Butch Lukic | LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES

Producer Butch Lukic has been an integral part of the DC Animated Universe for decades. Known for his many collaborations with industry legends Bruce Timm and Paul Dini, Lukic has helped bring some of DC’s most memorable animated adventures to life. As one of the chief architects of this burgeoning phase of DC’s animated continuity, Lukic has quite a lot of say in what we as an audience end up seeing onscreen. We recently caught up with Butch about his latest project, Legion of Super-Heroes, diving deep into DC’s animated continuity and exploring what makes these stories so popular among fans...

STARBURST: Let’s start with a brief, spoiler-free synopsis about what Legion of Super-Heroes is about…

Butch Lukic: Well, it starts off with Kara and her mother escaping the explosion of Krypton and then she ends up on Earth. She becomes Supergirl at first, but it’s her first few weeks, or few months, there, and obviously she’s not getting along with the League. So Superman decides to present her to Legion of Super-heroes in the 31st century to learn the trade of being a superhero.

Aside from the 31st-century setting and the fact that these characters are still finding their footing as heroes, what makes the Legion different from other super-teams?

I think because they’re from the 31st century, they build their ideology after the original Superman. I always looked at them more like a teen group, which they are. In that respect, I thought of them more as a Teen Titan type of comic book story. Also, the ideology and the utopian society (compared to what we in the present day would have to deal with). It’s a training ground for new kids to become heroes. Because they’re so far in the future, they’re pretty removed from the original Justice League. Sure, they were inspired by them but there’s some distance at this point.

You’ve been involved with DC for a long time – what excites you most about this new phase of DC’s animated continuity?

The fact that we can do these characters at this point. Obviously, there’ve been stories where we have had to introduce characters most people don’t know about and haven’t seen. It’s a good introductory piece for general DC followers and fans who aren’t as deeply familiar with DC’s characters. Plus, it serves our needs for continuing this storyline, where we’re headed with this, I don’t know, “Tomorrowverse”? The running joke in-house was that it was called the “Butchverse.”

This mix of loose adaptations and wholly original stories has been excellent. What has been most rewarding for you as a producer of this blend of stories?

For me, it came about because of Long Halloween, which is the one I wanted to do. They got me to do that but then they wanted for me to continue into that batch of films that would become continuity. That was the fun part: build the story, build the characters, eventually get to high points in the story, so all that was kinda my “best-of” in terms of what I wanted to see in these movies. Plus the different types of genres I got to do, like the WWII stuff.

Is there anything you can tell us about what DC is cooking up for us next?

The next upcoming film is Justice League: Warworld, and it’s pretty heavy with action and locales and things like that!

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES is out now to rent/buy digitally, and is also available on DVD/Blu-ray!

UK Slasher THE BLADE CUTS DEEPER Nears Completion

the blade cuts deeper

Giallo-inspired slasher The Blade Cuts Deeper is set to be a no-nonsense horror treat – and to make it more unique, it’s set in Liverpool. With the film almost complete, the filmmakers have taken to Kickstarter to fund the film’s final shoot. The story follows a widower out for revenge, against the maker a lurid true-crime webs series who has made a mockery of his wife’s death.

The Blade Cuts Deeper is directed Gene Dolders, who penned the script with comic writer A J Ballard (Slaughterhouse Farm, Slaughterhouse-Z). Having previously collaborated together on the Fulci-inspired short film Death Is Not a Whisper, the pair – irritated by the turgid, murder-by-numbers format of contemporary slashers – are striking back with their own unique, atmospheric and unforgivingly brutal horror movie.

With two thirds of the filming completed, they now need your help to get the final part in the can. Head over to the Kickstarter page to have a look at the project and choose one of the superb perks on offer – including a chance to visit the set in the north-west of England, or even nab a bloodied prop from the film.

The campaign runs until the end of March – so do your bit to support homegrown UK horror.

For more information, visit the film’s Facebook page or website.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/blade-cuts-deeper/the-blade-cuts-deeper-feature-film

Exclusive: Casting Announcement for Horror Short FOOTSTEPS, Executive Produced by British Legend NEIL MARSHALL

From Writer/Director Janine Pipe comes the short horror film FOOTSTEPS, adapted from Pipe’s own short story published in 2020 and brought to the screen by Pipe Screams Productions in collaboration with Alt View Productions.

Executive Produced by Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers, The Descent), the film will follow the story of a group of young women that head into Marshall Woods, intending to blow off steam and find inspiration for their book about local ‘missing person’ lore and legends. There, they soon discover they are not alone and unwittingly begin a bloody fight for survival against a terrifying and unnatural antagonist.

