Here’s the latest geek-tastic film/TV news:
1. BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN
Of Course Kevin Smith Didn’t Write a Fake ‘Batman v Superman’ Script and Leak It (FilmSchoolRejects)
That fake Batman Vs. Superman script Kevin Smith supposedly wrote and WB leaked on purpose as mostly just to mess with internet news sites? Yeah, Kevin Smith now says that story is a bunch of nonsense, taking to his own website to put this shit to rest:
Since last year at this time, I’ve been enjoying an unexpected period of prolificacy with screenplays. It all started with CLERKS III and was followed by me finishing nearly 5 scripts in a year, including the fall release TUSK. After TUSK, I penned ANTI-CLAUS (formerly COMES THE KRAMPUS) and a sitcom pilot that’s now seeing some action (both co-written with Professor Andy McElfresh from the EDUMACATION podcast). Then I wrote YOGA HOSERS and now I’m in the middle of MOOSE JAWS.
However, none of those has been a fake BATS v SUPES script. C’mon, kids… No major studio would let a guy like me near their franchises – even if it was for a dummy script meant solely to fool the news sites.
No, anything I’ve said about “Milo and Sage” was based on an image Zack showed me while hosting a MAN OF STEEL online event at Yahoo many months back. The little I know of the flick beyond that I learned from some cats involved (though never BatFleck himself; as I’ve said a few times now on the Babble-On podcast, beyond email, I haven’t spoken to Ben in years). Fun story, though.
Elsewhere, a Twitter user who goes by SonOfArrogance is now claiming credit for the leaked script, calling out the rest of the internet for not figuring it out sooner.
This is a good point to stop and remember that Batman Vs. Superman only recently started filming, and will not actually be out until May of 2016! So, we have nearly 2 full more years of online rumors and crap stories to wade through.
2. FLASH
‘The Flash’ Cast Adds Robbie Amell as ‘Firestorm’ (ScreenRant)
It has been a very common response for Arrow fans: scouring the nerdosphere to discover whether or not Felicity Smoak and Oliver Queen end up together in the comics only to discover that Felicity actually married some guy named Ed Raymond, the father to one-half of the superhero entity known as Firestorm. Not only that, Felicity was but a minor character and had pretty much nothing to do with Green Arrow in the comics. A common follow-up question has been, “Who the hell is Firestorm?”
Eh. He’s one of those lower tier DC heroes with a goofy-sounding back story, this one involving a nuclear accident somehow allowing a teenager named Ronnie Raymond to fuse with genius scientist Martin Stein. When they fuse, they become Firestorm, a matter-controlling bad-ass with a flame encircling his head. Raymond controls the body while Stein’s consciousness acts as a voice of reason inside the mind. Eventually, Raymond was taken out by a dude wielding a magical sword, though he was resurrected 5 years later.
One of Firestorm’s enemies in the comics is Killer Frost because fire-powered and ice-powered characters simply must clash. That’s just comic book 101. Well, CW’s upcoming Flash TV show has its Killer Frost, played by Danielle Panabaker, although at least in the early goings of the show she’ll simply be Dr. Caitlin Snow, a normal STAR Labs employee helping out Barry Allen. Now, it has its own Firestorm, slotting in Stephen Amell’s cousin Robbie Amell.
Amell’s only available to do this because those fools at the CW canceled The Tomorrow People, and yet they are the ones making The Flash. I’m so conflicted.
Here’s the twist: this Firestorm is actually going to be Killer Frost’s fiance. What the what! It’ll all start going down in the show’s third episode when Amell debuts as Ronnie Raymond, a victim of the same particle accelerator accident which gifted (or cursed!) Barry Allen with his super powers. The back story will be that Raymond was thought to have perished in the accident thus making his re-appearance a surprise to everyone. How oh how will poor Caitlin Snow react?
It’s not clear how many episodes Amell has signed up for, though it’s probably a good sign that Flash co-creator/producer Greg Berlanti now claims the pilot and, indeed, the show in general was designed from the get-go with the intention of quickly incorporating Ronnie Raymond into the cast of characters.
My guess, and I say this as someone who has not watched the Flash pilot even though it’s leaked online, is that Panabaker’s character might have warmed to Barry Allen in the show’s first two episodes, thus making the return of her fiance very confusing. Plus, I bet that Flash will use the particle accelerator accident as an explanation for most of its villains (or, in Firestorm’s case, heroes) exactly the same way Smallville did with its meteor shower.
