment Tonight or Access Hollywood will do the trick nicely, too. Yup, that's the sound of the Hollywood folks patting each other on the back (Ignore that noise the sounded like someone doubling over -- that was just Sony Pictures sucker-punching Sam Raimi.) over last year's record-breaking box office. For the first time -- and with just a little help from James Cameron's blue man movie Avatar -- movies have grossed more than $10 billion at the North American (US and Canada) box office. [link] 

Like so many of the economic analyses that have been hitting the fan lately, this one's just another numbers trick -- or a bad case of denial.  We can't believe the boys of Tinsel Town could manage to make so much money without knowing how count it.  Then again, a closer look at the numbers suggests that maybe they don't really want to. 

Check out the chart with us and you'll see: sure, total box office is the biggest number on the board, but force your peepers one column over to left and you'll see what your pocketbook's known for the past decade: the cost of a single movie ticket has risen pretty damn dramatically over the last ten years -- a 47% price hike, to be specific.  

We're thinking that $10 billion-plus box office isn't looking as grand. But we don't want to jump to conclusions, either.  To corroborate, let's check that second column on the chart -- Total Tickets Sold each year. Damn, dabbler, check that: more tickets were sold in 1999 than they were last year: 56 million, actually, if we were counting.  Maybe folks were just freaking over Y2K and splurged, who's to say? But in fact, of the 11 years on the chart, six of them have higher ticket sales than 2009, and attendance has remained relatively stable most of the time.  One could consider that decent news, except for the same period,  North America's movie-going population grew by 33 billion people. That's a lot of people who aren't in line buying popcorn. 

When you top of this slice of reality with the fact that 2009's DVD sales declined over $1 billion dollars from the year before [link], the truth of the matter ain't a friendly one.  The box office may look bigger, but only because our trips through the turnstile cost more every time.  Hollywood's blockbusters keep getting bigger and maybe even better -- but it's all-too-clear that just to maintain the status quo, they've got to be.  

Proving Not Every Sequel Has An Equal

The Once and Future CAPTAIN AMERICA (Part I)

We've waited to get our blog on with Captain America - make that, The First Avenger: Captain America, since that's its full title -- with the hopes that a few cold, hard facts might leak for us to quickly snatch up and satiate the news-byte hungry droves of dabblers that wait somewhere beyond our wifi's outer limits.   Yet despite our patience, not so much as the nickname of the film's Best Boy's girlfriend's uncle has surfaced.  When compared to the amount of press Thor's received as it marches into production,  Marvel Studios' Captain America feature -- the more significant film of the two, considering the character involved - appears to be pulling a 'Spider-Man 4.'  Considering The First Avenger's set for July 22, 2011 release date, and the fact no one has been cast yet to play Cap, makes us more than a little concerned. 

Despite The First Avenger's ticking clock, there are a few points of light on its otherwise ambiguous horizon: (#1) Director Joe Johnston's Universal re-make The Wolfman lands in theaters February, after which he'll be drafted into Cap's army full-time. (#2) Chronicles of Narnia screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely are attached to write the script, which is  reportedly set in World War II -- and in good standing with everyone involved. (#3) Rumors of Captain America's casting have been bandied about the blogosphere for almost two years now, with everybody from Will Smith to Brad Pitt cited as a front-runner. At the head of the rumor-race today is Avatar's Sam Worthington, but thankfully overall conjecture doesn't  come close to setting off anyone's Spider-sense.  


The First Avenger's final light is its brightest: (#4) In his interview with Fangoria last week, Johnston mentioned that he's presently readying himself and his heroic  crew to begin production in June. 

Our Conclusion - - - - - - - - - 

Johnston's movie will have to move swiftly, and runs the risk of playing catch-up as well as second fiddle to its kindred production, Thor.  On a level playing field, Thor's the harder movie to sell; Captain America films - very low-budget 70's and 90's knock-offs - have already been made, and the character's comic book adventures have been published since the early days of World War II.  Johnston's house seems to be in good order, aside from the real possibility he's yet to cast his movie's leading man, not to mention a supporting cast.  Despite the big Hollywood names being tossed about, Johnston's likely leaning towards a relative unknown -- which we think would be his best call, and may be the reason for First Avenger's relative silence, too.  Regardless, the Captain America movie is - -and has always been - in a much better place than Spider-Man 4.  Johnston's movie is crucial to Marvel's overall plan leading toward 2012's Avengers, and it's a plan that has to move like clockwork.  


We predict that The First Avenger will end with its title star frozen in ice, only to be revived once Avengers hits theaters. This makes Captain America one of the major plot devices in the Avengers epic, and the set-up will need to be super.  To that end, Johnston's already received tons of  Marvel's attention, as well as  the  support of Jon Favreau (Iron Man 2) and Kenneth Branagh (Thor).  Whatever friendly competition that will exist between all three directors' films, each is a piece of a larger puzzle, events in a chain of which none of them intend to be its weakest link.


