Awesome List: Kong sequel, Crystal Skulls documentary, Thor casting, and more

Kong movie sequel



I haven't read it all the way through yet, but I've got Joe DeVito's book Kong: King of Skull Island. There was nothing really wrong with the book to make me put it down, but I was trying to read it directly after the disappointing prequel novel, King Kong: The Island of the Skull and the Thoroughly Awesome Peter Jackson movie. The prequel novel burned me out on anything that wasn't the movie and unfortunately, DeVito's book fell into that category.

Still, it's got pretty pictures and promised to be a cool story, so I'd like to get back to it if only I had the time. Markosia did a comics adaptation, but the art was disappointing, so I didn't buy it. Fortunately, there's going to be a movie. Hopefully, it'll be better than the previous attempts at movie sequels.

My two bits on the Thor casting rumor

Of course it's not news that Marvel would love to have Brad Pitt play Thor. I'm sure Marvel would love to have Brad Pitt play Batroc the Leaper if they could get him. What's important about this no-brainer is that it's made me realize that yes, someone like Brad Pitt would make a good Thor and that no, it doesn't have to be a no-acting muscle-man in the role.

Super hero movies rule right now because they're starring real actors and I'm confident that whoever they get to play Thor will be able to hold his own next to Robert Downey Jr., Ed Norton, and Samuel L. Jackson in the Avengers movie.

Mystery of the Crystal Skulls



The SciFi Channel's currently running a documentary on the crystal skulls legends. Gotta set my TiVo. Looks like the next showings are tomorrow at 4:00 PM and May 28 at 10:00 AM. I'm assuming those are Eastern Times.

The Terminator countdown clock marches on

The US military is building warbots that look like spiders. Do these people not watch movies?

Why I'm not at all excited to see the Star Wars: Clone Wars cartoon



Because Topless Robot is totally right that we don't need more Jabba and Tatooine stories. I think Lucas is as tired of Star Wars as I am. I saw the trailer before Speed Racer and I was actually bored. I never thought I'd say that about Star Wars.

Eli Stone and The Unit renewed

This may fall under the category of Stuff Nobody Cares About But Me, but it makes me very happy that both Eli Stone (Yay, Sydney's Dad!) and The Unit (Yay, Dreamy Noel!) have been renewed for next season.

Seriously? Victor Garber is probably my favorite actor right now. He's "sinnnnfully delicious." (My undying love to you if you get that reference.) And it occurs to me that his daughter on Alias used to be married to Dreamy Noel, so... small world.

Welcome to Your World, Baby



Cute, pink, children's books are something else that I don't often talk about here, but it's Truly Awesome that Cori Doerrfeld - one of my favorite visual artists - is illustrating a cute, pink, children's book for Brooke Shields. Cori and her husband Tyler Page are two people I always look forward to seeing at conventions and getting new stuff from.

Speaking of conventions

Here's a picture Jess Hickman took of me and Sam Hiti jawing before MicroCon while Grant Gould is hard at work.



The Book of Lies

Brad Meltzer's new book will feature the search for two murder weapons: the gun that killed the father of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel, and the item that Cain used to kill Abel. Sounds very, very cool.

Indiana Jones makes everything better, ad infinitum

Fast food.

Link: Jericho to get closure, Eli Stone looks really funny, and I gotta read The Cage

Mystery

• Taking the sting out of Jericho's cancellation, Nina Tassler, President of CBS Entertainment, responded to huge fan outcry by saying, "Thank you for supporting Jericho with such passion. We truly appreciate the commitment you made to the series and we are humbled by your disappointment. In the coming weeks, we hope to develop a way to provide closure to the compelling drama that was the Jericho story." No word on if that means a mini-series, a TV movie, or something else, but it's cause for hope.

Fantasy

• I'm trying not to comment on any of the promised Fall TV shows yet, because I'm still not over some of my favorites getting cancelled this season and I'm certainly not ready to start welcoming in their replacements. But I've mentioned before that I'm curious to see Victor Garber's new show, Eli Stone. Even though the premise didn't immediately grab me, it's Victor Garber. His Jack Bristow from Alias is the one guy I'd put up against Jack Bauer and not immediately know which to bet on. But anyway, any hesitation I had about the premise is now completely gone thanks to this trailer. Oh, man, I can't wait to watch this show now.
• Jason Brannon's crytozoological thriller The Cage sounds really really good. Sort of like Day of the Animals meets The X-Files. "A Wendigo, Bigfoot, El Chupacabra, The Jersey Devil (think horned horse and awfully mean), The Dragon of Bone Island and a little somethin’ somethin’ called The Beast of Exmoor" attack a small, family zoo and everyone in it.
• I liked Pan's Labyrinth pretty well, but I don't think I'd consider buying it if the special edition didn't have "animated DVD comics (one-page stories with floating captions), beautifully illustrated by Guy Davis, Jason Shawn Alexander and Mike Kaluta, that provide interesting back stories to the mythical characters Ofelia encounters in the labyrinth: The Faun and Great Toad (Davis), Pan (Kaluta) and The Fairies (Alexander)."

Science Fiction

• This could also have gone under Superheroes, but I'll keep it here. I really liked DC's 52 series, but one of my regrets about it is that I wanted more Adam Strange, Starfire, Animal Man stories. DC read my mind and launches Countdown to Adventure this August.
• Lucasfilm has released a look at the art from its upcoming Clone Wars CGI series.
• My local theater had a showing of the first Terminator movie on the big screen last week. Seeing Linda Hamilton even as the whimpy version of Sarah Conner made me less excited about FOX's upcoming The Sarah Conner Chronicles, but maybe my prejudice will ease off between now and next January when Chronicles kicks off.

Superheroes

• If you read superhero comics at all, you're aware that Mary Jane Watson's first words to Peter Parker were, "Face it tiger, you just hit the jackpot." But if you're like me, you don't know the context of where that line came from. I've been confused for years about why those would be the first words out of someone's mouth when she's meeting you for the first time. Fortunately, Comics Should Be Good helpfully recaps the story for us.
• Fox and the Franklin Mint have teamed up to release a limited edition Silver Surfer quarter to promote the new Fantastic Four movie.
• I gave up on Heroes about six episodes in and decided that if I was missing out, I could always catch up on DVD. Well, now the DVD is scheduled for release on August 28th and I'm still having a hard time mustering excitement for it. Some of my friends tell me that it got better as the season progressed, but I haven't yet read a thorough review that acknowledges the show's early flaws and explains how it corrected for them. I need convincing.

Other Comics

• The winners of this year's Glyph awards honoring black comics creators and characters have been announced. I'm definitely going to have to give Stagger Lee a read.

Writing is Hard

• Bestselling author Brad Meltzer shares some tips for getting published. Some of it's old news if you already read agents' blogs, but there's some good, new info too, like the caveat to Miss Snark's "Query widely" advice where Meltzer suggests you only query ten agents at a time in case you decide to rework your query letter after the first go-'round.
• Another good advice list. This one on developing effective writing habits.
• I suck at titles, so any source of ideas for them is welcome. I totally want to write a comic called Stab!