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Exclusive: 2021 Academy Nicholl Fellow scribe Laura Kosann has been hired to adapt the female-driven comic book Mercy Sparx for MGM, The Picture Company and Assemble Media.

Created by Josh Blaylock, the title protag is a female demon sent from Hell to Earth on a mission, which she must complete while hiding among humans. On Earth, Mercy has an existential crisis and begins to see the gray area between good and evil. It forces her to choose her place within it and compromises her mission. The comic debuted ten years ago via Devil’s Due Publishing, and the IP has been seen by the studio as a franchise with an empowering female character at the center.

Jack Heller of Assemble is producing along with The Picture Company partners Alex Heineman and Andrew Rona. Comic creator Blaylock is serving as EP along with Assemble’s Scott Veltri. Heller and Assemble developed the script...

Exclusive: MGM has acquired screen rights to the female-driven comic book property Mercy Sparx, and set Nick Shafir to write the script. The Picture Company and Assemble Media are producing.

The title character is a female demon sent from Hell to Earth on a mission, which she must complete while hiding among humans. On earth, Mercy has an existential crisis and begins to see the gray area between good and evil. It forces her to choose her place within it and compromises her mission. Shafir’s script is said to be akin to a female Constantine, the adaptation that starred Keanu Reeves several years ago.

Created by Josh Blaylock, the comic book has become a cult favorite among fans since its debut ten years ago through Devil’s Due Publishing, and the studio sees this as a franchise with an empowering female character at the center.

Jack Heller of Assemble will...

11:02 Am Pt -- We just got Aoc on Capitol Hill, and she tells us the comic book is truly an honor, and she's happy the proceeds are being donated to a good cause.  Aoc tells us the entire process has been humbling, and she's hoping the comic will inspire people to discover their inner superhero.  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is about to become a superhero in a new comic book chronicling her rise to Congress ... and...

Network: Hulu

Episodes: Ongoing (half-hour)

Seasons: Ongoing

TV show dates: December 2, 2015 — present

Series status: Has not been cancelled

Performers include: Freddie Wong, Jimmy Wong, Ashly Burch, Clint Jones, Chase Williamson, Ellary Porterfield, Josh Blaylock, Anthony Alabi, and Noah Segan.

TV show description:

This action-comedy series documents the production of RocketJump Studios original web video content, TV shows, and feature films. It chronicles the creativity and chaos involved in film, TV, and video production. In essence, it is a TV show about making TV shows and the like.

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Exclusive: Benderspink Productions has locked a long-in-the-making deal to develop Mark Powers’ critically acclaimed comic series Drafted. The sci-fi epic feature project will follow the story of Earth’s first contact with aliens who arrive to warn humanity of an impending intergalactic invasion. Men, women, and children are conscripted into the battle to save both races’ existence, but just as the invaders are defeated, humans learn they may have been helping the wrong side all along.

Drafted, which Devil’s Due Entertainment first published in 2007, is also being rebooted as a comic for 2015, with co-creator Powers returning to pen new issues for summer 2015. Powers, original publisher Josh Blaylock of Devil’s Due, and Benderspink will develop the property for the screen and are eyeing large-scale potential for the military sci-fier. “I’ve loved this property for seven years now,” said Jc Spink of Benderspink, “and am so glad to be...

On October 13th, Video Game High School will return for its last hurrah. The action-packed, high-budget web series from the team at Rocket Jump is set for a third season, with a new trailer giving fans a full look at the spectacle to come. As with previous seasons, the new season of Vghs will feature the adventures of Brian D (Josh Blaylock) while he competes in various video game simulations as a member of the titular high school's official team. The supporting trio of Johanna Braddy, Jimmy Wong, and Ellary Porterfield will reprise their roles as Jenny, Ted, and Ki, respectively. The new trailer gives viewers a chance to see the new game types that Freddie Wong and his team will bring into Vghs for its new season. For example, this time around, the school's students will square off in an NBA Jam-style basketball game. We also get glimpses of a few guest stars,...

When people think of Kickstarter now, their minds automatically go to the "Veronica Mars" movie or Zach Braff's next directorial effort. While these big money projects have gotten headlines for their fundraising, they're not necessarily trailblazers in the crowd-sourcing arena.

In 2011, Freddie Wong, Matt Arnold, Will Campos and Brian Firenzi came up with an idea for a web TV series where students attend an elite school training the highest level of athletes. The difference being that these athletes didn't play sports, they played video games. Instead of baseball and football teams, students try out for first person shooter (Fps) and rhythm gaming (think "Guitar Hero) teams, with scenes from the field taking place inside the virtual world. Thus, "Video Game High School" was born.

