Author: Bert Ehrmann

Up until a few months ago I was down in the dumps over the state of TV. Sure, there were a few good things on, but for the most part the majority of the programs airing stunk. And while I won’t argue that most TV still stinks, I would say that over the last few months a few great shows have debuted both on cable and online.

Here’s what I’m liking:

• House of Cards, Netflix. Even though the entire series is currently available online, I’ve been treating this one like a regular show and only watching one episode a week.
• The Walking Dead, AMC 9PM Sundays. Is The Walking Dead as good as it once was? Nope. Is is still better than most everything else out there? Yep.
• Bates Motel, A&E 10PM Mondays. Only one episode of this has aired to date, but it’s got a lot of promise.
• The Americans, FX 10PM Wednesdays. Currently this one is my favorite show on TV. It’s that show that I wish each show was three hours long instead of one and count the days before each new episode.

Returning soon:

• Doctor Who, Returns to BBC America Saturday March, 30.
• Game of Thrones, Returns to HBO 9PM Sundays March, 31.
• Mad Men, Returns to AMC 9PM Sundays April, 7.

 “World War Z” has undergone no shortage of scrutiny and revision at Paramount in the seven years since it took root.

First came a year of head-scratching over the peculiar structure of Mr. Brooks’s novel, which is set up as an “after action” report to the United Nations on the zombie wars. Then J. Michael Straczynski began to write what he now says were about 10 drafts of the first script.

All were built around a United Nations investigator who uncovered a conspiracy that intentionally evoked the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. But “nothing of any of my drafts remains, other than the names of the characters,” Mr. Straczynski said in a recent e-mail.

Via: In Hollywood, Zombies Take Their Time

The original Deathlok, Luther Manning, debuted in the pages of 1974’s ASTONISHING TALES under the stewardship of writer Dough Moench and artist Rich Buckler. A fatally injured soldier, Manning had his mind implanted into the body of a cyborg warrior in order to continue the fight for freedom in his post-apocalyptic future.

McDuffie and Wright not only transplanted the Deathlok concept to the present day Marvel Universe, but created a distinctly different protagonist in Michael Collins, a pacifist killed railing against corporate corruption who struggles to maintain his ideals while also seeking revenge after receiving his own weapons-stocked new form.

Via: http://marvel.com/news/story/20290/a_deathlok_retrospective#ixzz2NqxehdsO

I’m still trying to figure out how a TV series based on some of the characters and situations from the movies Manhunter (1986) and Silence of the Lambs (1991) can work as a TV show? It seems to me that those two movies worked because they were self contained, with a beginning, middle and end. Which is kind’a the opposite of a series.

I suppose if the creators of Hannibal do each episode CSI style, ala the murder mystery of the week, it won’t be very good. However, if they do something more like the murder mystery if the season then it might be interesting.

The most famous of these unmade movies is Spider-Man that would have been written and directed by James Cameron (Aliens, Avatar). James Cameron’s Spider-Man would have been released sometime after his smash Terminator 2 (1991) and would have featured Spider-Man battling Sandman and Electro. Unfortunately, the company that owned the film rights to the webhead went bankrupt and legal issues with the character would only be settled in the early ’00s.

For a time Cameron was also attached to produce a The X-Men movie in the 1990s too.

Click here to read this column on lost & forgotten superhero movies of the 1990s.