Warren Ellis’ Red and Ocean Headed to the Big Screen
Comic Book writer Warren Ellis is finally headed to the big screen. Summit Entertainment (Twilight) announced this morning, a big screen adaptation of Ellis’ Red, about a former black-ops CIA agent who is forced out of retirement when a high-tech assassin shows up to kill him. The comic, first published as a three-issue mini-series by WildStorm (a division of DC Comics) in 2003, is being adapted for the screen by brothers Erich and Jon Hoeber, who also wrote the adaptations of Whiteout and Alice. According to THR, the film will focus on the idea of an older operative set who is set in his ways having to contend with younger and more fit agents as well as modern techniques and technology. The project is being produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura (GI Joe, Transformers).
Last week it was revealed that Warner Bros is developing a big screen adaptation of Ellis’ Ocean. When thousands of coffins containing a sleeping alien race and a giant weapon of mass destruction are discovered beneath the ice on one of Jupiter’s moons, a sinister representative of a powerful conglomerate seeks to exploit the discovery for their own purposes. Newcomer Ryan Condal has been hired to pen the screenplay based on Ellis’ original six issue comic book series.
Capcom Plans More Crappy Video Game Movie Adaptations
Japanese-based video game developer/publisher Capcom has revealed it plans to make a new batch of horrible video game movie adaptations. Capcom president Haruhiro Tsujimoto says he hopes his company will revitalize video game movies just as Marvel has revitalized comic book movies.
“We are in the process of working out contracts for several offers we received at the Cannes Film Festival last week and hope to make an announcement soon,” Tsujimoto told Bloomberg. “If realised, the projects will have a big impact on the game and movie industries.”
Previous Capcom game to movie releases include the Resident Evil Series, Street Fighter, the 1994 Street Fighter movie, and the prequel/reboot Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, which is currently in production at Fox. Lets take a look at a few potential franchise titles that Capcom might be looking to bring to the big screen:
Devil May Cry: A movie adaptation of optioned by GAGA Communications in December 2006, but that option may have run out. The story follows Dante, a mercenary dedicated to exterminating demons, a group which was responsible for the death of his mother and corrupting his brother.
More Street Fighter Spin-Offs: Please lets hope not!
Ghouls ‘n Ghosts: The story of the original game followed a knight named Arthur who had defeat a number of undead and demonic creatures in his quest to restore souls stolen by Lucifer. One of the souls is of his bride, Princess Prin Prin. As Arthur advanced through a series of eerie levels, he picked up a variety of weapons and armor to help him in his quest.
Bionic Commando: Essentially if GI Joe were just about a single soldier. The story follows a super soldier equipped with a bionic arm featuring a grappling gun.
Another Resident Evil Movie: I’m sure Paul W.S. Anderson is waiting for the phone call.
Dead Rising: Essentially a 80% rip-off of Dawn of the Dead. A photojournalist named Frank West ends up trapped in a shopping mall infested with zombies.
Steel Battalion: With the success of Transformers, could Hollywood be interested in a Mech movie? Players controlled bipedal walking weapons platforms called vertical tanks (or VTs) in combat, assault, support, and scout missions.
Mega Man: Mega Man has appeared in over 100 games over the past two decades, and is responsible for more sales revenue than both of Capcom’s next leading franchises (Street Fighter and Resident Evil) combined. Set in the year 200X, master designer Dr. Thomas Light worked to create a humanoid robot who could demonstrate an advanced artificial intelligence program that would allow it to make decisions based on vague commands and directions. With the success of these two test-type robots, Light designed and built six production-type robots. Dr. Albert W. Wily, a colleague at that time and future rival, stole the robots and seized control of the city. Dr. Light converted his current lab assistant into a fighting robot named Mega Man. This story probably has the most potential as a big screen story, but more likely in the computer animated realm.
Lorenzo di Bonaventura Talks GI Joe
Collider has an extensive interview with G.I. Joe producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura. I’ve included a few of the newsworthy tidbits below:
- The film will be rated PG-13 and will feature bloodless violence.
- Defending the choice of director Stephen Sommers: “He’s just… his enthusiasm, his excitement, his sense of adventure, his embracing of the mythology, his understanding of the characters.“
- The movie will feature “2 or 3 really big” set pieces :and a couple of sort of medium/small ones.”
- Each character has more than one outfit, aside from Snake Eyes.
- On the tone of the film: “I guess it’s definitely a comic book movie and it’s definitely has a great sense of humor, so there’s a lot of humor and a lot of drama and a lot of action. “
- Production moves to Prague on May 8th. Prague will serve as 2 or 3 locations from around the world.
- On The Pit: “I think everybody’s going to be really happy that we took The Pit very seriously and built it to fulfill anybody’s sense of fantasy of what it could be.”
You can read the full two-page interview on Collider.com.
Viacom, MGM and Lionsgate to Launch Pay-able Channel
Viacom, MGM and Lionsgate have teamed for a new, yet-to-be-named, cable pay-channel which hopes to compete with HBO, Showtime and Starz. Showtime previously had a deal with Viacom to air their new films, but the money was not enough.
Here are the details direct from the press release: The new venture will have access to Paramount and Paramount Vantage titles released theatrically on or after January 1, 2008 and MGM, United Artists and Lionsgate titles released theatrically on or after January 1, 2009. This includes such films as Iron Man, Star Trek, Pink Panther 2, Cloverfield, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Shutter Island, GI Joe, Love Guru, and Valkyrie. In addition, the new venture will have access to motion picture titles spanning the vast libraries of the five studios, which libraries include Braveheart, Forrest Gump and the Mission: Impossible, The Godfather and Star Trek franchises from Paramount; the James Bond, Pink Panther and Rocky franchises from MGM; and Dirty Dancing, Reservoir Dogs, Crash, Monster’s Ball, the Saw franchise, the Tyler Perry catalogue and The Blair Witch Project from Lionsgate. The new venture will also feature new original television series created by the five studios.
Basically this is this is just the beginning. I’ve been predicting that this will happen for years now. With the future push for on demand, it makes complete sense for film studios to be in control of their own offerings, and charging a monthly all-you-can-eat price for their libraries. Now, this announcement doesn’t say anything about on demand, but this is clearly the way of the future. One day we’ll be able to subscribe to movie studios, instead of premium channels, and watch any movie in their entire library. It only makes sense.