User:Wildroot/Sandbox

In March 2014 David Goyer expressed interest in taking over Green Lantern - working on Sandman and Batman vs Superman.

http://i.imgur.com/9aBtq.gi Remember to do drastic rewrites on all of your articles and add encyclopedic photos
 * Good Topics: Indiana Jones films, X-Men films, Films directed by Tim Burton, Films Directed by Bryan Singer, Back to the Future films, Evil Dead films, Star Wars episodes, Films Starring James Dean, Films directed by Peter Jackson, Films directed by Steven Spielberg and Films directed by Terry Gilliam.
 * Write the Cast descriptions for 12 Monkeys, American Graffiti (Curt drives a Citroën 2CV, Milner drives a Deuce Coupe, Toad drives a Vespa Scooter), Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Frighteners, The Hudsucker Proxy, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Mask of Zorro, The Phantom of the Opera (2004 film), Sleepy Hollow, and Tucker: The Man and His Dream.
 * Use JohnAugust.com for Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Dark Shadows and Frankenweenie.
 * Add DVD info for Beyond the Sea, Batman Forever, Big Fish, The Brothers Grimm, Catch Me If You Can, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Ed Wood, The Frighteners, Hulk, I, Robot, The Mask of Zorro, The Nightmare Before Christmas (2-disc release), Superman Returns, Thank You for Smoking, Willow and X-Men.
 * Add info from Time and The New York Times for A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Back to the Future, Batman Returns, Batman Forever, Batman & Robin, Catch Me If You Can, Empire of the Sun, Hook, Hulk, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Planet of the Apes, Superman Returns, The Truman Show, and X2.
 * Add info from The New York Times for The Frighteners and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
 * Add audio commentaries for Back to the Future (finish Gale/Canton), Batman Returns, Batman & Robin, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Contact (3), Edward Scissorhands (TB), Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (BS & BS/LS), Planet of the Apes (DE) and Tucker: The Man and His Dream.
 * Add The Art of for Mars Attacks!, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Planet of the Apes, Sleepy Hollow, Superman Returns, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit
 * Add themes for Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Truman Show and Superman Returns.
 * Add The Films of Steven Spielberg for Empire of the Sun and Hook.
 * Add info from Into the Digital Realm for Back to the Future, The Hudsucker Proxy, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The Rocketeer, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Willow.
 * Do complete rewrites on Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Beetlejuice, and Pee-wee's Big Adventure (one and two).
 * Add a lead section for Batman Forever and The Phantom of the Opera (2004 film) - Banderas' involvement


 * The Brothers Grimm: "I was always influenced by my childhood with Grimm's fairy tales. They kind of informed everything." Jabberwocky and Time Bandits are also fairy tales. "Chuck Roven, who produced 12 Monkeys, kept pestering me about Grimm, and I kept saying no. Eventually I succumbed, because at least I was moving back into a world I understood and felt at home in, and I knew I could make something magical out of it. So that's how I got lured into it."


 * Inception: September 21, 2009: 4 blocks of Downtown Los Angeles. To keep media, particularly paparazzi, from sneaking into the set, security manned nearly every shop, building and parking structure from Main Street to Broadway and 6th to 8th streets.

January 2010: Has Ian Fleming, the Wachowski Brothers and Sigmund Freud as its spiritual advisers. An international thriller, A story of madness and lost love, and Hollywood’s very first metaphysical heist movie. “I grew up watching James Bond films and loving those and watching spy movies with their globetrotting sensibility.... We get to do that here, not just geographically but also in time and dimensions of reality as well. We get to make a movie that’s expansive, I suppose you’d say, in four dimensions.” “It’s something that we had been talking about on since 2002," Thomas said. "Coming off of the ‘The Dark Knight,’ the only thing we really knew is that we wanted to do something more personal. It seemed like the right time to do this." A key part of the premise is corporate espionage by way of dream invasion. “This is the biggest challenge I’ve taken on to this point,” said Nolan. “We’re trying to tell a story on a massive scale, a true blockbuster scale – the biggest I’ve ever been involved with. We tried to make a very large-scale film with ‘The Dark Knight’ and with this one we wanted to push that even further.”

Inception stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a dream thief of sorts in what may be Hollywood’s first metaphysical heist film. The movie is the most complicated undertaking of Nolan’s career — it was shot in six countries and tells a tale that flips between reality and three levels of dream-time.


