Coastal Contacts Introduces New Twilight Inspired Special Effects Contact Lenses in Time for Halloween

Coastal Contacts Twilight inspired lens

From PRWeb.com

 Coastal Contacts introduces the new fall lineup of Special Effects contact lenses for Halloween, including a Twilight inspired lens. Adding to their popular Special Effects (SFX) contact lens line, Coastal Contacts now offers over 130 styles, ranging from mildly scary to full out freaky.

Coastal Contacts Twilight inspired lens

“Halloween is one of the busiest times of the year for us,” stated Coastal Contacts Communications Manager, Jennifer Harvey. “Special Effects contact lenses have been growing in popularity for years as they are becoming more prominent in movies. Requests for these lenses have started coming in already for this year.”

Twilight has become the biggest fan phenomenon to hit North America since Lord of the Rings, and people are excited about dressing up as their favorite Twilight character this Halloween. Contact lenses in special designs, and colors help take a costume to the next level and are used frequently by Hollywood blockbusters such as X-Men, Star Wars, Harry Potter and Twilight.

“Twilight is a popular request this year. Everyone wants to be Edward or some type of Vampire and the key costume piece for a vampire is the eyes. People are really having fun with it- blood red eyes, vampire dark purple, or Edward’s amber colored eyes. When you put a pair of these SFX contact lenses in, it really changes the way you look.” added Harvey.

As the vampire theme heats up this year, setting your self apart from the crowd has become easier with Coastal Contacts new Twilight inspired lens, hitting stores just last week. Most of their Special Effects contact lenses are available in prescription powers, for people who need vision correction, and all lenses from Coastal Contacts are FDA approved.

About Coastal Contacts:

Coastal Contacts is one of the world’s fastest growing online vision care suppliers. Providing contact lenses, eyeglasses and other complimentary vision care products to consumers worldwide, Coastal Contacts is proud to provide an affordable, convenient option for high quality vision care products. With its world class operations in North America, Europe and Asia, Coastal Contacts offers a unique blend of private label and branded products to over 150 countries across the globe.    Already #1 in many of its markets, Coastal is rapidly advancing toward its goal of becoming the “World’s Vision Store.”

Patrick Stewart talks X-Men future and Star Trek

Patrick Stewart

Having appeared in both Star Trek and the X-Men films Patrick Stewart has become a regular at conventions over the years, and he recently attended DragonCon 09 and answered questions about both franchises.

When the discussion turned to “X-Men,” Stewart, who had a cameo as a younger Professor Charles Xavier in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” said that from what he had heard, audiences have probably not seen the last of the professor. He mentioned he recently co-starred in a production of “Waiting for Godot” with Ian McKellen and the two agreed that they would like continue exploring the relationship between Xavier and McKellen’s “X-Men” character Magneto.

Producer Lauren Shulder Donner said a few months ago that they couldn’t make X-Men: First Class without Patrick Stewart, so that is probably what he has heard. First Class is currently being written by Josh Schwartz and takes place during the first year at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. Patrick Stewart will most likely be made to appear younger, like we saw in X3 and Wolverine.

As for that other franchise, Stewart thought that this summer’s reboot of “Star Trek” was “terrific,” but didn’t see a future for Jean-Luc Picard in the franchise, leaving open only the possibility that he would agree to do a cameo in a sequel. Stewart mentioned a proposed final “Next Generation” film, but after the disappointing box office for “Star Trek: Nemesis,” it never materialized.

“I feel that I have left behind a legacy as Picard,” he said. “In my head and heart, I’ve moved on.”

Source(s) CNN, Filmonic.com

Disney Buys Marvel

By NAT WORDEN – Wall Street Journal

Walt Disney Co. agreed to acquire Marvel Entertainment Inc., the creator of Spider-Man and thousands of other characters, for about $4 billion.

The deal marks one of the largest acquisitions in Disney’s history and the first big media deal since companies began hoarding cash last fall during the global financial crisis.

The move fits with Disney’s stated strategy of driving revenue from popular content over time across multiple platforms. It also gives the company a boost with young male audiences, where Marvel’s characters like Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor are particularly popular. Disney has shown more strength with females from its properties like Hannah Montana.

