Walter Hill and Matz Team for Triggerman!

That’s a cover detail from Triggerman, a new crime comic coming from Hard Case Crime and Titan Comics.

Triggerman will be written by Walter (“The Warriors”) Hill with art by Matz.

In the mean streets of Chicago, a convict is thrown headfirst into a life of bloodshed and bullets to save the girl he left behind…

I love the sound and look.  I’ll definitely be pulling the trigger on Triggerman.

Sources: Flickering Myth and Down the Tubes.

Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955) / Z-View

Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955)

Director:  Charles Lamont

Screenplay:  John Grant from a story by Lee Leob

Stars:  Bud Abbott, Lou CostelloMarie Windsor, Michael Ansara and Richard Deacon.

The Pitch: “Hey, Abbott and Costello Haven’t Met the Mummy yet!”

Tagline: “It has been said that a man’s best friend is his mummy…”

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Abbott and Costello are in Egypt… and they meet The Mummy.  Hilarity [ok, a fair amount of laughs] follow.

Rating:

Jason Latour Talks to EW at Con-X

Jason Latour is the subject of a piece at Entertainment Weekly.  When asked about the tv adaptation of Southern Bastards, Latour responded…

“We’re hopeful that it will move forward… It’s a slow, slow process, but there’s really good people behind it and excited by it. At some point now, to do the comic everyday, you have to forget that there might be a TV show.”

A tv series would be icing but as long as Jason Aaron and Jason Latour keep the comic coming, that’s the cake, baby.

16 High-Flying Facts About “The Rocketeer”

Stacy Conradt and Mental_Floss present 16 High-Flying Facts About The Rocketeer.  Here are three of my favorites…

1. IT WAS ORIGINALLY A COMIC BOOK.
In 1982, artist Dave Stevens created a comic book character called The Rocketeer, inspired by pulp characters and series from the 1930s through 1950s. Though originally intended to be a secondary strip in a more popular comic called Starslayer, the quirky character quickly proved his star power. Stevens’ Rocketeer was so popular, in fact, that the movie was optioned just a year later.

5. DISNEY WANTED JOHNNY DEPP FOR THE LEAD ROLE.
Billy Campbell was hired for the starring role after Johnny Depp turned it down—and Campbell’s agent played a part in getting Depp to nix the part. “As it happened, my agent’s office was right next to Johnny Depp’s agent’s office,” Campbell later said. “My agent called me one day all excited and he said, ‘Tracy is about to have a meeting with Johnny about whether to do Rocketeer or not, and she asked me to join in on the meeting. I’ll call you back.’ So, he went in on the meeting and he brilliantly convinced Johnny Depp that this was exactly not the kind of movie that he should be doing.”

Vincent D’Onofrio was also offered the lead at one point, but turned it down because he wasn’t sure it would fit with his image.

15. MORE MOVIES WERE IN THE WORKS.
This news is bittersweet for fans: Before the movie flopped at the box office, a sequel (and maybe even a trilogy) was in the works. “There was a lot of talk of a sequel on June 20, 1991, but there wasn’t any on the 22nd,” Johnston said in 2011.

The Killers (1946) / Z-View

The Killers (1946)

Director:  Robert Siodmak

Screenplay:  Anthony Veiller from a story by Ernest Hemingway

Stars:  Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O’Brien and William Conrad.

The Pitch: “Let’s make a movie based on Hemingway’s The Killers.”

Tagline: “One Moment with Her…And He Gambled His LUCK…LOVE…and His LIFE!”

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Two hit men show up in a small town to kill a gas station attendant known as “Swede” [Lancaster].  When warned the hitmen are in town, Swede thanks the man but refuses to run.  He lays back down and waits for their arrival, a totally defeated man.

The hit men arrive.  Kill him and leave.

Insurance investigator Reardon [O’Brien] gets the case and slowly begins to unravel the mystery of why hit men were sent to kill a small town nobody.  What follows is a story of mobsters, big time robberies, double-crosses and in the middle of it all a beautiful woman.

The opening scene – of the hitmen at the diner is a favorite and sets the tone for a classic movie!

Rating: 4 of 5 stars.

“The Mountain Men” (1980) starring Charlton Heston and Brian Keith / Z-View

“The Mountain Men” (1980)

Director:  Richard Lang

Screenplay: Fraser Clarke Heston

Stars:  Charlton Heston, Brian Keith, Victoria Racimo and John Glover.

Tagline:  Alone… each is a bombshell.  Together… they’re dynamite.

The Overview:

Two aging mountain men survive in a world that is changing and will soon leave them behind.  If the hostile conditions of the frontier don’t kill ’em, the Indians or the corn whiskey might.

Thoughts:  Beware of Spoilers…

I remember seeing this movie back in the early 80’s on HBO and loving it.  I recently revisited it and while I still enjoyed it, The Mountain Men wasn’t the movie I remember loving so much.

The interplay between Charlton Heston and Brian Keith [who steals every scene is in] is worth the price of admission. Heston and Keith had worked together on the 1953 film Arrowhead.

It’s fun seeing a young John Glover in his first screen appearance.

The Mountain Men was director Richard Lang’s first time helming a feature film.

The Mountain Men‘s screenwriter, Fraser Heston, is Charlton Heston’s son. The Mountain Men screenplay was Fraser Heston’s feature film debut.

The Indians are too Hollywood looking now and some of the scenes don’t hold up as well.  Still I liked it a lot, just not as much as I remembered loving it.

Rating:

16 Things You May Not Know About Ringo Starr

Eddie Deenzen and Neatorama present 16 Things You May Not Know About Ringo Starr.  Here are three of my favorites…

10. In 1964, when the Beatles first came to America, Ringo was actually the most popular Beatle. At least he received the most fan mail of the four.

16. In 2015, Ringo was finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (the Beatles had been inducted as a group in 1988). But now Ringo was (finally) elected on his own

3. Ringo was so sick as young boy, three times his doctors told his mother he wouldn’t survive the night. He was indomitable and did survive. Because of his incredible ability to survive, his grandfather’s nickname for him was “Lazarus.”

It Follows (2014) / Z-View

It Follows (2014)

Director:  David Robert Mitchell

Screenplay: David Robert Mitchell

Stars:    Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist, and Olivia Luccardi.

The Pitch: “Let’s make a low budget horror movie – they almost always make money!”

Tagline: “It doesn’t think. It doesn’t feel. It doesn’t give up.”

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

After having sex with a boy she really likes, Jay [Monroe] learns that he has passed a curse on to her. [Great choice in guys, Jay.]

“It” [the thing of the curse] will follow her, always walking but able to take different human forms and if it catches her, it will kill her.

Suddenly everyone walking towards her seems to have evil intent.  And at least one does!

Rating:

10 Facts About Jupiter That Will Blow Your Mind

Rebecca Harrington and Business Insider present 10 Facts About Jupiter That Will Blow Your Mind.  Here are three of my favorites…

  • Jupiter is twice as massive as all the other planets combined.

 

  • The planet has a swirling storm twice the width of Earth that’s raged for at least the last 150 years called the Great Red Spot.

 

  • As a gas giant, Jupiter is mostly made of hydrogen and helium, so its surface isn’t solid.