 * List of unproduced Tim Burton projects
 * List of unproduced Coen brothers projects
 * List of unproduced Terry Gilliam projects
 * List of unproduced Steven Spielberg projects


 * Future films


 * Battlestar Galactica
 * Beach Boys movie
 * Creature from the Black Lagoon
 * Dark Shadows
 * Ghostbusters 3
 * Harvey (ASAP)
 * Justice League (ASAP)
 * Lincoln
 * Where the Wild Things Are (ASAP)
 * The Wolverine (ASAP)
 * X-Men: First Class (ASAP)

12 Monkeys

 * http://www.wideanglecloseup.com/gilliam96.html
 * http://www.wideanglecloseup.com/monkeys_filming.html
 * http://www.wideanglecloseup.com/monkeys_audsley.html
 * http://www.wideanglecloseup.com/monkeys_roven.html
 * http://www.wideanglecloseup.com/monkeys_beecroft.html

12 Monkeys draws on standard apocalyptic motifs from Judaism and Christianity. In his time travels back to the earth of 1996 and 1990, James Cole becomes a prophet for the people of the 1990's. Due in large part to Cole's developing relationship with Dr. Kathryn Railley, he reveals the eschatological events to come, like the ancient apocalyptic seers Enoch, Daniel, Ezra and John the Baptist. The movie opens with this quote:


 * ... 5 billion people will die from a deadly virus in 1997... The survivors will abandon the surface of the planet... Once again the animals will rule the world...
 * Excerpts from interview with clinically diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, April 12, 1990 - Baltimore Co. Hospital

Although Cole is diagnosed as mentally ill, the veracity of these eschatological cosmic secrets is assured, as the viewer and Cole realize that from a certain perspective (that of 2035), they have in fact already occurred. Cole is not merely a prophet, but is also an otherworldly figure, shuttling back and forth between the underworld of his original present and the earth of the past and post-apocalyptic future. As in Enoch's journeys throughout heaven and earth, "cosmology undergirds eschatology," in that James Cole's journeys establish a complex spatial dualism testifying to the events of cosmic history.

The underworld of 2035 has become earth, or the dwelling place of humankind, while the above ground earth is reminiscent of hell, a place of destruction for humans. This motif is emphasized by a note Cole leaves to Dr. Railley in 1990: "You live a beautiful world, but you don't know it. You have freedom, sunshine, air you can breathe. I would do anything to stay here, but I must leave." This motif of earthly paradise is also captured in the music Cole hears in the 1990's, which is dominated by naturalistic imagery (e.g., "Blueberry Hill" and "What a Wonderful World"). The underworld is the source of revelation and judgment for the people of the past, thus constituting an ironic heaven in contrast to the earth of the 1990's. As a result, the hope of the netherworld of 2035 is that through Cole's efforts, humans might eventually return "upwards" to a cleansed and purified earth, that is, a journey from hell to an earthly Paradise or heaven.

James Cole is clearly a messiah figure, and in accordance with his role as eschatological prophet/savior, he appropriately has the initials "J. C." This connection with Jesus is made even more by Willis' appearance in a bloodstained shirt, which, although partially obscured by his jacket, reads "Chris-." The culminating events of 1997 take place during the Christmas holidays, and images of angels appear throughout the background of this modern apocalypse. The "sins" in this apocalypse are rampant consumerism, animal exploitation and environmental devastation. These sins are brought to light mainly through the character of Jeffrey Goines, the mentally ill son of a famous virologist. While detained in a mental asylum with Cole, Goines points to a television and explains the sin of consumerism:


 * It's all right there-all right there. Look. Listen. Knee. Pray. Commercials. We're not productive anymore, no one needs to make things anymore. It's all automated. What are we for then? We're consumers. Yeah, okay, okay-buy a lot of stuff, you're a good citizen. But if you don't buy a lot of stuff, if you don't - fact, Jim, fact - what are you then I ask you? You're mentally ill.

The sin of animal abuse is illuminated through Goines' character, an animal activist and the organizer of "The Army of the Twelve Monkeys," which orchestrates the release of zoo animals in 1996 that results in the populations of wild animals that inhabit the earth in 2035. During another asylum conversation with Goines, savior of animals, Cole looks at television clips of cruel experiments being conducted on monkeys and rabbits and mutters, "Look at them. They're just asking for it. Maybe the human race deserves to be wiped out." The sin of environmental devastation triggers the apocalyptic plague itself. An environmental activist confronts Dr. Railley after a lecture and states:


 * Surely there's very real and very convincing data that the planet cannot survive the excesses of the human race. Proliferation of atomic devices, uncontrolled breeding habits, pollution of land, sea and air; the rape of the environment...