Miller Tabak analyst David Joyce said Disney is paying a steep valuation for Marvel but he views the deal as a “good long-term strategic move” for the company. “This is another sign that confidence is returning to the marketplace,” he said.

Marvel has long-term production and distribution deals in place with Disney competitors, including Sony Corp.’s Sony Entertainment, News Corp.’s 20th Century Fox Films and Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures, which complicate the company’s strategic position. News Corp. is the parent of Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal.

In many cases, it will take years before Disney can garner anything more than licensing fees from some key Marvel characters, but Disney Chief Financial Officer Tom Staggs said those revenue are attractive and the company will have the option to produce and distribute Marvel’s content on its own when those deals expire.

“Marvel is worth more inside Disney than outside Disney,” Mr. Staggs said.

Marvel Chief Executive Ike Perlmutter, who will continue to oversee the Marvel properties, called Disney “the perfect home for Marvel’s fantastic library of characters given its proven ability to expand content creation and licensing businesses.”

The comic book maker has been boosting awareness of its characters by continuing to branch out into animated television series and live-action films. However, the company in the spring pushed back its film schedule through 2012 as it looked to build anticipation for its coming slate of films.

Bryan Singer boarding ‘Battlestar Galactica’ for Universal?

ScreenRant.com – Drew McWeeny at HitFix has the exclusive on some very interesting developments on the Universal Pictures feature film adaptation of Battlestar Galactica.

The amazing television series brought to us by Ron Moore and David Eick gave fans new and old, a more realistic take on the classic series from the late seventies. Their show stood strong to complete its story on their own schedule, and after four full seasons, they’re now in the midst of launching the spinoff series, Caprica, that has already had its pilot released on DVD.

According to Drew, his sources have informed him that Bryan Singer (X-Men, Superman Returns, The Usual Suspects) is being brought in by Universal to produce the project. It’s possible he’ll be directing the film but there’s no word on that yet.

For those who don’t know, Bryan Singer and Tom De Santo actually had a plan for a new Battlestar Galactica television series years ago that would have been set up as a sequel of sorts, based 20 years after the classic series. That project was canned as the terrible events of 9/11 unfolded due to the introduction of the storyline being based on an all-our surprise attack, not a good idea around that time period.

Sadly, a lot of work was put into that and a bunch of CG animation had been worked on as they were only months away from shooting when they had to stop. The story of Singer’s series would follow the human survivors as they live on a colony after voting to abandon their search for Earth.

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Battlestar Galactica Season 4.5 Blu-ray

Back in February, we first learned that Universal’s new movie would be taking us back to the original Battlestar Galatica series and would still have the key characters of Adama, Starbuck and Baltar in it. They’d just have nothing to do with the Moore’s recent incarnation which is still pushing forward with a movie titled The Plan on its way as well as the Caprica series mentioned above.

We also learned at that time that creator and writer, Glen A. Larson, was in negotiations with Universal to work on a new BSG feature film.

So, are Larson and Singer working together on this and will it follow the original series, new series or be an entirely new take?

Since most mainstream audiences aren’t aware of the history of the Cylons, and since we know it’ll be separate from Ronald D. Moore’s vision, it would have to be an origin films of sorts and yet another different take on the franchise as we know it.

A concern for me is the story and how it could be told in two hours. There’s so much more to it than that and it’d be have to structured as a franchise set of films, likely as a trilogy.

If someone’s got to be chosen for this, Singer is the right choice. He has the sci-fi/fantasy roots with his Superhero film background, he’s a big name in the industry, and he already has worked on Battlestar Galactica before.

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Megan Fox and Ryan Reynolds help DC Comics storm the film world

By Borys Kit – Hollywood Reporter

In the comics universe, where characters are endlessly reborn and reoutfitted, a motto from the 1980s — “DC Comics is on the move” — could just as well apply to the current, hyperactive state of the publisher as it relates to Hollywood.A year after “The Dark Knight” became a worldwide phenomenon, there are more DC Comics adaptations in the works than at any other point since the company was acquired by Warner Bros. in 1969.

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Among the projects on front burners:

— “The Losers,” an action-adventure drama starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana and Chris Evans, begins principal photography this week in Puerto Rico.

