No Hellboy 3, alas. Unless Bradley Cooper signs on for a re-boot.

Comics book movies digest XI – Del Toro’s Hulk, Bradley Cooper as The Crow, Catwoman Watch Week 6

– by Clinton Hallahan

– Perennially ultra-busy director Guillermo Del Toro recently confirmed that being ultra-busy will prevent him from getting Ron Perlman and company back to do another Hellboy film, but that hasn’t stopped him from fiddling around with other comics properties. His long-delayed television version of the Hulk had some new light shed on it by FEARnet this week as the Pan’s Labyrinth director divulged he had turned in two drafts of an outline to network partner ABC for the planned series. When asked how it would differ from other Hulk stories, Guillermo responded by saying, “One of the points of this project early on with Marvel, was ‘We’re going to do this thing different, and here’s how. Are you interested?’ And they were.” After the collapse of David E. Kelley’s Wonder Woman series with NBC, I’m pretty excited. And you wouldn’t like me when I’m excited.

– The Frank Miller/Zack Snyder joint 300 surprised everyone when it made serious bank upon release, so naturally a sequel is on the way. It’s bad-ass working title was Xerxes, as it was planned as a prequel outlining the early life and conquests of the main 300 antagonist. But unless you’re Christopher Nolan, there is no way you can get away with not putting the title of a previously successful property in the sequel’s name. So, instead of a sweet title analogous to The Dark Knight, we get the true name: 300: Battle of Artemisia. At least it will be based off new Frank Miller material, or I would be calling “cash-in” rather loudly.

– Haley Joel Osment, the little boy who saw dead people in The Sixth Sense (and not much else since) will soon star in a modern retelling of Frankenstein. He’ll play Victor Franklin in the comic adaptation of Wake the Dead, which leads a rash of Frankenstein movies trying to get off the ground, rivalling The Wizard of Oz adaptations for how many films are in various stages of completion. This one is based off a comic by Steve Niles, who did 30 Days of Night, which itself was originally a pitch for a film.

– Alex Tse, the co-screenwriter for Watchmen, has been hired on to write a new adaptation of The Crow for Bradley Cooper to mug his way through. The J.O. Barr classic about a strangle-y painted murdering psychopath is the perfect project for the Hangover star. Yeah, totally.

– Catwoman Watch: Week 6 – Anne Hathaway has already given someone a black eye on the set of The Dark Knight Rises, and had the skin tight latex split open all the way during a fight scene, and now we know the source of both problems: Christopher Nolan has her working out five days per week for the role. This tidbit and more over at Harper’s.

Anne Hathaway as Catwoman

– Despite Green Lantern being a critical and commercial flop, Green Lantern 2 has been given the green lantern by Warner Bros. and will enter production shortly. Christopher Nolan is widely believed to be ending his Batman trilogy rather specifically with The Dark Knight Rises, so I guess they’re doubling down on a new potential cash cow. Hooray?

No one wants it, but there'll be a sequel anyway.

– In other Ryan Reynolds news, he and Jeff Bridges will will star in a movie adaption of R.I.P.D., the Dark Horse comics series by Pete Lenkov and Lucas Marangon. It now has a set release date of June 28, 2013.

– Adding to his stable of potential projects, Ron Howard has attached himself to make a film based on the Mad Magazine comics Spy vs. Spy. The possibilities for such a film are exciting and endless, and will no doubt be turned into a lifeless grey mass by Howard.