‘Static Shock’ Movie in Development

A new “Static Shock” movie may be on the way.

At a DC FanDome panel on Saturday, filmmaker Reginald Hudlin said there’s been “serious conversations” about bringing the electric-powered teen hero to the big screen.

Virgil Hawkins, a.k.a. Static Shock, was created by Milestone Media and DC Comics in the 1990s and starred in a Kids’ WB animated series in the early 2000s. The series received multiple Daytime Emmy award nominations and is still highly regarded by fans for being one of the few superhero series starring a Black character.

“One of the things we’re really excited about, we really want to live up to the name of the company, Milestone Media,” said Hudlin. “When we spoke to Jim [Lee] about reviving the Milestone line, we said ‘Look, we all know this has been a hit comic book and hit animated series. It’s time to expand back into all those areas and then some.’ So we’re in serious conversations about, as we’re launching the comic book series, developing the ‘Static Shock’ movie. That will be a theatrical feature film.”

There were no other details given on “Static Shock’s” move to the big screen, but he will star in a digital comic book series in February 2021.

[SOURCE: VARIETY]

'Black Lightning' is CW Network's biggest premiere in 2 years

The CW’s latest superhero series Black Lightning is looking to be both a critical and ratings hit for the network, and the pilot boasted the network’s highest-rated premiere in two years.

TV Line reports Black Lightning’s pilot episode, “The Resurrection,” scored 2.31 million total viewers and a very solid 0.8 demo rating, the network’s best series premiere in two years behind the launch of Legends of Tomorrow (3.2 million/1.2 demo rating).

Based on the DC Comics property, Black Lightning tells the story of Jefferson Pierce, who retired as Black Lightning after the life of a vigilante became too much of a burden on his family life. Almost a decade later, Jefferson, now a high school principal, must don the costume yet again to fight the evil gang known as The One Hundred. The series premiere has met with overwhelmingly positive reviews.

Airing Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW, Black Lightning stars Cress Williams as Jefferson Pierce/Black Lightning, China Anne McClain as his younger daughter Jennifer Pierce, Nafessa Williams as his older daughter Anissa Pierce, Christine Adams as Lynn Pierce, James Remar as Peter Gambi, Damon Gupton as Henderson, Marvin “Krondon” Jones III as Tobias Whale and Chantal Thuy as Grace Choi.

Suicide Squad opening weekend success driven by African American & Latino moviegoers

By George L. Cook III AfricanAmericanReports.com

The $135 million plus opening weekend success of Suicide Squad can be attributed in part to its appeal to minority moviegoers. It seems that using a Fast & Furious type casting approach when it comes to diversity helped drive minority auds to the theater to see the film. It should be no surprise (except to studio heads) that Black and Latino audiences turned out to see to see actors like Will Smith (Deadshot), Jay Hernandez (El Diablo), and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Killer Croc) playing superheroes/supervillians.

After seeing it I can attest that although fun and action packed it is not a good film and appears to have scenes that were cut out after the team finally gets together. There are none of the obligatory get to know you, don't like you, fight you, and then like you bonding scenes that help you get to know the characters. But that didn't stop minority audiences from going to see the superhero/supervillain film that featured characters they felt they could relate to.

Per PostTrak, the combination of African American and Hispanic moviegoers made up a huge 41% of the audience with both audiences giving the film a whopping 81% positive score. [SOURCE]

The diverse film cast includes Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, Jay Hernandez, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Ike Barinholtz, Scott Eastwood, and Cara Delevingne.

Milestone Media rises again

Great news! The company that gave us Static Shock, Hardware, and other super heroes of color is back, Milestone Media has risen again!

The idea arose not just in the wake of Dwayne McDuffie’s death, but also at the wake to remember the man.

Reggie Hudlin, the “Django Unchained” producer, spoke at the gathering in 2011 with artist Denys Cowan and Derek Dingle, who with McDuffie had co-founded Milestone Media, the prominent minority-owned comics publisher. McDuffie, also known for his DC Comics work, was widely considered to be a pioneer in his efforts to diversify the comic-book industry, prior to his shocking death at age 49.

“Derek said, ‘It’s been too long. We’ve got to restart the company’,” Hudlin recounts to The Post’s Comic Riffs, of that day in 2011. “So the three of us have been working for the past two years on sorting out all the business, and now we are the core of Milestone Media 2.0.”

That’s right. Hudlin, Cowan and Dingle tell Comic Riffs that they are working together to revive the company that debuted more than 20 years ago before its demise in 1997 — a publisher that could boast of such heroes of color as Icon, Hardware and Static Shock. That means Milestone titles will soon return to comics shops physical and virtual.

Read more here: Milestone Media rises again. Hudlin, Cowan and Dingle will revive company with eye toward characters of color

A new Static Shock series is on the way!

Warner Brothers has announced the launch of a new digital division, named Blue Ribbon Content. Among the new series in development is a live action version of the comic book, Static Shock.

Writer/producer/director Reginald Hudlin (Best Picture Oscar nominee for producing Django Unchained) leads the creative team behind a live-action adaptation of Static Shock, featuring the African-American super hero Static, aka Virgil Ovid Hawkins. Static Shock is based on the Static comic co-created by the late Dwayne McDuffie with co-writer Robert L. Washington III and artist John Paul Leon, which was originally published by the DC Comics imprint Milestone Comics and, later, by DC Comics. Milestone Media co-founder/comic book artist/TV producer Denys Cowan (the original Static Shock animated series) is collaborating with Hudlin on the new Static Shock