• Smallville • Whedon • Push • Kick-Ass! •
• Atlanta • Powers • Torchwood •

SMALLVILLE: ABSOLUTE JUSTICE
The Geoff Johns’ penned “Smallville” event “Absolute Justice” has a new trailer and it looks good. Surprisingly good—you get Golden Age Green Lantern and Flash props with some nods. I will return to watching “Smallville” Friday, February 5. Check it out over the DC’s The Source Blog.

WHEDON TO FX?
Reports are floating around that Joss Whedon might be planning his next series at FX. (Whedon’a current Fox show, Dollhouse airs its final episode next Friday.) If Whedon and the network that brought us “Always Sunny in Philidelphia,” “Sons of Anarchy” and “The Shield” can come together we’re all for it.
Read about it here.

PUSH GETS A TV SHOW
Nikkie Finke asks why the Summit feature, which only made $50 million, is getting a TV show and we agree. Read Finke over at Deadline Hollywood Daily.

SCOTT PILGRIM
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World reviews are starting to come in from early screenings and AintItCoolNews.com has them here.

FINAL KICK-ASS POSTER
Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.’s “Kick-Ass!” film adaptation from director Matthew Vaughn hits theaters April 16. We have seen it and it lives up to its name and then some.

ATLANTA COMIC CON
Andy, Casey and I come back to the ATL for the first time since our road trip a decade ago. Who will eat a bug this year? Dates and venue TBD. Read the press release here.

POWERS STILL MOVING AT FX
Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming’s “Powers” series—currently published through Marvel’s Icon line—is still inactive development at FX according to the network prez. Read it over here at Premium Hollywood.

TORCHWOOD AT FOX
Our main man Double B Double D reacts to the news that the Doctor Who spin-off, Torchwood will be adapted for the U.S. on Fox. Doctor Who and Torchwood mastermind Russel T. Davies is involved and writing the script, so there’s hope, but DDBB justly points out it’s Fox which has killed both Firefly and Dollhouse. Read it here.

WHEDON WAR ONE
That header sounds badass, but the story’s just kind of weird. Here’s what you need to know: The Buffy book from Dark Horse is really good, and you should read it. And coming up in said really good Buffy book is the fact that one-time lover Angel is actually the big bad Twilight—a reveal that Bill Willingham, writer of the IDW-published Angel book, is none too pleased about. Rich Johnston and Comic Book Resources have it all pieced together.
Read here for part one.
Here for part two.
And the final here.

SIMONE RETURNS TO BoP
Gail Simone is back on Birds of Prey, and that’s pretty exciting.
Quote Simone: “Birds of Prey was the DCU gateway drug. It was the book that a thousand girlfriends and wives and daughters insisted get picked up, the first book they followed on their own. I’ve always been really proud of that, and I think the book being gone left a real hole in the superhero genre that other female-led books don’t really fill, somehow.” Read about it here at Comic Alliance.

SPIDER-MAN MOVIE UPDATE
According to Mike Fleming over at DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com, Sony has a short list of directors for the Spider-Man reboot movie. Marc Webb, (“500 Days of Summer”) is apparently in the lead. Is Joseph Gordon-Levitt too old to play a high school-aged Peter Parker, or is the high school setting possibly up for debate? Flemming says yes to the first and no to latter. Read it all here.

SMALLVILLE
Smallville: Absolute Justice—the Smallville event movie—has a teaser poster and Topless Robot has some comments.

Ghostbuster 3
Ivan Reitman says the script is in and he’s directing “Ghostbusters 3.” Reitman says he hopes to start shooting this year. Video here from MTV.

Ultimate X
Ultimate X from Marvel, Jeph Loeb and Art Adams released it’s final teaser yesterday, and this is it.

‘Lady Death’ creator slashes into horror films

Hold on to your heads! Brian Pulido, creator of hairsprayed and hellbound horror comic icons Evil Ernie and Lady Death is back with “The Graves”—a Southwestern supernatural slasher starring the “Candyman”, Bill Moseley and a couple tough gals who aim to gouge the guts out of conventional female horror roles.

From the dry, hot, rattlesnake and mutant clan riddled hills of Arizona, Brian spoke to Wizard about the women who have inspired him, his favorite kill method and a man named Pig Man.

Have you always wanted to make movies? Does this mark a full-on change in your career?