Not only does Cole suffer mental derangement by trying to bridge two worlds, he ultimately fails to avert the plague of 1996-7, and in the end cannot even save himself. Whether he succeeds in providing the scientists of 2035 with enough "revelation" to save humankind is ambiguous, and is left up to the next wave of human effort. The divine is nowhere in view. The film studies that in the modern world, science has replaced God as the object of worship. This is made clear when Jeffrey Goines screams about his famous father the virologist, saying, "When my father gets upset, the ground shakes! My father is God! I worship my father!!" The obvious allusion to the earthquakes that typically accompany the disasters of the last days underscores the theme that science has replaced God.

In the underworld of 2035, it is scientists who orchestrate the future salvation of humankind by searching for a cure and by selecting and sending various messiah figures, such as James Cole. Moreover, these scientists sit in judgment over the messiahs as well as over the people of the earth of the past - whom they have resigned themselves not to try to save. The implication that perhaps all apocalyptic prophets are time-travelers (and hence that their oracles are reliable) is suggested in the scene in which a millenialist street preacher who quotes a passage from Revelation seems to recognize Cole and yells "You're one of us!" Slowly, Dr. Railley realizes the truth of the quote from Revelation, in that the "seven vials of God's wrath" are vials of the virus - visible at a point near the end of the movie on an airport's x-ray machine - which bring about the end-time for the majority of the planet.

A.I. Artificial Intelligence

 * Spielberg's AI: Another Cuddly No-Brainer by Stevan Harnad
 * Additional DVD info
 * Additional DVD info
 * Additional DVD info

New York Review of Science Fiction May 2000

When the call came in March 1995, Sara Maitland thought it was a prank. The voice on the other end of the line introduced himself as film director Stanley Kubrick, and asked, "Would you like to write a film script for me?" It was an intense, sometimes frustrating experience that would end abruptly when Kubrick died this spring while "A.I." was still in pre- production.

Kubrick bought the rights to Super Toys in 1983. Spielberg's own fantastic sci-fi fairytale, ET, had been released the year before, and it had an influence on Kubrick in the same way that 2001: A Space Odyssey had influenced Spielberg to make Close Encounters of the Third Kind. After an initial bout of work on AI with Aldiss in the early 70s, it was shelved, partly in response to Star Wars. Mazello was contracted after his screen test. "We did some test shots from a helicopter of oil rigs in the North sea. We wanted to see the sea during really bad weather. Harlan maintains that Kubrick would certainly have returned to AI after Eyes Wide Shut. "He had no intention of dying, I assure you. But at one point, Stanley actually said to Spielberg: 'You would be the best guy to direct this film, I'll be the producer.' I can't tell you whether he would have directed it himself or given it to Spielberg. That was still very much a possibility."

