Nerdy News – Stuff I Missed

It’s been a relaxing few days here at the Nerdy Bird home front. Of course not everyone was so lucky. On Christmas Eve a federal court judge in Los Angeles ruled Fox owns the distribution rights to Watchmen. Good grief.

Variety reported, “Judge Feess issued the surprise five-page ruling a week after setting a Jan. 20 trial date for Fox’s suit and indicated he would issue a more detailed ruling soon. He also advised the studios to either reach a settlement or prepare an appeal.”

Regardless, Warner Bros. still seems to be going forward with the March 6, 2009 release for the film. A settlement would mean large portions of the box office and DVD profits being turned over to Fox and a trial would pit the two giants against each other for months. Mostly the fans sit and wait and whisper, “No.”

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In other annoying movie news, it was announced (also on Christmas Eve, why was everyone trying to ruin Christmas?!) that Disney would not be producing or financing the next Chronicles of Narnia film, Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Damn you Prince Caspian.

The news is surprising seeing as how Dawn Treader was already in preproduction and set for a May 2010 release but not so surprising considering Prince Caspian’s lofty drop in profits from the original.

“We are no longer going forward with the movie due to budgetary considerations and other logistics,” a Disney spokeswoman told Variety over the weekend. Please don’t tell me the government is going to have to bail out Disney next. Walden Media will have to shop around for a new backer if they wish to go ahead with the series.

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Another tough loss last week. Classic Catwoman #2 and sultry songstress Eartha Kitt passed away from colon cancer on Christmas day. She was 81 years old.

Born Eartha Mae Keith, she had an amazing career that spanned six decades, even keeping busy up until the very end. She taped a PBS special just six weeks ago to air in February and a ringtone of her 1953 Christmas hit “Santa Baby” was just certified gold this month. She garnered Tony, Grammy and Emmy award nominations through the years as well.

In the 1960’s Batman television series Kitt took over for the original Catwoman, Julie Newmar, during the shows last season. Some may have though the casting change unusual, that is, until they heard Kitt’s trademark purr. Check it out here.

You can read up on Eartha Kitt in this wonderful NY Times article. She will be missed.

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Finally something on the lighter side. In the most recent 20 Answers with Dan Didio article from Newsarama we were treated to a teaser image for the upcoming series Battle for the Cowl drawn by Tony Daniel.

It’s similar to the image used to tease Countdown in that it’s very vague and probably misleading but it’s cool to try and decipher anyway. But don’t go too overboard. Newsarama later spoke with Daniel who had this to say, “Editorial gave me free reign on all of the Batman suits, so I just did what I thought would look cool. Except the first one, who is obviously Tim, in the classic yellow oval suit.” He added that the suits aren’t actual designs but rather representations.

I’m very surpised to see Harley Quinn in there and I’m wondering what the backwards “J” on the card is supposed to mean. It’s also nice to see Batwoman there but not so nice to see a dismantled wheelchair wheel. Strange there’s no Catwoman, unless that’s her in the crate. Above all, Alfred looks bad-ass.