November
12 Johnston helms 'Cap,' and other news nuggets

Joe Johnston has signed on to direct "The First Avenger: Captain America" for Marvel Studios. Johnston is a solid choice for this — he's a former VFX artist who worked on the original "Star Wars" trilogy. He also directed "The Rocketeer," an underrated adaptation of Dave Stevens' excellent comicbook, as well as "Jurassic Park III," "October Sky," "Hidalgo" and "Jumanji." He's currently finishing up "The Wolf-Man," starring Benicio del Toro. (The image at right is the cover to the rare comics adaptation of the low-budget 1990 "Captain America" movie that was only released on video.)

In other comics/screen news:

* Djimon Hounsou will voice The Black Panther in the upcoming BET animated series based on the Marvel comic.

* Sylvain White is set to direct "The Losers," based on the Vertigo revamp of the classic DC war comic. This version, created by writer Andy Diggle and artist Jock, is about a group of black-ops commandos, with James Vanderbilt writing the script. White's also working on an adaptation of Frank Miller's "Ronin."

* Singer-actress Beyonce tells the L.A. Times she wants to star in a Wonder Woman movie. It's an interesting idea only fueled by another rumor from IESB that McG, who once was set to direct a Superman pic, is being considered to helm a WW pic.

* Does President-elect Barack Obama still collect comics?  That's the question fans are asking in the wake of this report that states "he collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics." In the Marvel Universe, at least, Obama eked out an electoral college win over Stephen Colbert, who won the popular vote. The flood of political comics continues, with Bluewater Productions announcing a Michelle Obama comic due out in April.

* Lauren Shuler Donner talks to Empire Online about the long-in-development "Magneto" movie. Empire also talks to Sam Mendes about "Preacher," which is in need of a script.

* The CW has nixed "The Graysons," a "Smallville"-style TV series about the pre-Batman life of Robin the Boy Wonder.

* Paul Pope's "Battling Boy" has been optioned by Par for Brad Pitt's Plan B outfit to produce.

* Image's "Liberty Comics" benefit anthology comicbook has raised nearly $27,000 for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and is going to press.

* IDW Publishing is clearing out its warehouse with a special one-day sale at its San Diego headquarters on Dec. 6 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. New comics will sell for $1, trades for $5 and everything else will be 80 percent off. The sale will be held in the parking lot at the company's offices, 5080 Santa Fe St., San Diego, CA 92109.

* George Perez and J. Michael Straczynski have been named guests of honor at the New York Comic-Con, set for Feb. 6-8. Other guests include Colleen Doran, Bob Layton, David Peterson, Ivan Reis, Joe Sinnott, Herb Trimpe and Leinil Francis Yu.