The Average American Male is Optioned

I don’t usually mention news of books or other non-film properties being optioned by studios, but this was too funny not to pass on.

The book, The Average American Male by Chad Kultgen was described in the New York Times book review as “[A] brilliant send-up of the way …the male point of view has been misrepresented by militant feminists.” Normally that’d be enough to sign me on board to read it, but as a promotion for the book, they filmed a few shorts and released them on YouTube back when the book was released in March of this year. Check ‘em out:

Apparently they were a bit of an internet phenomenon earlier this year, but I missed out on it. Hilarious. I bought the book hours after seeing these.

Anyway, the book has been optioned by Fox Atomic. Chad Kultgen is set to adapt his own screenplay, and Betty Thomas (John Tucker Must Die) is on board to produce and possibly direct.

Source: JoBlo

Pre-Teen Raider?

Gail Simone’s portion of the animated reinvention of Tomb Raider over at GameTap is up today.

1UP has a pretty good interview with her as well.

The animation style is very different, but this looks like it could be decent.

Source: 1UP.com

Incredible Hulk Site

Though it pales in comparison to the whole Dark Knight web campaign, the site for next summer’s other other superhero flick (besides Iron Man as well) went live today.

Check it out at http://www.theincrediblehulk.net/.

Source: JoBlo

Why So Serious?

Okay, here’s the deal.

The Dark Knight marketing campaign is being done by a group called 42 Entertainment, the same group responsible for Nine Inch Nails’ phenomenal “Year Zero” campaign, and the just-getting-started promotion for J.J. Abrams’ “Project Cloverfield.”

It then makes sense how the first picture of the Joker was revealed in such a cool way. I reported earlier today about the countdown site to their panel at this year’s Comic Con.

Well, the games, as they say, have just begun.

Shortly after the countdown ended, a challenge appeared on the website in question, www.whysoserious.com.

It was the beginning of a series of puzzles which you can track on this message board which was updated as it happened. I haven’t even been able to keep up! These guys are crazy.

The only part I got to experience was a phone number which appeared in a picture after the first step:

Call it. It’s fucked up.

Anyway, here’s a couple of other articles chronicling the site.

Regardless, the reward for the whole challenge is available to all of us now. Enjoy The Dark Knight teaser trailer in Quicktime HD! Simply click above the word “smiles” where it appears blurry.

I gotta say, this is a pretty cool way of revealing it to all us suckers who can’t make it out to San Diego.

Source: JoBlo, Myself

2007 So Far

Rottentomatoes.com, the best source on the net for a comprehensive look at movie reviews, has put together a Best-and-Worst-of-2007-So-Far list. This is, of course, according to their Tomatometer ratings, which give an average of all of the film’s reviews.

Among the top films:

Knocked Up (#4)

Hot Fuzz (#5)

Sicko (#6)

The Host (#7)

Zodiac (#

The Lookout (#10)

Among the bottom:

The Number 23 (#2)

Premonition (#3)

Norbit (#5)

Happily N’ever After (#7)

Check out the full list here.

Source: JoBlo

SModcast!

In the age of podcasts, this should be no surprise, but…

Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier have a podcast!

Looks like another one I have to start listening to.

Source: Quick Stop Entertainment

Tomb Raider Animated

Minnie Driver is voicing Tomb Raider Lara Croft in the animated series airing on GameTap.

Ten parts altogether, individual episodes will be done by different known and respected artists in the field of animation. The first ones have popped up this week and were done by “Aeon Flux” creator Peter Chung.

Look for more in the coming weeks by Warren Ellis (Marvel & DC, “Transmetropolitan”), Gail Simone (DC’s “Birds of Prey”), Jim Lee(X-Men #1, Batman “Hush”), and Christos Gage (Deadshot, Legends of the Dark Knight).

Source: Dark Horizons

Comic Con Info

The big annual Comic-Con out in San Diego is just a couple of weeks away, and with it will come lots of sneak peeks at the coming year’s high profile pop culture bits, including (but not limited to):

Iron Man

The Incredible Hulk

Heroes: Season 2

Speed Racer

Lost: Season 4

For the full breakdown of who’ll be there (and when!), head over to Dark Horizons. The event will be held July 26-28.

Source: Dark Horizons

Good Cop, Baby Cop

Do you guys remember The Landlord? The short Will Ferrell posted on his website funnyordie.com?

Well, the follow up is out. Featuring Pearl at her finest once again.

Source: JoBlo, FunnyorDie.com