So what do you think about The First Avenger? Is a Captain America movie something you're excited about, or is Kenneth Branagh already bowling you over?  And what if Johnston's in a tighter place than we suspect - are Sam Raimi's problems going to afflict yet another Marvel movie? abbracadabbling wants to know what on our dabblers minds --  be sure  your Back Issues get read!

UPDATED: No News Isn't Good News: Sony Suspends Production of SPIDER-MAN 4

Despite having six (6) different film projects going at the same time at just as many places, Marvel Studios and its ambitious production schedule has seemed as impervious to villainy as its marquee superheroes.  We think it's kind of surprising, then, that Spider-Man, Marvel's oldest and most successful film franchise, has become the  first on Marvel's slate to be felled by the forces of antagonism.

A close review of abbracadabbling's past Spider-Man  blogs will confirm that nearly every bit of Spider-news we've received hasn't really been news; it's been fandom-fueled hype, rumor and speculation.   Superheroes may be able to keep their big secrets, but Hollywood doesn't usually share that strong will.  In Spider-Man 4's case, producers haven't been playing games with fans while keeping super-secrets; they've been panicking. 

As of yesterday, Sony Pictures announced that production on Spider-Man 4, which was scheduled to begin filming by February,  has been temporarily suspended.  According to The Hollywood Reporter  , Spider-Man director Sam Raimi is locked in an unflinching dispute with Sony executives over which villains the next film will feature.

Raimi wants the Vulture - an older, bald-headed villain (reportedly a role for John Malkovich) that he also  had intended to cast opposite the Sandman in Spider-Man 3.   Wanting to appeal to younger Spider-Man fans, Sony over-ruled Raimi, casting the black alien Venom instead. The result was a movie fan's didn't care for, and of which Raimi isn't proud. 

Sony's wary of its villainous mistakes with 3, but isn't heeding Raimi's advice with 4, either. To them, the Vulture's poor eye-candy (read: he's no sex symbol) and thus is a risk they don't want to take. Instead, they're pushing for a romantic sub-plot featuring the ambivalent vixen, The Black Cat.  Ultimately, no villain-decision means no story for Spider-Man 4, and no story generally means no script.  Sony has hired Alvin Sargent, the writer of Spider-Man 2 and 3, to draft a new version of the 4th film should they and Raimi reach a conclusion. 

The rumor mill wasn't too far off-target; Spidey's next villains are the culprits of the to-date hub-bub. But the problems run much deeper than any speculating fan boy would've dared guess. In the wake of Disney's Marvel buy-out, anything short of smashing success with its Spider-sequel is unacceptable.  They intend to keep their Marvel franchise as strongly as Raimi intends to redeem himself with it.  At this point, Spider-Man 4 doesn't need the Vulture or the Black Cat;  how these two 'powers' resolve their  issue will reveal the identity of our hero's next villain, script or not.

Spider-Man 4 was scheduled for a May 6, 2011 release; at best, the film will be re-scheduled for late Summer 2011.  More details to come....

UPDATE:  What a difference a day makes -- although for Tobey McGuire and crew, the difference isn't a good one. The change in Spider-Man 4's schedule is now permanent. On the heels of the Sony Pictures postponement, Paramount Pictures announced that they will be moving the release of their Marvel Studios' movie, the Kenneth Branagh directed Thor, ahead by two weeks to assume Spider-Man's May 6th, 2011 vacancy. Thor was originally set to open May 20th, 2011.  Walt Disney Studios, in turn, has rescheduled their 2011 blockbuster -  Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides - to the earlier date vacated  by Thor.  Source: [link]

AVATAR: Worldwide Numerology (Part I)

James Cameron's newest achievement, Avatar, was not tracking well with the comic book movie crowd. Turn the calendar back not two months, and that evidence can be found everywhere, from the columns of online movie critics to popular sci-fi forums  and all the  genre-catering fan-sites in between.   

Despite Cameron's past cinematic successes - most notably Titanic, which took in more than $1.8 billion at the worldwide box office after its release in 1997 - otherwise SFX--hungry fans were showing little interest in Avatar -- and even worse, the media had already begun to write the film's obituary six weeks before its premiere.  Several stories focused on Avatar's biggest - and most dangerous - looming question:  Can  20th Century Fox make money on a film based on an original, unfamiliar story, with no Hollywood superstars, a vanishing DVD market, and a price tag approaching $500 million?   

Hit the Holiday Season fast-forward, and while some questions still remain, all reports of Avatar's demise have been proved extremely premature.  Lead by Avatar,  Christmas weekend box office sales totaled  a record-setting $278 million overall.  Avatar, in its second week, contributed $75 million to the X-Mas jackpot, with newly-opened Sherlock Holmes adding just over $64.  Fox's Alvin and the Chipmunks sequel, which the studio had positioned as a financial safety-cushion for Avatar should it fail, actually came in third, earning Fox another $50 million.  And as of last weekend, Avatar's 15-day total has surpassed $300 million domestically; worldwide, the film has now earned over $620 million. 