The $90 million consequence of a footnote that he wrote, rather casually, in 1973. "I was certainly awake," he breezes. "I think Spielberg's put a bit of sugar into Kubrick's wine, but at least he's completed it in an intelligible way." Bluntly, he's relieved it's not a disaster. A month ago, he was sent a bootleg copy of such atrocious quality – the fruits of some clandestine camcordering at a preview screening in the States – that he expected the movie to be "dismal and almost incomprehensible. But to see it in Warner Brothers in full colour was quite a different thing. It's an engaging and involving film with some pretensions to intellect, unlike some of the other recent blockbusters. Have you seen Planet of the Apes?" In 1973, Aldiss published Billion Year Spree, a survey of science fiction that included, hidden in the small print, a suggestion that Stanley Kubrick was "the great sf writer of the age". Kubrick, on reading this remark at a railway bookstand, phoned Aldiss and invited him up to his manorial retreat near St Albans to talk robots and starships and alien worlds. They got on famously, and made a second date. Then Kubrick offered to buy the rights to Aldiss's "Super Toys Last All Summer Long", a short story written for Harper's Bazaar in 1969. It's also only 2,000 words long, and Aldiss was unconvinced that it was suitable material from which he and Kubrick could mould a grand space opera. Moreover, the terms of the contract that he was being offered were crankily Kubrickian: "Among other things," recalls Aldiss, "if I called in an agent to negotiate for me, the deal was immediately off. If, on the completed film, the credit read just 'Script by Brian Aldiss and Stanley Kubrick', I would be paid $2 million. But if he called in another writer, I got zilch." Another clause forbade Aldiss to leave the country while work was in progress on the movie. So when Kubrick went into production with The Shining, the author went on a trip to Florida, and sent Kubrick a postcard. On his return, he found he had been fired. The pair didn't speak for five years. 1990: Aldiss was engaged to work on the script again, picked up every morning from his house in Oxford, and driven to the Kubrick mansion. The director now wanted a sentimental epic in the style of ET, a sci-fi re-telling of Pinocchio; a story about an android boy who, like Carlo Collodi's hero, goes in search of a Blue Fairy who will effect his transformation into flesh. A.I., Kubrick's new title for the project, reflected his enthusiasm for Spielberg's work. "Kubrick always told me that if you had a six or eight-part episodic structure, then you'd got the film made. He kept saying to me, 'Look, Brian, forget about narrative. What we want are six non-submersible units.' That was his philosophy. You can really see it working well in 2001, with these disparate elements that don't quite connect, and that's what gives the film its mystery. You have to work to make the connection yourself; the most brilliant one, of course, being when the ape-man throws the femur up into the air and Kubrick cuts to the space vehicle. If ever you want to prove Kubrick's genius, then you only need look at the juxtaposition of those two shots." When Aldiss took his family on holiday, he found he'd been fired again, on the same pretext as before. Kubrick called in other writers – including Arthur C Clarke – to cast their eyes over the material. In the meantime, Aldiss wrote a sequel to his original story. When Steven Spielberg took over the project, Kubrick's brother-in-law and business manager, Jan Harlan, sent a copy of this to A.I.'s new custodian. The director proposed to buy it. Aldiss wrote Spielberg a letter, suggesting how the story might move on further. Spielberg offered to buy one sentence from the letter for more than Aldiss's customary advance for a novel. Obligingly, the author fleshed the idea into another piece of short fiction before taking the cheque. Spielberg now owned the rights to what had, haphazardly, become the Super Toys trilogy. "Kubrick always wanted to include global warming, the eventual triumph of the robots, and one other factor: the Blue Fairy." And Spielberg being Spielberg, the Blue Fairy has remained a prominent part of the story. "I thought," says Aldiss, a little regretfully, "that Kubrick was the man who could generate a new futuristic myth, and the Blue Fairy was a bit backward-looking. That was why we parted company."

Concept art commissioned in the early 1990s

Batman in film

 * Remaining info from Tales from Development Hell
 * Batman: Year One news archive
 * http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2009/10/19/fringe-lobo-jonah-hex-and-the-new-swamp-thing/
 * http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2009/10/19/fringe-lobo-jonah-hex-and-the-new-swamp-thing/

Batman (1989 film)
http://www.superherohype.com/news/articles/102994-williams-interested-in-riddler-donner-wants-wonder-woman- Producer Michael Uslan explained, "I only let Tim see the original year of the Bob Kane/Bill Finger run, up until the time that Robin was introduced. I showed him the Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers and the Neal Adams/Denny O'Neil stories." Uslan feared "that somehow Tim would get hold of the campiest Batman comics and then where would we be?"

Englehart offered to write an entirely new screenplay, but was denied permission by the studio. He claims, "Between the original comics and the treatments, about 70 percent of what ended up on screen originated with me."

Englehart said it was "decided Silver and Thorne were no longer well-enough known, so the names were changed".

Gibson turned down the role because he did not "want to put a spandex suit on".

Costner, Ford and Quaid. Burton wanted an unknown actor, similar to Richard Donner's decision when casting Christopher Reeve in Superman.

Jack Nicholson was producer Michael Uslan's and Bob Kane's choice since 1980.