I still plan to do comics, in fact I’m writing an all new Lady Death series from Avatar starting next year. But it’s definitely an expansion. I had originally written the comic “Evil Ernie” as a screenplay many years ago. I had an offer to direct it, but I didn’t like the nature of the deal, they would own it afterwards, and that was what made me ultimately go and form [Chaos].

Why do you find yourself drawn to female leads? What makes the Graves sisters different from females in other horror movies?

When I was a kid I was mostly raised by my mother and my sister, so I’m really used to seeing women in positions of authority. In horror films in particular having female characters it’s easier to show vulnerability, it’s easier to show a transition from weak to strong, or a person finding their strength.
Meghan and Abby Graves are comic geeks. Their favorite authors between them are Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman. Meghan likes everything tough, so she likes Lady Death and probably likes Red Sonja and Powergirl. Abigail is a Neil Gaiman nerd and likes anything Goth, so her favorites are Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, Durge, that kind of stuff. This is a fun geek kind of film. It’s the sort of film that a couple can go to and have a good time and the girl will not feel like she has to take a shower after having seen it. It’s a horror film that’s not derogatory towards women. In my movie the girls are heroes. I have nothing against women so I do not relish the idea of seeing them tortured. Its in homage to great old horror films like “Nightmare on Elm Street” where the main character Nancy, while she was Freddy’s victim, was also the hero of the story.

Will any of the kills in “The Graves” take us by legitimate surprise?

I’ll go on record: there’s a couple kills that have never been seen in a movie before. I’ve now seen it with audiences that didn’t know anyone from the film was there, and it works. We have a R rating specifically for strong, bloody violence. You’ve got to be proud of something.

What were the conditions like on set?

We got attracted to shooting in this real life location called Historic Vulture Mine. It’s an old gold mine with a building called the Assay Building where they would store gold, and next to it was “the hang-man’s tree”, where they hung 18 people because they were accused of stealing gold. So the theory is that those guys are still waiting around because they’re unsettled.
I don’t think anyone had shot there since the mid 70s. There’s no doubt the place is just creepy. In 1945 when the thing when bankrupt and the mine itself went belly up, the whole town left. What made things difficult was: the place was haunted, there were 6 different kinds of rattlesnakes, tarantulas and scorpions where we were at, and we did have this crazy range of weather. We had security keep an eye on the set at night and one particular evening the security guy couldn’t make it. At some point somebody came on our grounds with a rifle and was shifting around, and the next morning on one of our main Winnebagos written in mud was “Get Out!” That stuff is really scary. Our location was 30 miles away from town. Literally in the middle of the desert. There could be crazy hill people out there. I was told that 10 miles south of us was a cult and then 10 miles north of us was supposed to be a giant Meth operation.

What can you tell me about Pig Man? Where did Pig Man come from?

Pig Man is 100% Bill Moseley’s invention. He plays a character named Caleb who is the town handyman. He has another persona, and that persona is Pig Man, and Pig Man is a serial killer. He has killed over 200 people, but he’s looking for a mate. For better or for worse, he thinks he finds it in Meghan, the older of the Graves sisters. That’s good and bad for her.

I remember when he first brought it up we were like “Yeah, we don’t know” and we got him the prop and stuff and when we saw him on set, most of the women in the crew became repulsed and freaked out. Then I knew for sure we were on to something. There’s just something about it that really, really disturbs people. When he becomes Pig Man, he’s a man who is a pig. He behaves like a pig, makes sounds like a pig, speaks like a pig, and that’s totally Bill. He’s got this crazy sense of adventure and madness. I felt like I was Martin Scorsese and he was Robert DeNiro. The idea that I could write this dialogue and he could interpreted and turn it into something that much wackier and insane and more disturbing was really exciting.

What are you working on next? Will there we any further convergence between your comic properties and films?

The next movie I’m working on is called “Damnation”. It’s about a family of con artists who perform fake exorcisms and con people out of their money when they unwittingly unleash a horde of demons. One day I would like to be the guy to direct the live action Lady Death movie, not unlike “300” but set in hell. I think I have the raw talent but to get the technical skill, I have to do a couple more movies to get my shots up. It’s something I’m willing to hold out for. • RACHEL MOLINO

Hailing from Lions Gate, “The Graves” debuts at Horrorfest 4 (AKA “8 Films to Die For”) on January 29, 2010 and in theaters across the country.