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— “Jonah Hex,” a supernatural Western starring Josh Brolin, Megan Fox and John Malkovich, recently wrapped production in Louisiana.

— “The Green Lantern,” Warners’ next big superhero tentpole, is set to star Ryan Reynolds after a long search.

— Fox has picked up the TV series “Human Target,” starring Mark Valley, for the fall.

— And, in a rare example of a film project that has ventured off the Warners reservation, DC has set up “Red,” a spy thriller to star Bruce Willis, at indie producer Summit.

“One of the things that has differentiated us for most of the last 20 years is the depth of our library and the depth of the creative material that we’ve put out and the opportunities that creates for other media,” DC Comics president Paul Levitz said.

Still, when “Dark Knight” invaded theaters last summer, critics of DC and Warners complained there didn’t appear to be a grand strategy in place to exploit DC properties.

In contrast, DC arch-rival Marvel moved quickly in the wake of its successful “Iron Man” to stake out a series of release dates for a slew of movies, branding them as part of one big Marvel universe leading to “The Avengers,” which arrives in 2012.

But DC and Warners have taken a different approach, arguing that DC has a wider breadth of books than other comics companies. They insist their situation isn’t comparable to Marvel, which already has licensed out to other studios a number of its biggest titles: Spider-Man is housed at Sony, while X-Men and Fantastic Four are at Fox.

With fewer marquee superheroes, Marvel works like an animation studio: It only develops select projects and makes most of what it develops, while DC is managing a much larger portfolio.

Still, in the wake of “Dark Knight,” DC and Warners have made strategic moves in the superhero realm, including centralizing the way DC’s titles and characters are developed. In the past, Warners optioned a property, paying DC a fee comparable to what a property could command on the open market. But while the projects ostensibly were being developed under one roof, many were spread out over a host of producers, each with different visions for how to approach each adaptation.

Watchmen (Director's Cut)

To bring competing approaches into sync, Levitz and DC’s Los Angeles-based film exec Gregory Noveck have overseen a reorganization of the development slate. While Warners execs still drive the creative side, DC now has more input, making it an actual participant in the shaping of material.

“The creative process is by and large a true partnership,” Noveck said. “They’ll ask us a ton of questions, and we’ll give a ton of answers. We will talk back and forth. We’ll discuss writers and talent, but ultimately it’s their decision.”

Ryan Reynolds in X-Men Origins Wolverine

This past fall, Warners quietly hired three of DC’s biggest writers — Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison and Marv Wolfman — to act as consultants and writers for its superhero line of movies. The move involved taking back the reins on projects being handled by such producers as Charles Roven (“The Flash”) and Akiva Goldsman (“Teen Titans”).

Some agents and scribes grumbled about being forced to work with the consultants, never mind that Johns started his career as an assistant to “Superman” director Richard Donner or that Wolfman has worked in animation since the 1980s.

The moves have begun to pay off. Johns worked up a new treatment for a “Flash” script, being written by Dan Mazeau; Johns will act in a producer capacity on the project, which has not attached a director.

The projects Morrison and Wolfman are working on are in the early stages at Warners, whose execs declined to comment.

The process involves one writer taking point, though the trio do collaborate on projects, reading one another’s materials while hashing out a story that will be at once accessible to nonfans yet still adhere to each character’s long history. The writers also work in tandem with producers, writers and the Warners execs overseeing the projects, showing them treatments and providing notes on scripts.

Meanwhile, other superhero projects are moving forward at Warners.

The studio is taking pitches on sci-fi hero Adam Strange and the underwater-breathing hero “Aquaman,” to be produced by Leonardo DiCaprio and his Appian Way shingle.

Also in the pipeline: “Bizarro Superman” being written by “Galaxy Quest” scribes David Howard and Robert Gordon; a sequel to “Constantine,” with Goldsman and Erwin Stoff producing; two concurrent Green Arrow projects, an origin story and a prison-set one titled “Super Max”; and “Shazam,” which was set up at New Line but has moved to Warners, with Pete Segal attached to direct.

Unsung in the lineup is Warners’ line of straight-to-DVD animated movies released via Warner Premiere. “Green Lantern: First Flight,” the latest entry, will premiere at this week’s Comic-Con gathering in San Diego and has a July 28 street date.

