Monday, January 3, 2011

2011 Comic Book Movies & TV Series Highlights: Mark Your Calendars, Thank Us Later!

Posted 8 hrs ago by Rick Marshall in DC Comics , Dark Horse , Hot Stuff , IDW Publishing , Marvel , News , Platinum Studios

From " Kick-Ass " and " Iron Man 2 " to " Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World " and " The Walking Dead ," there were a lot of great projects that hit theater and television screens in 2010. We spent the last few weeks breaking down some of the highlights (and low points) of the year in our Best Of 2010 features, but now it's time to look ahead to the year in front of us.

By any count, 2011 looks to be another big year for comic book movies and television series based on comic book properties. Not only will Marvel Studios offer up a double feature of " Thor " and " Captain America: The First Avenger " this year, but Warner Bros. will bring " Green Lantern " to the big screen and we'll get the much-anticipated second season of "The Walking Dead."

In the interest of helping you make sure your calendar is clear for this year's cornucopia of comics-friendly projects, I've put together a list of some of the big-ticket items to look out for in 2011.

The first month of 2011 gets rolling quickly, with the official premiere of the " Young Justice " animated series on January 7. The one-hour special that aired in November will be split into the first two episodes of the series, but it's all new adventures from that point on with the young versions of DC's Justice League . Just a week later, filmmaker Michel Gondry will bring his take on " The Green Hornet " to the big screen, with actors Seth Rogen and Jay Chou making their debuts as the classic pulp hero and his partner, Kato. The rest of the month will be a barrage of award shows and nominations, with the Golden Globes on January 16 ("Red" and "The Walking Dead" are nominated) and the Oscar nominations revealed on January 25. Oh, and don't forget that the final season of "" returns to its regular weekly schedule on January 28!

Things slow down a bit during the second month of 2011, with the exception of two big events. The next DC animated feature, " All Star Superman ," hits shelves February 22, and there's no shortage of early buzz surrounding the adaptation of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's celebrated series. A few days later, the Oscars will likely feature a few nominees from the comic book movie world, though it doesn't look like we'll have as big of a year for comics-related projects as we've had in the past.

Though it doesn't have an official release date yet, " Dylan Dog: Dead Of Night " is supposed to hit theaters in March. Here's hoping we get to see Brandon Routh as the wildly popular Italian detective sooner rather than later. Later in the month (March 18-20), the secondkicks off in Chicago, so it will be interesting to see which 2011 movie and television projects decide to make their presence felt in this up-and-coming show.

WonderCon kicks off on April Fools Day this year (April 1-3), and with many of the year's biggest releases hitting theaters well before this year's Comic-Con International in San Diego, it's likely that "Thor," "X-Men: First Class" and "Priest" will have a big presence at the San Francisco show.

MAY

Get ready, folks — the next few months are going to be busy. It all gets started with "" arriving in theaters May 6, bringing with it all of the pomp, circumstance, and online insanity that comes with a tentpole Marvel Studios feature. Just a week later, the all-star cast of "" (Cam Gigandet, Paul Bettany, Maggie Q, Stephen Moyer, and Karl Urban, among others) will present their dark, violent adaptation of Hyung Min-Woo's popular manwha series.

Marvel's mutants return to theaters June 3 in "," while the MTV Movie Awards air just a few days later on June 5. Last year, we gave you the first peek at footage from "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World" and "The Last Airbender" during the Movie Awards, so there's a good chance you'll see some big exclusives premiere during the 2011 show. As if that wasn't enough for one month, the animated feature " Green Lantern: Emerald Knights " is currently scheduled to hit shelves June 7, just before the live-action "Green Lantern" movie arrives in theaters June 17. (Yeah, we're not expecting to get much sleep that month.)

" Transformers: Dark Of The Moon " brings the robots in disguise back to theaters July 1. San Diego's Comic-Con International then lurches into the spotlight July 21-24, and while that's a pretty big deal in itself, we're wondering what that means for " Captain America: The First Avenger ," which is currently scheduled to premiere July 22. Will Comic-Con convergence be a good thing or a bad thing for Cap's big-screen bow? We don't know the answer to that question, but we do know that Jon Favreau's "" will debut a few days after SDCC on July 29 — meaning we're likely to see a lot of Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig, Olivia Wilde, and the rest of the "Cowboys & Aliens" crew in San Diego.

Things slow down a bit in August, but we do get the premiere of director Marcus Nispel's "" reboot on August 19. Anyone want to bet on how often the "What is best in life?" line will appear in our coverage that week?

Apparently, there is nothing happening in September. Move along... Nothing to see here...

closes out the bulk of the 2011 convention season October 14-16, giving movie studios and television networks their last, best hope to put their projects in front of a massive group of nerdthusiasts all gathered in one place. See you there!

NOVEMBER

There's no official premiere date for this one yet, but " Green Lantern: The Animated Series " will reportedly debut sometime in November, with fan-favorite animator Bruce Timm taking on DC's cosmic Green Lantern Corps.

"" makes its UK premiere December 1, with no US release date announced yet. With many fans hoping it will erase memories of 1995's awful "Judge Dredd" movie, here's hoping the studio sends it across the pond before the end of the year. And on that note, 2011 will indeed go out with a big release, as "" is set to premiere December 28 here in the US. While it has a slightly more international appeal, "Tintin" features a veritable all-star creative team, including Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, Steven Moffat, and Edgar Wright, among others.

In addition to the aforementioned projects and events, there are also a number of other movies and television series targeting 2011 for various premieres. The second season of "" will debut at an unspecified point this year, as well as the next season of "" — which will feature the long-awaited episode penned by Neil Gaiman . The final episode of " Smallville " will also air at some point in 2011, though details about what form it will take are scarce at this point.

On the animated front, Marvel's new "" series will begin airing in the fall, and the much-discussed reboot of the "" animated series is also expected to premiere at some point this year.

There's also a pair of "illustrated films" scheduled for release in 2011 that are worth noting, including Ben Templesmith's "" and another Halo-8 film based Tim Seeley's "" comic.

And there's 2011 for you, folks. Make sure to mark your calendars and keep coming back to Splash Page throughout 2011 for coverage of these and other comic book movies, television series, and other projects all year!

Source: http://splashpage.mtv.com

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