Currently heading into its second week of the crowdfunding campaign and already earning just shy of 50% of its target (at the time of writing), this is a project that you are going to want to get involved in.

And we here at STARBURST have received the right to an exclusive announcement of the casting of the two lead characters.

Firstly, Annabella Rich (Eating Miss Campbell, Video Shop Tales of Terror) will be bringing the character of Felicity Wells to life. Bella previously worked with Pipe on her debut short film, HER.

Annabella Rich will play Felicity Wells in FOOTSTEPS

Joining Bella in the film is Nicole Riddell (Mask of the Devil, White Sky). Janine hand-picked both Bella and Nicole for the film stating that both actresses are perfect for the way she envisioned them when writing the original story.

Nicole Riddell will play Becky Cooper in FOOTSTEPS

The following paragraphs are taken from the official press release:

Footsteps boasts a women only cast and will showcase practical effects and a creature design worthy of a low budget homage EP Marshall. Other crew members so far include:

James L Perkins – Producer
Rebecca Wilcox – First AD
Sam Mason Bell – DoP
Georgie Kerrsenbrock – SFX
Christian Francis – Graphic Design

Filming will take place in Pipe’s hometown of Swindon in September 2023 with the dream goal to premiere at London’s FrightFest in August 2024. 

Pipe and her team are hoping to fund the majority of the short via Indiegogo. Perks include a Special Thanks IMDb credit, an exclusive poster signed by Pipe and Marshall and various producer status levels along with one very special edition perk – an original Dog Soldiers quad poster signed by Marshall along with Sean Pertwee, Darren Morfitt and Craig Conway. 

Pipe adds, ‘Times are hard right now for many people and you may find that although you’d like to support a British women-driven indie genre production oozing with blood, you just can’t financially. But that doesn’t mean you still can’t be hugely beneficial in helping us by spreading the word and sharing the campaign wherever you can. And for that we will be massively grateful.’

You can support the crowdfunding campaign for FOOTSTEPS here

LIVING WITH CHUCKY UK Trailer Unveiled

living with chucky trailer

What’s it really like Living with Chucky? Fresh from a successful festival run, the acclaimed documentary, directed by Kyra Elise Gardner, lifts the lid on the hit horror series and gets us closer than ever to the inside scoop.

Krya is the daughter of special effects artist Tony Gardner, who helped create the original Chucky animatronic, and the film features insights from creator Don Mancini, actors Brad Dourif and Jennifer Tilly, and fans of the franchise such as cult filmmaker John Waters. Check out the UK trailer below.

Living with Chucky is released to own or rent on digital from April 24th, as well as on Blu-ray.

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS TV Show Announced Amid Controversy


Paramount+, a streaming channel better known for Star Trek and Yellowstone, will be the home of the new Dungeons and Dragons TV show.  Hasbro-owned studio eOne is working with Paramount to produce eight episodes of a show set in D&D’s Forgotten Realms world, the same place that the forthcoming Dungeons and Dragons movie is set.

Rawson Marshall Thurber, who is best known for Dodgeball The Underdog Story and Red Notice will write and direct the first pilot. Thurber has established geek street cred, he played the Voltron vendor in the Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers movie. It is too early to speculate on a plot, but if it’s set in the Forgotten Realms it’s likely to based on D&D books such as Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, Candlekeep Mysteries and Icewind Dale Rime Of The Frostmaiden.

The timing for this announcement is unusual. Fans of the game are currently up in arms over recent changes to the Open Gaming License which have been leaked by members of the community. These changes seek to restrict the ability for third-party D&D content creators to make money.

Since the third edition of the game launched roughly 23 years ago,  the OGL has allowed creators the flexibility and freedom to create new content for the game for a (usually very slim) profit. The old license was about 900 words long. The new license supersedes the old one, is ten times longer and imposes heavy restrictions on the control, creation and ownership of fan-made work for the game, making things far more difficult (and potentially much less profitable) for anyone who wants to make a living from D&D.

This has gone down poorly with the community; with many going online to voice their opinions.  Historically when the owners of Dungeons and Dragons attempt to restrict what people can do with the game, it leads to a boom in other tabletop roleplaying games. This is happening right now; highly successful and well-loved D&D third-party content creator Kobold Press has already announced that it’s working on its own open-source fantasy system code-named Raise The Flag.

With no official announcement from the D&D’s current publishers Wizards of The Coast (or their owners, Hasbro) in regards to the new license, it seems odd that this was the week chosen to announce an exciting new TV show. But as avid fantasy fans we will be watching both this show’s development and Wizards of The Coast’s new approach to its core game with interest.