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Every week, Scott Davis and Austin Kennedy check out the latest, but not always the greatest films in the multiplexes. Everything from the biggest blockbusters, to the smallest indie films to the latest foreign films. Scott and Austin are film geeks by birth, keeping a critical eye on things, but bringing a lot of humor and energy to the proceedings as well. They don't always agree, but it's always entertaining.

• Archived Blog Post

  Date / Time: 5/23/2009 5:42 AM UTC

  THE LAST COMIC BOOK MOVIE YOU EVER WANTED TO SEE!
  

  What is the last comic hero you would ever expect to get the big screen Hollywood treatment? Ant-Man? Apache Chief? Wrong on both counts, although Ant-Man has been in the works for some time.
  
  How about Bazooka Joe?
  
  Who?
  
  
  

  
  

  
  That's who.
  
  Seriously, it's all here in the Hollywood Reporter.
  
  "Michael Eisner and his Tornante Co. have tapped newcomer Mark Hammer to pen a feature adaptation of "Bazooka Joe," the comic strip that comes with Bazooka bubble gum.
  

  
  Hammer, who this weekend is attending the graduation ceremony at Orange County's Chapman University, where he studied film, wrote a spec titled "Sonny Takes to Peru," which made the studio rounds but ultimately did not sell.
  
  That spec, however, turned into a strong writing sample that got him into meetings as well as representation at management outfit the Safran Co. Execs at Tornante, seeking to fill their open writing assignment,liked the spec and brought in Hammer, who gave them his winning take.
  
  "Bazooka Joe" has been a comic strip used as an advertising device for the gum since the 1950s. Joe, who wears an eye patch for reasons never explained, has child-friendly misadventures, sometime joined by a host of friends with the names Pesty, Mort (always with a turtleneck sweater pulled up over his mouth), Toughie, Hungry Herman, love interest Jane and a dog named Walkie Talkie.
  
  Bazooka, the gum and the comic, are part of trading card company Topps' stable. Eisner purchased the company in 2007 for $380 million with a mandate to rejuvenate the brand."
  
  
  This will be the second film to feature the credit "A Topps Chewing Gum Production." The first was 1987's head-scratchingly awful The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, a.k.a. The Film That Hates You.
  
  Just want to clear this up for everybody. Everybody makes fun of Aquaman, but Bazooka Joe is getting the big-screen treatment before him.
  
  • Tags:
  • Bazooka Joe
  • comic strip
  • chewing gum
  • collectors
  • wtf
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