0 "Fables" Movie Gets "Kick-Ass" (& "Stardust") Screenwriter

Snow White by James Jean front cover for the expanded edition re-release of the Fables Cover Collection
(coming Feb 2015)

Here's some news that's getting pop culture (and possibly some fairy tale) geeks excited again: Warner Bros and the Fables movie has announced they have a new screenwriter: Jane Goldman. She's known for the recent movie Kick-Ass, Stardust, two X-Men films, and has most recently worked on Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (currently in pre-production).

In pop culture terms, Kick-Ass got a lot of 'street cred' (critics either thought it was an smart and outrageous black comedy or thought it was just violent and distasteful - I haven't seen it so can't comment), so people are REALLY excited to see what she will do with Fables.

Here are some quotes from the press release interview with Producer David Heyman (best known for the Harry Potter movies and, at the moment, Paddington), care of Slash Film and Comic Book Resources:

Rose Red by James Jean
back cover for the expanded edition re-release
 the Fables Cover Collection
(coming Feb 2015)

[Arcel] did a draft, and now he’s supervising Jane, who’s doing a draft. Hoping that it’ll come in and we’ll be able to move to the next stage. All these things always take longer than you want. And ‘Fables’ is not easy, by any means, but I think it’ll be pretty great.

Heyman also spoke about what attracted him to the property:

I’m drawn to stories about outsiders, and I think the Fables are outsiders. They’re people torn from the place where they were raised, by The Adversary. They arrive in a New York City-type place, and how we’re approaching is that they’re people who are all separate, and how they ultimately have to form the community in order to survive. They’re all inhabiting their own little universes within this world. But they have to form this community, and that really appealed to me. And I just think the characters are so vivid. And I also think the farm is, again, it’s very human. That’s what I like. It’s a challenging film.

The long-running Fables comics are rapidly drawing toward their final release (I cannot quite believe it!). They're in the midst of the Happily Ever After story arc (the Finale) and issue #148  - Chapter 8 of the last story - was released today. The last story arc echoes the opening, focusing on the two female leads, Snow White and her sister Rose Red and their ongoing troubled relationship (a different take again on the meaning of Beauty and the Beast here...).

Below are the synopsis for issue #148 and the cover. (The cover appears to be the Snow White character, surrounded,or being attacked, by red roses.)

 Chapter Eight of Happily Ever After; The Last Story of Beauty and the Beast

At long last Rose Red learns the truth about her mother, her sister and herself. This is why they’re so magical. This is why all of that wild magic is affecting their lives now. And this is why one will ultimately have to kill the other. Apparently that’s what siblings in this family do. 

Plus: Terry Moore illustrates the backup feature, “The Last Story of Beauty and the Beast.”

Detail: "Fables" Movie Gets "Kick-Ass" (& "Stardust") Screenwriter

0 Tomorrow is the Beginning of (the 10 Chapter long) Happily Ever After for Willingham's "Fables"

Issue 141 - 1st of the Happily Ever After finale chapters. Cover by Nimit Malavia

Issue 141 of Fables is the last big turning point in Willingham's popular comic series, marking the beginning of The End (for real!) for the long-running, critically acclaimed, fairy-tales-like-you've-never-seen comic-cult favorite.

In true classic storybook-ending style, this story ends as it begins, with the sisterhood conflict of Snow White and Rose Red - but turned up to 11.

“HAPPILY EVER AFTER!” part 1. Good knight vs. bad knight. King Arthur vs. Morgan le Fay. Rose Red vs. Snow White. The two sisters are caught up in the roles Camelot has set for them, and now they’re ready for battle. Plus, don’t miss the backup story illustrated by P. Craig Russell!

I admit I'm not caught up yet, having yet to navigate my way through the various crossovers etc but I've kept a general eye on things and have been following the Fairest spin-off, which also culminates at Issue 150.

Note: Issue 150 will be 150 PAGES LONG! I'm kind of looking forward to that actually. Since it has to finish, I have fairly high hopes that this will finish well and Willingham will pull out all his stops to add the notes from his fairy tale research that he hasn't yet been able to use. *fingers crossed* And I'd like an annotated version of the comics with reference to all the research too please... (No I did not happen upon a genie and am making outrageous wishes, I'm just choosing to be extremely optimistic!)

This seem like a pretty significant point in time for alternate fairy tale pop-culture influence so I'm going to do what I can to personally follow the final ten issues. It's unlikely I will comment on them until the finale is said and done, if then. It's just one of those events that should be marked by people watching the influence of fairy tales in pop-culture (and vice versa).

