There has long been a debate in the comic book world about what’s fair as far as creator’s rights are concerned. If you self-publish or work for one of the smaller companies, it’s possible to maintain the rights to any characters that you create while working in comics. If you want to work for one of the big guys like DC or Marvel, however, what you’re doing is work for hire. That means you’re just an employee of said company and any of the characters that you create while writing a Marvel or DC book are not your property, but the property of the company. While young comic creators are more than happy to agree to terms like this when they’re starving and hungry for work, regrets can sometimes develop later on if a character gets popular and starts to bring in huge amounts of revenue. This is especially true now that comic book properties are routinely being developed into big budget films that bring in hundreds of millions of dollars. DC has famously had troubles dealing with the estates of Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joel Shuster, who have been trying to get back control of the Superman pie for many years, and recently Marvel has had its own batch of troubles thanks to a man named Gary Friedrich. Friedrich worked as a freelancer for the House of Ideas back in the early 70s, and part of his output was the creation of a character named Ghost Rider, a [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Wow. The trailer for Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance contains a lot of chain whip cracking, a lot of skulls on fire, and that wacky flaming vomit/urine combination that got Fure so hot under the collar. Considering the history of the movie and the weight of the first film’s failure that Vengeance carries around its neck, it’s probably a great idea to watch both trailers side by side to see what each production was going for. And whether they achieved it:

On the final big movie day for Comic-Con, Cole, Robert and Jack had their sanity tested and almost passed. Proof of this came at the end of the night when all three ended up delirious in a fancy hotel room watching the Resident Evil movies. What on earth could cause anyone to watch those movies? Exactly. This year’s Con was subdued in a great way. The movie content suffered because of it (in terms of blockbusters and big moments) but it also triumphed because smaller films were able to have their day in the sun. Day One was full of great toys and strange Twilight moments, Day Two had R-rated pizza guys and a Spielbergian explosion, so what did Day Three have in store?

At what point does Nic Cage crossover from actor to Internet meme? Cage’s distinct brand of emotional overdosing, that would send Lee Strasberg himself into a coma, has been fueling the web for the past few years like gasoline on a steadily burning wildfire. Every film that sees release (barely) continues to showcase what the man does best: send reality into the stratosphere. He’s a walking, talking grindhouse film. That doesn’t mean it’s not serious art. Far from it. For every Wicker Man, Vampire’s Kiss or Season of the Witch, movies easier digested in two minute YouTube clips than in their full theatrical glory, Cage spins his explosive techniques into watchable films, like Kick-Ass, Bad Lieutenant and Adaptation. Whether his latest, Drive Angry 3D, fits into the first or second categories, there’s no doubt the man has had successful run thus far. This success puts Cage in the spotlight, but frankly, he’s not the only one (or the craziest) to make a career out of acting nuts. That’s right: I believe there are people more outlandish than Nic Cage in the world and, dagnabbit, the Internet needs to start acknowledging them for the loony performances they deliver:

The Nic Cage crazy train just keeps rolling right through the station. Already this year we’ve seen him playing a crazy old man in a wig who sword fights witches in Season of the Witch. Well, get ready to take things to the next level.

Director Patrick Lussier and writer Todd Farmer have joined 3-Dimensional forces again for the driver from hell revenge road flick, Drive Angry. The film stars Nic Cage as a man escaped from Hell on the hunt for those that killed his daughter and kidnapped his grandchild for a ritual slaughter. He’s only got a limited amount of time to catch them before the baby gets killed or The Accountant (William Fichtner) catches up to him and drags him back to hell. Also along for the ride is mega-hottie Amber Heard. The footage we saw was pretty awesome and can basically be summed up as “Nic Cage Blows up Cars with Shotguns” as he blows up or otherwise destroys something like five cars, most of them with a shotgun.  The effects weren’t finished yet (the clip was hurriedly put together for SDCC), but it was still impressive. The 3D was very deep in some areas, with the hoods of cars seemingly parking in your lap before exploding. Lussier told us that virtually all of what we were seeing was practical, metal on metal action, with Cage and Fichtner behind the wheels for real. Also of interest was the revelation of the “God killer” gun, a weapon used to kill demons, and presumably gods, that Cage steals from Hell to use on his quest for revenge. On the Reject Radio podcast last Sunday, I made the prediction that we would see one cast member butt naked in the film and put my [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Nic Cage is signing onto The Green Hornet right after Stephen Chow signs off? You can’t fool me. He’s playing Kato, isn’t he? ISN’T HE?

You don’t need to know anything other than that inside this post are hot pictures of Monica Bellucci.

Our AWOL spy ‘Patient Zero’ comes out of hiding to deliver a quick look at what Knowing is all about. Now with more explosions!

A post has appeared on Rob Zombie’s MySpace blog claiming that another favorite Grindhouse faux trailer, Werewolf Women of the S.S., is being made into a comic book.