Closer to the hearts of superhero movie lovers, Avatar's first weekend haul of $75.6 million narrowly surpassed Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, which earned $75.2 million the first weekend it opened in July, 2008.  Avatar's well on-track to unseat another superhero's record this weekend, too:  Spider-Man's $45 million weekend earnings  after its third week of release.  As of this blogging, Box Office Mojo reports that Avatar's Friday proceeds were $25.2 million.  All we can say is, Batman's got every right to be surprised.

Instead of just dumping Avatar's facts and figures into this blog, our hope is to offer a little insight into this movies astronomical performance.  For example, Avatar's earned even more money in India than it has domestically -- in its first two weeks, the take-home pay was $560 million.    

Look for our analysis next week, dabblers.  Meanwhile, we're calling on all of you to help us out. What are your thoughts about Avatar's success? Where does the hype and over-the-top ticket sales come from?  If you've seen the movie, did you like it? How would you rank it among your all-time faves? Does it even make the list?  And would you give this movie an Academy Award for Best Picture?  Write in, let us hear from you with your Back Issues! Thanks, everyone!

Off the Market: Marvel Entertainment Officially 'The House of Mouse'

The comics industry's biggest headline of the year - if not the decade -- was also the biggest news of the day today. Following a very early meeting this morning, Marvel posted on its corporate website that its shareholders approved an agreement between themselves and The Walt Disney Company, the terms of which provide for Marvel Entertainment to become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Disney Company. Based on the closing price of Disney’s common stock on December 30, 2009, Marvel predicts that their merger with Disney, which became final after the close of the stock market late this afternoon, has an estimated value of $4.3 billion.

While the news of today's Marvel-Disney merger is, on one hand, a finalization of the process set in motion  August 31st, when Disney first announced its plan to buy Marvel Entertainment, the parent company of Marvel Animation, Marvel Studios, and the Marvel Comics Group. But on the other hand, today also marks the end of the 'Marvel Age'.  Marvel Comics earned its reputation as being the non-corporate, stand-alone and stand-tall comics publisher, the one not afraid to take risks, push the creative envelope, and, ultimately, be answerable to no one other than themselves. The company, much like many of their comic book superheroes, narrowly escaped disaster after entering bankruptcy in 1996.  Down but not defeated - and much to the surprise of even their staunchest supporters -- Marvel went on to not only diversify and grow their publishing line, but to bring their characters to the silver screen and become a Hollywood powerhouse.  After a full and supremely successful decade in motion pictures, the company celebrated it's 75th Anniversary in 2009. 

Ironically, Marvel's 75th Anniversary was also it's final anniversary -- at least as the company that it was. Just as Marvel's 75 years include the company's earlier Atlas and Timely Comics incarnations as well as Marvel - a name which wasn't adopted until 1961 -- in their count, I've got no doubt that the 100th Anniversary of Marvel Comics in  2034 will be some celebration. More than likely, they'll rent out Disneyland. 

Cheap shot? Sorta-kinda? That's the fanboy inside your dauntless Dabbler talking. Seriously, although the Disney deal was announced four months ago, I'll confess that I've yet to come to a conclusion about what this change, this transition, this end of an era, truly signifies -- for the industry at large, and also for me, personally. Checking emotional baggage and taking an objective look can't be this difficult...or is it?

Objectively, the Marvel-Disney merger means a great many things, of course. A strict business stance would reveal that first and foremost, the main stake in the game is the Marvel 5,000-- years of creativity in superhero form, characters sporting names both ubiquitous and iconic like the Fantastic Four, to far-more obscure monikers like Iron Fist, Doctor Strange, or Black Panther.   

For Disney, the top-tier heroes responsible for Marvel's success at the box office are also responsible for  putting Marvel on Disney's shopping list. However, Marvel's top franchises were contracted elsewhere long before the merger, and Disney is constrained from reaping most of the financial rewards that properties like Spider-Man, Iron Man, X-Men, and Avengers are sure to bring for years to come. In fact, to further secure their hold on these characters, the studios holding Marvel contracts -- Sony Pictures, 20th Century Fox, and Paramount Pictures -- reacted quite defensively after the August 31st merger announcement, and were quick to initiate new development plans for the future of their respective properties. Nonetheless, Marvel's collective film slate all-but-guarantees handsome royalties for The Walt Disney Company. And much like Marvel did with their successful development of B-list hero Iron Man, Disney's gambling that they'll turn the many lesser-known heroes still waiting in the wings into similar cinematic sensations. 

As for Marvel, Disney's marketing and retail relationships will ensure that Marvel's products and characters reach a much broader international market. Moreover, as Disney grooms characters like Iron Fist, Doctor Strange, and the Black Panther along with other B-List heroes from the 'Marvel 5,000',  they'll test their mettle first in less risky waters.  It's almost a given: over the next 2-5 years, we'll see Marvel heroes on Direct DVD, cable, and network television like never before.

Those certainties, along with many of the other changes brought about by the Disney-Marvel merger, almost assure that the popularity of comic book superheroes will continue to increase well into the future.  And for the Comics Community, a subculture proud of its expanding ranks and greater validation from sources outside the subculture, we have to ask: isn't that a good thing?

And we will....next year! Stay with us, as we continue our rant and report in Disney - Marvel, Part II.