The project was funded through Kickstarter, with the creators  shooting for $75,000. By the one-month fundraising deadline, the project had raised over $273,000. The first season of...

After some last-minute delays due to emergency editing, the second season of Freddie Wong and Matt Arnold's Video Game High School has arrived. As expected, the increased budget, souped-up set, and innovative filming technique combined to create a product that is fun, exciting, colorful, and, perhaps most surprisingly, full of heart. The first half-hour episode returns viewers to the halls of the titular school, where protagonist Brian D (Josh Blaylock) must juggle classes, his duties to the Vghs Fps team, his budding romance with Jenny Matrix (Johanna Braddy), his relationship with a vicious new coach (Cynthia Watros), and, by the end of the episode, the return of Brian Firenzi's comically mischievous villain, The Law. Um, spoiler alert. What sets season two apart from Vghs' initial run is a more intimate attention to detail and setting. The set, built at YouTube's La Space, is much more expansive and makes...

The nerds are back for another year of training in Season 2 of "Video Game High School," the web series set in a world where button-mashing is the most popular sport.  Creators Freddie Wong, Matthew Arnold, Will Campos and Brian Firenzi debuted the trailer for the upcoming season Thursday. In the first season, Josh Blaylock stars as a gamer who dreams of becoming elite. The plot of the second season remains under wraps, Wong told TheWrap in February that the new season would delve further into the world of his gaming school -- a la...

Previously On Warehouse 13.

This week’s episode of Warehouse 13 ended on a surprising and a shocking note, but in between we had some great scenes with Steve, who opened up to Abigail about his insecurities and fears.

Actually, with the addition of Abigail as a sixth team member, we have three stories this episode, and each one has its memorable moments.

Pete and Myka: The A Team have to track down an artifact that is affecting seemingly random people in seemingly random ways in a gated community (of course, nothing is ever random when it comes to an artifact), with the incidents connected to immoral and sinful behavior. In what turns out to be one of the more intriguing artifacts we’ve seen, they trace the deadly occurrences to in-mourning housewife Cynthia Watross (from Lost), who’s been using a mask made from the salt at the destruction...

Video Game High School

Stars: Josh Blaylock, Jimmy Wong, Johanna Braddy, Ellary Porterfield, Zachary Levi, Brian Firenzi, Harley Morenstein, Justine Ezarik, Freddie Wong | Written by Matthew Arnold, Will Campos, Brian Firenzi | Directed by Matthew Arnold, Brandon Laatsch, Freddie Wong

Another successfully funded Kickstarter project, this time from YouTube “star” Freddie Wong who co-created, co-wrote and stars – which was originally conceived as a web series, Video Game High School comes to iTunes and Netflix as a feature-length film set in the near future where video gaming is the world’s most popular competitive sport and players command as much respect, popularity and fame as sports and movie stars do today. A near future where traditional news programming is interrupted by frag alerts and gamerscore updates and where tandem hover-bikes and floating footballs are the norm. The film tells the story of BrianD (Blaylock), a high school student who, on live television,...

Old school G.I Joe super fan El Mayimbe here...Our pals Borys & Jay over at Heatvision blog broke tonight that Bruce Willis is in negotations to star as General Joe Colton in the upcoming G.I. Joe: Retaliation!Now that’s hot casting. I can totally see Bruce Willis playing the role.Joe Colton is the first G.I. Joe and was responsible for starting the strike team back in the day.According to the G.I. Joe wiki, Joe Colton, the original G.I. Joe is a highly-decorated officer in the Army. He has had vast experiences in leading teams in covert missions. Tales of his bravery and exploits have reached the highest office in the land. He was tasked by no less than President John F. Kennedy to command a special team. I clearly remember when I was in Queens College back in 1994, hoping on the Q17 bus to downtown Flushing,...

DevilÂ.s Due Publishing today announced that Pj Bickett will exit his CEO position effective December 1st. In the interim, President Josh Blaylock will take over the familiar role.

 

{sidebar id=1}The move comes after BlaylockÂ.s exit from Kunoichi, Inc., the creative services firm launched in 2005, to focus squarely on Ddp. 

Bickett, who began working with Ddp over three years ago as an executive consultant advising on corporate realignment and development, has served as chief executive officer for the past 14 months. During his tenure as CEO, Bickett focused on diversifying the core business and streamlining operations, cutting overhead, production costs and increasing DDPÂ.s marketing presence.  Most notable was his role in opening DDPÂ.s La office in 2007, which has been instrumental in the expansion of co-development projects.

Â.I have really enjoyed being a part of the Ddp family for the past several years, and now it is...