2015 appears to be the year of direct-to-consumer TV network offerings, whether from established networks, movie studios, or specialty outlets (like the WWE, which sells its own network of nothing but decades of wrestling programming for $10 a month). Now Wizard World has announced CONtv, planned to launch early this year as a digital network sold direct to consumers and geared towards “fans in the Comic Con community”. It’s a joint venture with independent content distributor Cinedigm. Programming will include […]

The Netflix Marvel TV shows announced a year ago — short series featuring Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, and Luke Cage — have begun casting for their debut in 2015. First up, Krysten Ritter will play Jessica Jones in Marvel’s A.K.A. Jessica Jones. Ritter was most recently on TV as the lead in Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23 and is also well-known for roles in Breaking Bad and Veronica Mars. I like watching her, and I think her […]

What a world we live in. If the franchise you’re a fan of is popular enough, there’s a licensed product for EVERYthing. Today’s case in point: Star Trek wine. Klingon Bloodwine (for which the press release provides the helpful translation “tlhIngan ‘Iw HIq”) is now available for preorder at Vinport.com, licensed from CBS Consumer Products. (This follows the Klingon Warnog beer released this summer.) It begins shipping December 8 at $20 a bottle — but you can also buy six […]

Spinning out of Captain America: The First Avenger comes Marvel’s Agent Carter. One might make fun of the possessive title — are there others out there you’d confuse it with? — but it does keep the title sorted closely with Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. That’s significant because Agent Carter is a mid-season replacement for the latter. Agent Carter stars Hayley Atwell as the title character, a spy who faces danger and sexism in the 1940s. She previously starred in an […]

After a breakout performance in The Lego Movie (and his own earlier film), Lego Batman is getting his own TV special. Lego DC Comics: Batman: Be-Leaguered will air on Cartoon Network on Monday, October 27 at 6 PM Eastern/5 PM Central. Based on this clip, Batman is his usual solo grumpy self, even when Superman wants him to join the Justice League. It’s being promoted as “a funny, lighthearted tale new to the DC Comics universe”, which we can certainly […]

I used to think of Boomerang as the animation nostalgia channel, with its focus on older, archival programming. However, now it’s changing its focus, with a new direction in the US coming next year and expanded international presence. From the press release: Turner Broadcasting announced today that its second flagship kids brand, Boomerang, is being re-launched as a global all-animation, youth-targeted network, repositioned with a line-up of timeless and contemporary cartoons programmed for family co-viewing…. Drawing upon the vast resources […]