These movies, produced on budgets in the $3.5 million range, apparently overperformed their targets. “First Flight” is the fifth straight-to-DVD title, with “Superman/Batman: Public Enemies” in production for a September 29 release.

In the home entertainment arena, DC has overshadowed Marvel, with 2007’s “Superman-Doomsday” generating $9.4 million in revenue and last year’s “Batman: Gotham Knight,” taking advantage of the tidal wave of support for the Christopher Nolan movie, generating $8 million, according to tracking site The-Numbers.com. “Wonder Woman,” released in March, already has chalked up $4.4 million. Marvel’s top seller, “Ultimate Avengers 2,” has pulled in $7.7 million.

Not that all the stars in the DC firmament are aligned yet.

Warners and DC still haven’t figured out how to translate “Wonder Woman” to the big screen. In part, that failure reflects the difficulties DC has had turning out a popular Wonder Women comic. Morrison, during a recent Q&A with Clive Barker at Los Angeles’ Meltdown Comics, admitted he didn’t have a complete handle on the character when he was writing the comic “Final Crisis.”

Also, ever since Bryan Singer’s 2006’s “Superman Returns,” a new Superman has been in limbo.

“Our hope is to develop a Superman property and to try again,” Warner Bros. Entertainment president Alan Horn said in April. “What hurt us is that the reviews and so on for the Superman movie did not get the kind of critical acclaim that Batman got, and we have other issues with Superman that concern us.”

 On the Batman front, a sequel to “Dark Knight” also is quite a way off. Nolan is open to doing a third installment, but his next movie is “Inception,” an original script he penned and is shooting for Warners.

All that has put a damper on any movie about the Justice League, whose roster includes the above-mentioned heroes as well as myriad others including Aquaman and the Martian Manhunter. DC would like to present some of the main heroes in their own movies before they are brought together for one big outing, so “League” currently is inactive.

On top of that, there could be another change in how Warners approaches the DC characters, with studio chiefs debating whether to put the operation under one super-exec.

To bring the next generation of superheroes to the screen, DC and Warners might yet have to unleash their own super powers.

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Secrets Stashed in Sy Fy’s Warehouse 13

Kate O’Hare – The Oklahoman

On Tuesday, a popular cable network gets a new name and opens the door to a passel of mysterious artifacts and enigmatic relics.

With the two-hour premiere of “Warehouse 13,” SCI FI Channel becomes SYFY and shakes up its on-screen image, hoping to expand its audience even further beyond science-fiction fans.

“Warehouse 13” focuses on two Secret Service agents — Peter Lattimer and Myka Bering (Eddie McClintock, Joanne Kelly) — who save the life of the president and wind up transferred to a facility called Warehouse 13.

Located in South Dakota, the top-secret bunker houses a collection of bizarre objects, all under the care of Secret Service agent Artie Nielsen (Saul Rubinek), who answers to Mrs. Frederic (CCH Pounder).

“Everybody is a closet conspiracist,” says Jack Kenny, who executive produces with David Simkins. “We all want to think, ‘Oooh, there is all this stuff going on that we don’t know about.’

“And there probably is a bunch of stuff we don’t know about and probably don’t want to know about. We like the idea that there’s a warehouse out there that houses everything the government doesn’t know what to do with but needs to safeguard and protect.”

He also emphasizes that we’re not talking about alien bodies from Roswell or anything of that sort.

“We don’t want to go into alien stuff because it stretches the point of believability,” Kenny says. “Every one of these artifacts, we want to be absolutely viable.”

“The artifacts come from history,” Simkins says. “They come from science. They come from strong-willed individuals (like) Lucrezia Borgia. All the artifacts are based in reality.

“You could go to Wikipedia or Google and look this stuff up.”

Luckily for science-fiction fans, while the artifacts may not be from outer space, a few guest stars have worked there.

Among them are Tricia Helfer and Michael Hogan from “Battlestar Galactica” and Joe Flanigan from “Stargate Atlantis.” Others include Ivan Sergei (“Charmed”) James Naughton (“Gossip Girl”) and Erica Cerra (“Eureka”).

The show also promises a sense of humor. For example, there’s the purple goo.

