The 18th episode of Smallville's returning tenth season will guest star Blue Beetle — the Jamie Reyes incarnation of the character, and superhero from the future Booster Gold. Days of Our Lives star Eric Martsolf is set to portray Booster Gold while Jaren Grandt Bartlett will be donning the blue and black alien suit as Smallville's version of Blue Beetle.

Martsolf had this to say about the episode, which was directed by Tom Welling and will air on April 22nd:

"The episode takes place in Booster's very early stages where he's at his conceited best, where he believes he can do whatever he wants. He's gonna stay for the photo op and bask in the glory of his heroic efforts. [Beetle] wants to stand in the back and not be a glory hound, they are completely opposites of one another."

 

 

Sebastian Spence, whose credits include Cade Foster in the series First Wave, in Supernatural as Tom, Battlestar Galacticaas Lt. Noel "Narcho" Allison, and Camelot as Lucan, will also cameo as inventor-turned-superhero Ted Kord — the first comics incarnation of Blue Beetle.

 

 

 

 

 

via herocomplex.latimes.com

Jeff Robinov is already thinking about DC Comics movies for 2013 and beyond, and he’s got “Justice League” and a reinvented Batman on his mind.

The president of the Warner Bros. motion picture group, who recently sat down for an extensive interview with The Times, discussed his long-term strategy for DC beyond movies already in the works, such as June’s “Green Lantern” and next year’s “The Dark Knight Rises” and Superman movie.

Jeff Robinov (Liz O. Baylen/Los Angeles Times)

The first priority for the man with the ultimate say on what films get made at Warner Bros.: Finally getting the Justice League, DC’s team featuring all its top characters, on the big screen in 2013. The picture had been very close to production in late 2007 and early 2008, but was killed by the Writers Guild of America strike, tax credit issues in Australia, and concerns by some at Warner about presenting a competing (and conflicting) version of Batman while director Christopher Nolan’s films were breaking box office records.

But Robinov said a new Justice League script is in the works. Also being written for Warner are scripts featuring the Flash and Wonder Woman, who could be spun off into their own movies after Justice League. Though Wonder Woman is also in the works as a television pilot for NBC produced by Warner, Robinov dismissed that as a sticking point. “Wonder Woman could be a film as well, the same way that ‘Superman Returns’ came out while ‘Smallville’ was on,” he said, referring to the 2006 film that put Brandon Routh in the cape and the television show starring Tom Welling that is now in its 10th and final season.

Robinov knows that the most bankable part of his superhero empire has been Nolan and his Gotham City films – the studio has yet to deliver a 21st century superhero blockbuster hit without Nolan in the director’s seat. Batman will continue to be a centerpiece property beyond next year’s “The Dark Knight Rises” and Nolan’s departure from the franchise. “We have the third Batman, but then we’ll have to reinvent Batman…Chris Nolan and [producing partner and wife] Emma Thomas will be producing it, so it will be a conversation with them about what the next phase is.”

Warner Bros. president Jeff Robinov hinted that the studio has plans for a Justice League of America movie to be released in 2013. Here's an excerpt from a recent article about the Warner Bros. executive.

"He's then aiming to release new Batmanand Superman films in 2012 and Justice League, a teaming of DC's top heroes, in 2013."

While the piece is generally a profile on Jeff Robinov, who succeeds Alan Horn as Warner Bros. president this week, Jeff Robinov also expressed his confidence in Superman director Zack Snyder, despite a rash of negative fanboy reactions.

"If it's a swing and a miss, you've got to take pride in the fact that we backed the level of vision."

As for the Justice League of America movie, it isn't clear what direction the studio is heading in. George Miller had previously been set to direct Justice League of America back in 2008 before the project fell apart. It isn't known if the studio will resurrect that project or go with a completely different take on the superhero ensemble.

Actor Michael Rosenbaum, who recurs on Fox's upcoming comedy series Breaking In, is expanding his relationship with the network. The former Smallville star, who has been  pursuing writing for the past couple of years, has received a blind script commitment from the network in a joint deal with 20th Century Fox TV. A year ago, Rosenbaum set up single-camera comedy Saved by Zeroes at Syfy. The project, from  Sony and Happy Madison, the companies behind Breaking In, was  created by and written by Rosenbaum, who was also attached to star. Based on his personal experiences, it revolved around two friends (Rosenbaum, Jonathan Silverman), former actors on a science fiction show. Rosenbaum next reprises his breakout role as Lex Luthor in the series finale of Smallville in May.

While some fans may be taking sides on which version of Superman will endure, Man of Steel director Zack Snyder has said some very kind things about Smallville, which will end its ten-season run on May 13.

