Some funny timing: Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the release of The Phantom, the adaptation of the old comic strip hero created by Lee Falk. Falk was a prodigious talent who also worked as a theater director and novelist; as a comic-strip creator he also founded the long-running strip Mandrake the Magician, about a guy who used his magic powers (like hypnosis, invisibility, levitation) to fight crime. Created in 1934, Mandrake is sometimes billed as the first superhero. (He arrived about four years before Superman’s debut in Action Comics #1.) And 20 years after The Phantom movie, Mandrake will follow his colleague to the screen.
Alice Through the Looking Glass is one of the more curious sequel developments in recent years. Tim Burton’s CGI / live-action Wonderland hybrid (okay, the scales were definitely tipped in CGI’s favor) did fairly well at the box office, but we can thank international audiences for its real success…and for this sequel, which has a brand new trailer filled with wacky characters and lots of cute wordplay involving “time.”
Psychedelic rock icons Jefferson Airplane brought their acid-laced San Francisco sound to national prominence on the strength of such trippy singles as “Somebody to Love” and “Embryonic Journey” during counterculture’s heyday in the Summer of Love...
Once the kids wake up Christmas morning to see what Santa brought them and the newness has worn off, what do you do next? Most major retailers and mom and pop stores are closed for the day, so what is there to do? Catch a movie of course! Christmas day is traditionally a big day for movie ticket sales and new releases and this year there is no shortage of new releases.
Sacha Baron Cohen isn’t content to let James Bond have all the spy fun. The actor, comedian and writer has just sold a new script to Paramount — a spy spoof that, if Cohen’s previous work is any indicator, seems to be just as ridiculous as ‘Borat‘ and ‘Bruno.’
Republic of Wadiya ruler Admiral General Shabazz Aladeen (AKA actor Sacha Baron Cohen) angrily spoke out on ‘Today’ for being banned from this Sunday’s Academy Awards. Readers will recall that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences reportedly revoked Baron Cohen’s tickets after he threatened to show up as the fictional tyrant from his new movie ‘The Dictator.’