It seems they are planning to make a film based on the Metal Men the quirky team created by Robert Kanigher and Ross Andru in 1962. Lauren Shuler Donner (X-MEN, CONSTANTINE) produces, with Eric Champnella (MR. 3000) to script. The Hollywood Reporter story has an unusually in-depth account of the book’s publishing history:
Metal” revolves around a brilliant scientist, William Magnus, and his creations: six highly advanced robots who have powers associated with their respective metals — gold, iron, lead, tin, mercury and platinum. Instead of having to be programd, the Metal Men can think for themselves, which is both their genius and their biggest flaw.
The heroes made their first appearance in “Showcase,” where they were created as filler but proved to be unexpectedly popular and received their own title. The heroes served as a dysfunctional family, and the stories balanced sentimentality, humor and action.
Inevitable, affable Geoff Johns, former assistant to Shuler Donner spouse Richard, helped develop the film and gets an exec producer credit.
Quick now, let’s play the Metal Men casting game! Extra credit — will it be the “classic” Metal Men or the all-new Metal Men?
Uh oh, DC better get around to publishing a Metal Man comic soon then!
How about…
Doc Magnus–Pierce Brosnan
Gold–Daniel Craig
Platinum–Naomi Watts
Mercury–Adam Sandler
Lead–John C. Reilly
Tin–Crispin Glover
I wonder if they’ll dust off the one Evan Dorkin did a few years ago that Allred was rumored to draw.
Wow! Metal Men seems like such a no-brainer in a way… shape-changing robots, weird opponents, wild sci-fi concepts. Maybe they’ll go up against Chemo… every time my kitchen sink is backed up I think about Chemo’s origin and make sure to disinfect everything to make sure nothing grows in there!
I’d love to see the Dorkin/Allred book, too (which I think was meant to be a miniseries), but to hear Evan tell it, it self-destructed so spectacularly and with such animosity that it’s unlikely we’ll ever see it:
Well, I’m very happy to hear how glad Allred sounds about drawing so slowly that the series has been frozen. Yeah, that’s just so very cool. Maybe if you’re not the guy writing the series that sounds just way, way cool, and, as he puts it, “ultimately a good thing”. Wasn’t a good thing for me, or DC, for that matter. (comment reply from Evan, 5/27/04)
I heard from a source affiliated with DC that one reason my Metal Men series was canned was because the scripts were deemed “too goofy” by a power-that-be. That’s right.”Too goofy”. The Metal Men. If that’s true, I guess I should’ve had Platinum get raped and killed by Chemo while she was going to have Tin’s clockwork baby. Or maybe someone should’ve read my pitch more closely before they approved it. In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m still pretty sore about the whole thing. (Evan’s LJ, 12/17/04)
He’s got some swell page roughs posted on his LJ here. In the interests of fairness I’d like to know Allred’s side of the story, because my bias is with Evan.
Weird. Allred’s usually a really fast writer, isn’t he? And when was the last time DC axed something because the artist was too slow?
This story’s like months old…. going back to the day when the Iron Man movie was first announced by Paramount.
Did your subscription to Hollywood Reporter lapse or something, Heidi?
~
Coat