steven paul

ATLAS COMICS: Steven Paul, Weed Road Partner To Mine Bygone Superhero Banner For Paramount

A new comic book universe is potentially on the horizon with the trades all reporting that Steven Paul acquired a majority stake in Atlas Comics. Paul’s SP Media Group will finance, co-produce and with Paramount Pictures in a first look development and distribution deal with Paramount Pictures announced out of Cannes on Thursday, along with word that the Ghost In The Shell producer has tapped Akiva Goldsman to oversee a writers’ room through his Weed Road Pictures banner. Paul reportedly acquired the stake from owner Nemesis Group and principal Jason Goodman, in a deal that took years to iron out according to Variety. Goodman’s grandfather, Martin Goodman, firstly founded Timely Publications in 1939 whose Atlas Comics emerged in 1950. Then-Atlas creative hive member Stan Lieber (a.k.a. Stan Lee) was promoted to editor for Marvel Comics a few years after Atlas went defunct; Goodman and son Charles attempted to relaunch Atlas […]

Inoue's LONE WOLF AND CUB: FINAL CONFLICT To Be Remade In English Next Year

Lee B. Golden III

Growing up in the 70’s and 80’s with an affinity for Asian cinema, it’s understandable to share fandom with Koike Kazuo’s 1970 manga franchise, Lone Wolf And Cub, which later grew to fruition in film and television, as well as on stage. Produced from 1972 through 1974, six films were made starring Wakayama Tomisaburo as the Shogun’s executioner, Ogami Itto, who journeys the land with his only son to avenge his family and redeem himself following his disgrace at the hands of a rival clan. The manga franchise itself took on new life in different interpretations thereafter, including a 1993 retelling from Zatoichi TV series helmer Inoue Akira in the form of Lone Wolf And Cub: Final Conflict. That film is now the subject of an English-language remake from producer Steven Paul over at SP International Pictures who have now attained its remake and sequel rights from Koike Kazuo Gekiga […]

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SP International Deals China Co-Prods For THE EXPENDABLES 4 And SECURITY

Lee B. Golden III

Producer Steven Paul made a significant showing this year while on hand at Cannes with deals pertaining to forthcoming China co-productions, High Speed and an upcoming Tekken remake to name a few. This week he’s back in the headlines with word on two new titles now well on the way from Nu Image/Millenium. Variety reports that director Alain Desrochers’s $15 million dollar action thriller, Security, and the currently-developing fourth installment of The Expendables have equity backing as China co-productions following deals made on behalf by Paul’s SP International Pictures made on behalf of SSXH Beijing and Max Screen Film Distribution. Security has reportedly begun principal photography in Bulgaria with Antonio Banderas and Ben Kingsley starring, though plot, date and other cast info details currently remain unknown. Meanwhile, cast and crew info remain pending for The Expendables 4, following a five-year franchise that took off in 2010 with its third banking significantly larger in […]

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Cannes 2015: C2M, SP International Join For Action Franchise Venture, HIGH SPEED

Lee B. Golden III

There’s more news out of Cannes this week and while plenty of the announcements made have been amply exciting and refreshing, others haven’t had as much of an impact, particulatly with regard to the niche exclusive to fighting games and the fandom in support of a certain Namco/Bandai property back in the running for a remake. Low and behold, however, this one involves an entirely seperate entity with updates pertaining to the new movie, High Speed. According to Variety, China’s C2M Media will be jointly financing the new action movie co-production with producer Steven Paul’s indie banner, SP International. Initially with the hopes of getting stunt veteran and filmmaker Vic Armstrong on board to direct, Paul has been working on getting this particular production up and running for a while with the last known report dating as far back as 2013 as Screendaily. The plot at the time illustrated the […]

Cannes 2015: TEKKEN Is Being Remade…Again.

Lee B. Golden III

Now now, get this. Some have different opinions about live action adaptations of fighting games, and video game creator Katsuhiro Harada’s popular Namco/Bandai franchise, Tekken, is no stranger to the mix of optimism and ire of fans far and wide. The first film, starring Jon Foo, was filmed in 2008 before taking three years to finally release on US DVD and Blu-Ray, and while the film proved to be a decent tournament movie with plenty of fighting and a talented line-up of martial artists, the film could have been done better in many ways, particularly for a proper reboot. I made this case in a rant back in 2013 and I still stand by that, even after Crystal Sky’s own Steven Paul went on record to state that the film would move on with a prequel with a cast that would resemble the characters from the game (look how that […]