Virulents (2010)
An ancient Indian evil emerges in war-torn Afghanistan to menace the troops; they're not zombies and they're not quite vampires but they're
rather nasty - and terrorists to boot! Virgin comics Indian push
proceeded apace in 2007 with this GN.
Max Payne's John Moore is
attached to the project.
War in Heaven (2009)
Touted as 'the next
300',
WiH was snapped up as a spec-GN in a 2007
bidding war, and tells the '
Braveheart-like' tale of the battle between angels Gabriel and Michael and soon-to-be-fallen Lucifer. Not much has been heard since.
Y: The Last Man (2010)
Yet another apocalypse setting, this time for Vertigo/DC Comics'
tale of the last man on Earth. But this ain't
I Am Legend, because the
plague that decimates humanity only affects 'Y' chromosome possessors, leaving central character Yorick Brown amongst 3 billion women, who (perhaps not surprisingly) begin to create an ultrafeminist society.
Disturbia's D.J. Caruso and Carl Ellsworth are on board.
The Witchblade (2009) Battlestar Galactica's Michael Rymer is
set to helm the movie adaptation of the Top Cow productions GN, in the wake of the TV version. The eponymous weapon is (of course) supernatural, a 'one-ring'-style sentient artifact that has afforded great powers to women such as Cleopatra and Joan Of Arc and now falls into the hands of NYPD detective Sara Pezzini. She
doesn't look like any cop I've ever seen.
Billy Batson and the Legend of Shazam (aka Captain Marvel, 2010)
The Captain Marvel character is
awfully close to Superman in capabilities, and the
scrambling for 'dark' properties for superhero movies could have moved this project even further down the roster.
Get Smart director Peter Segal is
attached, and in his defence was
talking about a 'darker' character well before
The Dark Knight's release and box-office supremacy.
Night and Fog (2010)
2008's Studio 407 GN
Night and Fog tells the Hammer-inspired story of a military experiment that goes awry on a remote island, leaving a group of survivors to fend for themselves against the majority of the small population that have turned into monsters. Studio 407 have specifically launched a
slate of titles aimed at getting made into movies, and
Death Defying Acts producer Kirk D'Amico is on board for this adaptation.You can check out some of the pages of the original artwork
here.
Luke Cage (2009)
Marvel's titanium-hard man - a streetwise,
Shaft-style Harlem bruiser given body-enhancing drugs whilst in prison for a crime he did not commit - is being backed by John Singleton (
said to have abandoned
The A-Team for the project) with Tyrese Gibson
favoured for the lead.
Justice League: Mortal (aka Justice League Of America, 2011)
An early 2009 start date was cited in August 2008 for the film depicting a super-assembly of DC heroes including The Flash (Adam Brody). Green Lantern, Batman and Wonder Woman, with George Miller directing.
Evidence of active pre-production has set tongues wagging further. Australian model Megan Gale is
strongly hyped as Wonder Woman, though there's no casting association with the beleagured
Wonder Woman movie (see above).
Iron Fist (2012)
Popularly thought to only have a chance if
Luke Cage (above) does well (the character developed out of that series),
Iron Fist is resting in
development hell with Ray Park thought to have left behind his association with the role.
Green Lantern (2010)
Ryan Gosling has been
hotly tipped to wear the green ring of power in the movie of the DC comics verdant hero. The script is
said to be good at the moment, and producer Donald De Line
confirmed his enthusiasm for it. The fact that Green Lantern is more a suit than a person (worn by a series of fictional characters) takes the pressure out of casting a franchise in a
Doctor Who/
James Bond -style.
The Green Hornet (2010)
Hong Kong martial arts cinema God Stephen Chow is
set to direct (post-
Kevin Smith) and play sidekick Kato to Seth Rogen's Hornet in an adaptation written by the pair in association with
Pineapple Express co-writer Evan Goldberg. Since the production is set to be pretty 'straight', the
casting of corpulent Rogen has caused some curiosity.
The Flash (2010)
The film of DC's lightning-fast sprinter seems to be
tying its shoelaces at the moment. Likelihood seems to be that the
JLA movie is confusing the issue in a way Batman never needs to worry about, so it could be quite a wait for Wally West to get moving.
Dark Knight producer Charles Roven
concedes that there has been no progress on the project.
R.I.P.D. (2010)
This tale of holy cops patrolling the afterlife in the 'Rest In Peace Department' is outlined as part of a
seven picture deal between Dark Horse comics and Universal. Associated
Wedding Crashers director David Dobkin will probably get round to this before getting anywhere near
The Flash (see above) as it would be trading in a less crowded market and for less cash than
Flash.
The Hands of Shang-Chi (2009)
This
kung-fu crazy character emerged from Marvel comics at the height of the early 70s martial-arts boom and the stories incorporated Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu and Nayland Smith characters. Ang Lee is in the producer's chair with
Forbidden Kingdom stunt arranger Woo-ping Yuen set to direct, but most of the news on the project is
pretty old.
Hack/Slash (2009)
Devil's Due Publishing
output this GN - about a typical female horror-film victim who strikes back - in 2004 to great acclaim, and screenwriter Justin Marks
told CBR in October of 2008 that the project is going ahead just fine, profiled as "comedy with the gore in place"; so it all sounds very
Buffy-esque so far.
Maintenance (2009) Terminator: Salvation's
McG has long been set to direct Jim Massey's tale of
Terrormax Inc., who supply 'doomsday devices' and weapons to supervillains. You can
check out 32 pages online gratis at the Onipress website; the movie may not be coming as quickly, but it
still seems to be on.
Maybe...Maybe Not (2010)
Stepping away from the superhero realm, Ralf König's
tale of a love-cheat forced to shack up with a gay friend has already been made as the German film
Der Bewegte Mann (1994), and this English-language version is
being prepped by
Quarantine producer Clint Culpepper for Screen Gems.