 * Home video info




 * http://books.google.com/books?id=ljPxY89_4MsC&pg=PA89 dq=Metropolis+Redux:+Visual+Metaphor+and+the+Urbanscape&client=firefox-a#PPA89,M1


 * (Robson, pp. 81)
 * Do a complete rewrite: Overlinkage, copy-editing and critical reception

Batman Returns
http://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/07/movies/film-annette-bening-hot-but-cool.html?pagewanted=5
 * Info about the Penguin in Batman: The Animated Series

Batman Forever

 * The Batchlers couldn't work on rewrites for Batman Forever because of contractual obligations with Walt Disney Pictures. Burton approved of their hiring. Schumacher says Tommy Lee Jones was a heavy as well. "Jim Carrey was a gentleman, and Tommy Lee was threatened by him. I'm tired of defending overpaid, overprivileged actors. I pray I don't work with them again." "childish and impossible." was what Joel said in Batman Forever After a couple of weeks of shooting, Kilmer's behavior had eroded to the point where Schumacher says he and Kilmer had a physical pushing match. He was being irrational and ballistic with the first AD, the cameraman, the costume people. He was badly behaved, he was rude and inappropriate. I was forced to tell him that this would not be tolerated for one more second. Then we had two weeks where he did not speak to me, but it was bliss.

http://www.superherohype.com/news/articles/102994-williams-interested-in-riddler-donner-wants-wonder-woman-
 * Articles from Batman Movies Online

Catch Me If You Can

 * http://movies.ign.com/articles/380/380907p1.html
 * http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/03/26/retro_titles.html
 * http://www.awesomestories.com/flicks/catch-me

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

 * Finish off the Music, look at the Plot section and add the Image somewhere.
 * Burton directs Depp on the set of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

In the Development section, why is Roald Dahl's daughter name linked? Same section, link "1971 film adaption" once. In the Music section, dates aren't supposed to be linked.

The original music score was written by Danny Elfman, a frequent collaborator with director Tim Burton. Elfman's score is based around three primary themes: a gentle family theme for the Buckets, generally set in upper woodwinds; a mystical, string-driven waltz for Willy Wonka; and a hyper-upbeat factory theme for full orchestra, Elfman's homemade synthesizer samples and the diminutive chanting voices of the Oompa-Loompas.
 * Music

Elfman also wrote and performed the vocals for four songs. The lyrics to the Oompa-Loompa songs are adapted from the original book, and are thus credited to Roald Dahl. Each song in the score is designed to reflect a different archetype. "Wonka's Welcome Song" is a maddeningly cheerful theme park ditty, "Augustus Gloop" a Bollywood spectacle (per Deep Roy's suggestion); "Violet Beauregarde" is 1970s funk, "Veruca Salt" is 1960s bubble-gum pop / psychedelia; and "Mike Teavee" is a tribute to late 1970s British pop (such as Queen) / early 1980s hair bands.


 * For the film Elfman not only composed the entire film score, but also wrote the original song "Wonka's Welcome Song" (Elfman wrote the music and co-wrote the lyrics with screenwriter John August). Elfman has also wrote the music for four additional songs that feature lyrics based on elements of Roald Dahl's classic book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory book by Roald Dahl. These four songs will be the first time since The Nightmare Before Christmas that Elfman has sung the lyrics to some of his songs. In particular on the songs for Charlie Tim and I worked very closely together and the challenge was to give each song for each child their own distinct feel," explains Elfman. ""Augustus Gloop" was inspired by big brassy Bollywood production pieces; "Violet Beauregarde," the gum-chewer, threw back to a retro 70's funk feel; "Mike Teavee," needed something frenetic and hyperactive like he is, the short attention spanvideo game rock kid; and "Veruca Salt" who goes down the garbage chute has lyrics about fish heads."


 * Charlie and Corpse back to back for Elfman.


 * Dahl's lyrics were used for Elfman's songs. All of the voices are sung by Mr. Elfman, who overdubbed himself dozens of times.


 * Except for the Mike Teavee dance, where the Oompas play in a rock band. I learned to play the guitar for that one. My favorite is Augustus Gloop's song because it's very Bollywood. I kept telling Tim 'We've got to do a Bollywood number!' and finally he said okay."

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

 * Info from The Making of Steven Spielberg's Classic Film.
 * Time

Dick Tracy (1990 film)

 * Color palette
 * The poster campaign employed an even more limited three-color palette. Very ubiquitous.
 * Add those images and info from Dick Tracy: The Making of the Movie. Fix the Lead and Cast (briefly) sections.
 * That Warren Beatty book


 * Cast
 * Cameos by: Estelle Parsons, Mary Woronov, John Schuck, Allen Garfield and Charles Fleischer. Estelle Parsons and Michael J. Pollard reunites with Warren Beatty 23 years after their success in Bonnie and Clyde (1967). Armstrong was in Reds and Heaven Can Wait.

