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§ THE COURIERS, by Brian Wood and Rob G, has been picked up by Intrepid Pictures. Javier Grillo-Marxuach, formerly of Lost, and more recently of a bunch of comical books of his own, will write the script. “The series follows the adventures of two gun-toting mercenary couriers named Moustafa and Special who take on jobs other couriers will not tackle, involving intelligence, large cash transfers, protection, assassinations and blockade-running.”

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§ Meanwhile, THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF H.P. LOVECRAFT, a graphic novel by Mac Carter and Jeff Blitz which hasn’t even been published yet, has been picked up as a potential directing vehicle for Ron Howard:

U sparked to “Lovecraft” because its take on classic horror fits in well with the studio’s library of monster fare featuring Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy and the Wolf Man, the last of which is being brought back to the bigscreen later this year.

Created by Mac Carter and Jeff Blitz, book borrows elements from Lovecraft’s life, such as his family’s struggle with mental illness and his own bouts with writer’s block, and transforms the young writer’s darkest nightmares into reality when he comes across a book that puts a curse on him and lets the evils he conjures up loose on the world.


Will the film portray Lovecraft as the oddball, mother-fixated, asexual racist many think he was? Hm, didn’t Howard direct A BEAUTIFUL MIND, which completely omitted the fact that the (real) main character was bisexual? We shall see.

The graphic novel, btw, was apparently drawn by the very talented Tony Salmons — a page art is seen above.

§ Director Matthew Vaughn had such a great time making a commando-style (i.e. self-financed) film based on Mark Millar’s KICK-ASS, that the duo may team again for an “AMERICAN JESUS” movie:

Vaughn is eyeing Millar’s “American Jesus” as his next directing vehicle, which would be produced by Vaughn and his Marv Films partner Kris Thykier and financed independently in the same manner as “Kick-Ass.”

The story centers on the return of Christ in the modern world, leading to a final confrontation with the Antichrist in a bid to save humanity.


The book debuted as CHOSEN, and the artist is Peter Gross. We wonder if a film with this title would be controversial at all? Probably not, but it’s funny to think about.

§ Finally, to those of you fretting over whether WATCHMEN’s tepid reception has killed the superhero movie, this headline will come as gladsome news: Wolverine ‘heralds new age of superhero movies’:

The film, it says, “heralds a whole new approach to the superhero movie” because it goes beyond Wolverine’s backstory and introduces a gallery of other comic book favourites such as Deadpool and Gambit.

Empire’s Helen O’Hara writes: “So it’s not quite a simple spin-off like 2005’s ill-fated Elektra, not quite a prequel or reboot like Batman Begins – rather part of a spreading trend in Hollywood to look beyond the obvious Franchise III: Return of the Whatever formula for superhero sequels.”


Hooray! We were very worried for a bit, but all is well now!

5 COMMENTS

  1. That’s funny you found that news story. Intrepid optioned The Couriers back in 2006, and there’s been a script done for at least 18 months now. Maybe someone found an old press release that had fallen back behind their desk.

    b

  2. Poor Tony Salmons – he did all that work for $100 @ page (years ago), and (recently) singed away all the rights (after one of the producers filled him with drinks – or so he tells it)

    Mothers, don’t let your sons grow up to be comic book artists.

  3. I see, re the COURIERS item, that Reuters distributed The Hollywood Reporter article, which was originally published on 1/22/07 and was updated on 3/25/09. The update is apparently minor, but sufficient to warrant republication.

    SRS

  4. I wonder which if the Couriers storylines they will be following, if any. While I didn’t really like the other stuff, I loved the Ballad of Johnny Funwrecker storyline!

    And the American Jesus stuff just confuses, as yes it was released as Chosen. I saw they released the GN under the new name too. Controversial, yes. The ultimate payoff is at the end though. Not sure how this would play for a movie though.

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