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Somehow we forgot to mention the biggest comics-to-movies news of the week: That a director has been found for the proposed WE3 movie. The brilliant Grant Morrison/Frank Quitely miniseries is best described as “Homeward Bound meets the Terminator” as three cybernetically enhanced cute little animals go on a harrowing journey to freedom and peace. The director signed is John Stevenson, who helmed KUNG FU PANDA. Despite the cute little animal factor, the movie will not be 100% CGI, says producer Don Murphy:

Producer Don Murphy informs ShockTillYouDrop.com: “Even though the film is going to be live-action, we brought on the lead director of Kung Fu Panda [John Stevenson]. He’s attached to direct We3. We’re doing it as an R-rating. It’s not going to be cutesy. There’s killer rabbits and stuff. We’re in the process right now of trying to figure out where we’re going to make it.”

Written by Grant Morrison, who adapted his own source material, the action-packed, hyper-violent and heartbreaking story focuses on three test animals – a dog, a cat and a rabbit – who are infused into prototype combat suits equipped with various weaponry. Thanks to chips in their skulls, they’re allowed to speak. This trio breaks free and We3 tells of their perilous return home. The series was released in 2004 and was illustrated by Frank Quitely

“It was at New Line,” says Murphy. “But the new New Line doesn’t want to do these kinds of movies. We have two really good prospects. [Producer] Susan [Montford] was able to get this film going just based on the treatment before the comic so we’ve been on this a while.”


This would mark Morrison’s Hollywood debut, and remains one of our most-wished for comic book movies.

19 COMMENTS

  1. Mmmm… little rat toolbox action figures….

    Most-wished for comic book movies? Cowboy Wally. So easy to film…
    And Proposition Player. Another movie easy to greenlight, especially with the Poker buzz and “Bringing Down the House” doing nicely.

    Oh? Big time action movies? I wanna see WB/DC produce an Elseworlds series of films, starting with “Superman: Red Sun”.

  2. I’m going to go on record and say that this is one comic book movie that is almost guaranteed to be good, as long as they stick with that R-rated not-cutesy thing. There’s just a lot of space for movie-making in the pages, and very little space for shit dialog writing.

  3. If they use the actual comic as the storyboard, this could work. But I never underestimate the ability of a movie to screw it up completely.

  4. I see the voices of Kate Beckinsale as the cat, Patrick Warburton as the dog and international funnyman Roberto Begnini as the bunny.

  5. This is the kind of idea that works in comics, but I can see it being a huge failure as a movie. The studio will probably decide they want it to be cute, or that it would work as a low budget Sci Fi Channel movie of the week.

    They’ll want Wall-E of Cujo and no see room for anything in between.

  6. >This is the kind of idea that works in comics, but I can see it being a huge >failure as a movie. The studio will probably decide they want it to be cute

    Well, animals in the book WERE kinda cute in the first place.

    The comic always seemed ‘movie shaped’ to me, like it was an idea that was originally meant to be a movie, but then they ended up doing it as a graphic novel because they didn’t have the Hollywood connections back then.

  7. Oh yeah, I’m not saying the animals weren’t cute. I’m talking cute in a “Maybe they could build a house of the homeless guy” kind of cute.

  8. If Mr. Murphy can get this movie made in the way it deserves to be made, he can come here and insult whomever he wants! And that’s a promise.

  9. I’m not defending Jason’s jibe, but Don Murphy did spend a year ending all his blog comments with the line, “Iron Man — from the director at Zathura.” It’s odd that he would get so snippy over someone saying almost the exact same thing regarding him.

  10. JT – I have never had a blog. Ever. So think before you type.

    Jason- of that I have no doubt

    Heidi- it was no insult, it was definition of character

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