“I’ll say Thank God for Smallville,” Snyder said in an audio interview with FOX All Access. “Smallville, by itself, quietly has kept Superman in the consciousness, in a way that without it, my kids really would be like ‘who the hell is Superman?’”

“Smallville’s done an amazing job of just keeping that icon alive, and I thank them for that, incredibly,” he continued.

Get ready, Clark Kent, there's a new golden boy in town. On April 22, Smallville introduces Booster Gold, "a glory-seeking showboat from the future," says Days of Our Lives star Eric Martsolf, who plays the DC Comics cult favorite. "The episode takes place in Booster's very early stages where he's at his conceited best, where he believes he can do whatever he wants. He's gonna stay for the photo op and bask in the glory of his heroic efforts."

Booster's behavior shocks Clark (Tom Welling, who also directed the episode), who is struggling to create a more mild-mannered secret identity to balance out his life as a the Blur. "He wants to stand in the back and not be a glory hound," Martsolf says. "They are completely opposites of one another." Which isn't to say that Clark doesn't learn something from his newest super friend. "The one thing Booster does prove to Clark is that people want to look up to this guy," says Geoff Johns, the hugely popular comic book writer who penned the episode (and previously wrote Smallville's introductions to the Legion of Super-Heroes and the Justice Society of America). "They want to be inspired, and no one's doing it for them." That's not to say that Booster's methods are 100 percent legit. "This guy always shows up at the last second to make a dramatic rescue, which is really suspect," Johns teases.

One of those people he saves is teenager Jaime Reyes, who comic book fans know as another DC superhero, Blue Beetle. The episode shows his origin story: A mysterious high-tech scarab turns him into a super-powered arsenal. Although Booster Gold and Blue Beetle are buddies in the comics, this story will initially show them at odds. "This is the first time the scarab comes on to Jaime, so it creates a bulkier, more dangerous armor," Johns says. "Ultimately he'll gain more control over the scarab and it will become more friendly looking."

In keeping with Booster's history of both punches and punchlines, Johns promises viewers will "laugh out loud… Sometimes you laugh with Booster, sometimes you laugh at him." And with only a few episodes of the series remaining the story ties into Clark's ultimate transformation. "It's rich in comic book history," Martsolf says, "but it's also a vehicle for Clark to start to embrace the marketability of Superman and what he could potentially be."

Smallville returns with its final batch of original episodes on Friday, April 15 at 8/7c on The CW.

  This just in — three-time Oscar nominee Amy Adams will play journalist Lois Lane in Hollywood’s revival of “Superman.”

The 36-year-old star got the news on Sunday from director Zack Snyder, who phoned her from Paris, where he was promoting his just-opened film, “Sucker Punch.” There had been a crush of Hollywood interest in the lead female role in the Warner Bros. project but Snyder said that after meeting with Adams, she was the clear choice to take on a character that dates back to 1938 and has long represented the strong, professional woman who can hold her own against any man – even if he can leap tall buildings in a single bound.

“There was a big, giant search for Lois,” Snyder said. “For us it was a big thing and obviously a really important role. We did a lot of auditioning but we had this meeting with Amy Adams and after that I just felt she was perfect for it.”

Snyder declined to discuss the precise prominence of Lois in the story or any plot details about the film but he said the role is “a linchpin” to the project and that he considers it essential that Lois — an FDR-era creation – arrives on screen in 2012 with contemporary appeal and spirit.  

Lois Lane meets Superman (DC Comics)

“It goes back to what I’ve said about Superman and making him really understandable for today. What’s important to us is making him relevant and real and making him empathetic to today’s audience so that we understand the decisions he makes.  That applies to Lois as well. She has to be in the same universe as him [in tone and substance].”

Adams has shown an affinity for finding the plucky but pitch-perfect center of old-school roles; in the cartoonish ”Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” she brought a surprising amount of yearning emotion to the role of a simplified Amelia Earhart and she won rave reviews for the role of Giselle in “Enchanted” and its sly send-up of Disney princess traditions that date back to “Snow White,” which premiered just six months before Lois Lane hit newsstands in the pages of Action Comics No. 1.

Adams is coming off an Academy Award nomination for her work in ”The Fighter,” the David O. Russell film that took her into far darker territory; she played a bartender named Charlene who is fire-tested and fierce in her love for a down-but-not-out boxer portrayed by Mark Wahlberg. The film earned an Oscar win for Christian Bale, who played Wahlberg’s deliriously drugged-out brother, and he will be in the other big superhero film of 2012, “The Dark Knight Rises,” which will see Bale back in the cowl of Batman.