A little bit from Willingham on the finale arc (note Flycatcher is "The Frog King" for those a little hazy on the many, many denizens of Fabletown. He's also a fan favorite, and included on my short list too):

"I'm not saying that everyone dies and everything's horrible. But as the story plays out, it becomes clear that that's it. The story comes to an end."

Some characters in Willingham's expansive Fables cast will have their final curtain calls in the main story line — others star in short backup stories in the last run of issues, beginning with Flycatcher in No. 141, and then moving to Sinbad, Cinderella, Prince Charming and others.

There will also be some skipping around in time, Willingham says. "The final story of Flycatcher for example takes place at some undisclosed time in the future, but apparently he's had time to have kids between now and then."

The article mentions how Willingham made good use of a Fables forum to keep track of all the questions of character fates, unresolved plot-lines and other fan puzzlers (smart!) and will be dealing with a lot of those danglers in the final arc as well. Hopefully that will be satisfying story-wise without being too "i" dotting and "t" crossing.

You can read much more about The End HERE (though it might seem a little confusing if you're not a decent way into the series).

I read vague possibilities of Fables one-off "specials" in between the lines of Bill Willingham's admission that it's not as easy to let go as he originally anticipated.

"Just doing this last story line," he says, "these pesky characters keep suggesting, well, if you've done this then here's something nice, or here's something that could happen to this character down the road."

Oh - and don't forget: the movie is still actively in development. Things are still looking very good for a Fables film.

Detail: Tomorrow is the Beginning of (the 10 Chapter long) Happily Ever After for Willingham's "Fables"

0 Tons of "Fables" News: Movie Update, Willingham Teases End Of Series Details, the Fables Game "Levels Up" + Bonus Awesome Cosplay

Bigby Wolf & Snow White of Fables, "The Wolf Among Us" video game cosplay by Saskeks-Cosplay

The Fables movie news is pretty small but very significant. Warners is now in direct competition with Disney, now that Disney has bought Marvel so the amp up on superhero movies is expected and speculated on. The big question is, since it's Warner's property: will they be doing a Wonder Woman movie? The answer is "not yet" because there are a bunch of others already in production ahead in the cue, including...

...several other movies in development unconnected to the Justice League that are based on DC superheroes and fantasy and crime titles from its Vertigo line of genre comics, said Mr. Silverman and Toby Emmerich, president of Warner’s New Line Cinema label. They include “Shazam,” “Metal Men,” “100 Bullets,” and “Fables.” (Wall Street Journal)

What does that tell you? That Warners are confident enough in how the Fables movie is going that it's been put forward as a major property, currently in active development, and that other likely-to-be-hot properties (aka Wonder Woman) are going to have to wait their turn until after Fables is complete (or at least well established in actual production).

AKA: it's very good news! At least, that's where it stands right now, anyway. These things change so quickly but for the present it's full steam ahead on another fairy tale film of major proportions. *fistpump*

And regarding the long-running, critically acclaimed, Eisner Award-winning, fan-favorite comic book series, Fables ,wrap -up (cue wailing and gnashing of teeth), here's a little teaser that came out on Monday (April 29th), care of ComicBookMovie.com and DC All Access:

In this exclusive clip from DC All Access, Bill Willingham and Mark Buckingham reminisce about their long running Vertigo fantasy series and share some hints on where it's going in its final year. Plus, look for an exclusive announcement about Fables #150 and the final arc of Fables!

Did they just say "I guess there MIGHT BE A POSSIBILITY of returning to those (surviving) characters..."? I hear more fairy tale possibilities for the future care of Willingham & Co... *double fistpump!*

By the way, the images are cosplay for the TellTale Games video game Fables prequel The Wolf Among Us. The talented cosplayers are Saskeks-Cosplay team and aren't the only cosplay I've seen for the game (though their comicbook-line approach is pretty cool and unique). And you know what they say about cosplay, right? OK, I don't know what the phrase is exactly but it's akin to someone tattooing one of your characters on their body. It's considered a "level-up". 

Note: the most recent episode of The Wolf Among Us, A Crooked Mile, is getting amazing reviews. It's been called addicting and akin to The Walking Dead (which TellTale Games won Game of the Year for last year). The Wolf Among Us seemed to slump slightly with the second chapter but people are revved all over again and demanding the next chapter release dates be moved up. (I'm sure they're adding a pretty please in there somewhere... with bared fangs..)

Additional sources: HERE & HERE (and a ton of other reviews from gamers - official and amateur)

Detail: Tons of "Fables" News: Movie Update, Willingham Teases End Of Series Details, the Fables Game "Levels Up" + Bonus Awesome Cosplay