“We get purple goo squirted all over us,” McClintock says. “The purple goo is a big story point. When we put an artifact into the purple neutralizer, it takes all its power away and makes it easier to transport.” 

The Special Effects Crew

Michael Innanen (Max Payne, The Incredible Hulk, Jumper) is the special effects supervisor

Laird McMurray (The Incredible Hulk, Dawn of the Dead, Cinderella Man) is the special effects coordinator

Shane Million (Assault on Precinct 13, Dawn of the Dead, Man of the Year) is the key special effects artist

Marcus Rait (X-Men, 16 Blocks, Chicago) is the special effects foreman

Zombie ‘Deadworld’ to become feature film

Michael Fleming – Variety

Dark Hero Studios partners David Hayter and Benedict Carver have joined with Pandemonium’s Bill Mechanic to turn the comicbook “Deadworld” into a zombie feature franchise.

Hayter (“Watchmen”) will write the screenplay, and he and Mechanic will produce with Framelight’s Robert L. Robinson Jr. and Jeffrey D. Erb. Carver and Pandemonium’s Suzanne Warren will be exec producers along with Gary Reed, who wrote and co-created the comic.

Pandemonium and Framelight will finance development.

“Deadworld” veers from the popular zombie mythology of depicting an apocalypse in which humans are overrun by flesh-eating corpses. “Deadworld” picks up four months after that event, where the Dead overtake the Earth, with humans few and far between. Protag is King Zombie, a Harley-riding corpse who holds a grudge against the survivors who made him an outcast.

The plan is to begin production next year.

Mechanic, who ran Fox when Hayter wrote the first “X-Men” film, saw the scribe as ideal to lay out what he hoped could be a multipic story arc. The offer fit in perfectly with Dark Hero, which Hayter and Carver formed as a way to put Hayter’s creative stamp on numerous films, TV and Internet properties in the sci-fi and horror genres. Aside from writing the script, Hayter will conceive and design the look of the film.

“It’s very much about the design of the Deadworld and creating cool, frightening but not necessarily gory creatures,” Hayter said. “I am a huge fan of zombie mythology.”

Mechanic said, “I’ve never done anything close to this subject, but I loved the whole world because it’s so unique.”

Mechanic, who most recently produced “Coraline,” adds “Deadworld” to several plum projects that include “Ness,” an Ehren Kruger-scripted graphic novel adaptation that has David Fincher and Matt Damon attached; “The C.O.,” scripted by Robert Schenkkan; and “Love Undercover,” which Brian Yorkey is penning.

…more like this at GoreMaster.com

Pre-Eminent Visual Effects Supervisor Syd Dutton Joins Zoic Studios

Syd Dutton

Studio Daily – Zoic Studios confirmed today that it is welcoming visual effects luminary Syd Dutton to help helm the company’s digital matte painting and feature film endeavors. Zoic Studios’ relationship with Syd began during Zoic’s filming of the feature film Serenity and the founders of Zoic have always been fans of Syd and his incredible body of work.

   Zoic is very fortunate to have this opportunity,” says Zoic CEO/Creative Director Chris Jones. “Syd is a wonderful artist who also loves to share his talents with those around him. As a mentor he will be able to bring classic ideas and techniques to a whole new guard of visual effects visionaries. Zoic Studios has always embraced new technology while continuing to evolve the classic techniques of visual effects creation and we feel that Syd Dutton is the perfect complement to this philosophy.”
   Emmy-Award winning Syd Dutton co-founded Illusion Arts in 1985, which has performed visual effects magic, creating thousands of shots and matte paintings for over 200 feature films. The company’s credits include the just-released Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, John Adams, Milk, Aeon Flux, Narnia, The Bourne Identity, The Fast and the Furious, X-Men, Batman, Total Recall and Mad Max, among others. Syd Dutton worked for the matte department at Universal Studios where he learned the technique of motion-picture matte painting from resident matte artist Albert Whitlock. Following the retirement of Whitlock, Dutton and visual effects cinematographer Bill Taylor set up the independent effects studio Illusion Arts. When Taylor and Dutton decided to close Illusion Arts, both Dutton and Zoic embraced the opportunity to collaborate, with Dutton becoming a part of the Zoic team.

…more like this at GoreMaster.com