Margot Kidder and the late Christopher Reeve memorably brought romance to Metropolis (Warner Bros)

The big breakthrough for Adams was “Junebug,” which premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, where Adams won a special jury prize for her performance. The star’s other notable credits include ”Doubt,” Julie & Julia,” “Sunshine Cleaning,“  “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” and “Charlie Wilson’s War.” Later this year, she will be seen in both “On the Road” (an adaptation of the famed Jack Kerouac novel) and in Disney’s new Muppets film.

I asked Snyder how it feels to be making a film where every casting choice is a global news flash. ”It’s an epic thing, no doubt. But this good news is the cast is shaping up to fit that.” In the still-untitled Superman film, Henry Cavill will play Clark Kent and the Man of Steel. Kevin Costner and Diane Lane are set to play the Kents, the adoptive parents of the last son of Krypton.

– Geoff Boucher

via blogs.wsj.com

So far, Zack Snyder’s “Sucker Punch” hasn’t been a knockout at the box office.

An effects-driven fantastical thriller about a young woman who enters an action-packed alternative reality to escape from a mental hospital, the movie earned a less than smashing $19 million over the weekend. A number of box-office forecasters had predicted the film would hit in the low-to-mid $20s.

In past years, Snyder has struck it big in March: In 2004, his directorial debut “Dawn of the Dead” topped the box office with a surprising $26.7 million in sales; three years later, the eye-grabbing war epic “300″ broke records for the month with an astounding $70.9 million debut; in 2009, the superhero spectacle “Watchmen” made $55.2 million in its opening.

“Given the marketing hype and Snyder’s previous movies, ‘Sucker Punch’ will likely be perceived as a big disappointment,” said Box Office Mojo president Brandon Gray. “On the other hand, an utterly unappealing movie opened to around $19 million, suggesting some drawing power for Snyder.”

The PG-13 rated film garnered poor reviews (a 35 out of 100 on review aggregation site Metacritic.com) and its overall Cinemascore rating was just a B-, with the younger the audience, the higher the score (under 18-year-olds gave it a B+),

“Sucker Punch” was notably a wholly original project—not adapted from any known source material, comic book, previous film or TV show. But the film’s reported $85 million budget and an expensive marketing campaign, from distributor Warner Bros, in partnership with co-financier Legendary Pictures, will make it difficult to recoup.

But the studio maintains the film reached its marks. “Our director Zack Snyder made a visually stunning film that attracted his faithful audience,” Warner Bros. executive vice president of distribution Jeff Goldstein said via email. “Our weekend results are right in line with our expectations. We’re looking forward to being in theaters for weeks to come.”

Paul Dergarabedian, president of Hollywood.com’s box-office division, blames the middling sales on the marketplace. “It’s weird right now,” he said. “‘Sucker Punch’ felt and looked like a huge movie, but it’s a momentum thing, and we’ve lost a lot of momentum.” According to Dergarabedian, this is the fifth consecutive down weekend at the box office as compared with last year.

Dergarabedian also suggested that “Sucker Punch” detractors are unfairly comparing the film to Snyder’s previous successes. “It’s all about perceptions,” he added. “With ’300′ being this enormous surprise that blew everybody away, everything after that is going to be held to that standard.”

Snyder has been under particular scrutiny recently after being hired by Warner Bros. to reboot their “Superman” franchise. This weekend the studio announced that Amy Adams (“Enchanted,” “The Fighter”) had been cast as Lois Lane in the movie. Superman will be played by actor Henry Cavill (“The Tudors”). The casting has generated plenty of discussion already about the age difference between the two leads–Adams is 36 and Cavill is 27. In Hollywood films, the leading man is typically older than the love interest.

As Box Office Mojo’s Gray said, “Snyder can coast on ’300′ and these fanboy affairs, but his real test will come with a mainstream property like ‘Superman.’”

via www.comicbookresources.com

First it was the Legion of Super-Heroes. Then it was the Justice Society. And now, DC Comics Chief Creative Officer and superstar comics writer Geoff Johns is using his annual shot at scripting an episode of The CW's "Smallville" to introduce Booster Gold and Blue Beetle into the show's canon – and TV Guide has debuted the first image of the pair.

"The one thing Booster does prove to Clark is that people want to look up to this guy," Johns told the magazine of the debut of the character being played by actor Eric Martsolf in April 22's "Booster." "They want to be inspired, and no one's doing it for them."

How teenage Blue Beetle Jaime Reyes fits into the picture is still under wraps, however Johns explained the for Booster's part, the hero will be in line with the way the scribe wrote him in his own ongoing series as well as "52." "This guy always shows up at the last second to make a dramatic rescue, which is really suspect…Sometimes you laugh with Booster, sometimes you laugh at him."

For more on the April 22 episode, check out TV Guide, and stay tuned to CBR News and Spinoff Online for more on "Smallville's" final season.