Edward Scissorhands

 * Info about the musical
 * Elfman's legacy

The Mask of Zorro

 * Finish up the lawsuit

Following the success of this film an action-adventure television series made by Fireworks Entertainment called Queen of Swords,  set in Spanish California during the early 19th century  ran for one season, from 2000 to 2001. It featured a protagonist who demonstrates many aspects of the Zorro character, including the black costume with a red sash, the swordfighting skills of the rapier and dagger but using the Spanish mysterious circle (Destreza) style, the dagger in the boot, use of a whip and Bolas, a gypsy servant (also a woman), and horse riding skills. Filmed at Texas Hollywood, Almeria, Spain. Sony Pictures unsuccessfully sued Fireworks Entertainment, a summary of the case is here, because the elements used from the original Johnston McCulley story and 1920 film The Mark of Zorro were out of copyright.
 * Lawsuit

A much more detailed review comparing characters and scenarios from the film, comics, and TV series considering
 * Tessa Alvarado/QOS is an amalgamation of three Mask of Zorro characters: Elena, Diego (the Zorro played by Anthony Hopkins, "Hopkins Zorro,"), and Murietta (the Zorro played by Antonio Banderas, "Banderas Zorro").Plaintiffs also argue that Defendants copied Mask of Zorro's Don Montero to create QOS's Colonel Montoya, and that they copied Mask of Zorro's Harrison Love to create QOS's Marcus Grisham.
 * The first two episodes of QOS display several plot elements from Mask of Zorro in the same sequence as Mask of Zorro. The elements include the death of the protagonist's beloved family member at the hands of an expatriate American mercenary, the return of the main female character to Old California from Spain, as well as the protagonist's learning to fight with a sword, donning a black costume and mask to avenge the family member's death, freeing secretly enslaved gold miners, and then blowing-up a gold mine.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

 * The Time Burton Collective
 * The Time Burton Collective

Superman (film)

 * 30th Anniversary of Superman: The Movie at CapedWonder.com.
 * Vintage Christopher Reeve interview
 * The 2001 DVD
 * Behind-the-scenes photos
 * Mad Magazine Spoof
 * Time
 * Behind-the-scenes photos
 * Mad Magazine Spoof
 * Time

Who Framed Roger Rabbit

 * More info about Wolf's lawsuit
 * More info about Wolf's lawsuit
 * More info about Wolf's lawsuit
 * More info about Wolf's lawsuit
 * More info about Wolf's lawsuit
 * More info about Wolf's lawsuit

Cans of Diet Coke discreetly appeared in Walt Disney's Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Both Disney and Coke benefited again when the company conducted a TV ad campaign featuring the sultry Jessica Rabbit crooning for the diet drink. Forefront of modern animation. Warner Bros. is about to release its first new Bugs Bunny cartoon in 26 years, and Disney is readying a Mickey Mouse featurette for later this year. Meanwhile, the American Multi- Cinema theater chain has begun showing old Looney Tunes shorts in all 1,700 of its movie houses. "For the past two decades I thought of animation as a desert," says Spielberg. "Suddenly what was a mirage has become an oasis."

X-Men
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/07/09/movies/film-an-unusual-choice-for-the-role-of-studio-superhero.html http://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/28/business/investing-it-marvel-superheroes-take-aim-at-hollywood.html http://www.nytimes.com/2000/07/25/movies/critic-s-notebook-they-oughta-be-pictures-comic-book-heroes-are-naturals-but-too.html?gwh=115EAFBC9823E048FE1AA5713B43FB96&gwt=pay http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/05/nyregion/public-lives-the-man-who-put-the-spring-back-in-spidey-s-web.html?gwh=0CD196377B6947EC933E75BEC90363EB&gwt=pay http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/13/arts/comic-book-gets-serious-gay-issues-major-character-becomes-victim-hate-crime.html?gwh=58055F0585944A1E748EC72164EC0989&gwt=pay

X2: X-Men United

 * Production notes

http://blogs.coventrytelegraph.net/thegeekfiles/2010/11/comic-book-writer-chris-clarem.html http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117891166 http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117896652 http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117918085

Howard Hughes
In July 1994, Lester Persky purchased the film rights of both The Passions of Howard Hughes (ISBN 1-88164-988-1) and The Beauty and the Billionaire (ISBN 0-67150-080-5), which were both written by Terry Moore. Moore was married to Hughes between 1949 and 1956, and won the right to call herself Hughes' widow after a protracted legal battle. Persky intended to produce the books in miniseries format, but that project was also abandoned.