DC’s parent company Warner Brothers have taken advantage of the biggest US comics convention in San Diego this weekend to announce their latest comics movie news. Two DC titles have been optioned for movie development, although we shouldn’t get too excited as options do not always end up as actual movies (although from what Neil Gaiman has said about the truly awful Sandman movie draft script this may be a good thing sometimes).
Both options are on the supernatural and weird side of the DC Universe, being Doom Patrol and Deadman. Adam Turner is working on a script for Doom Patrol and thought to be paying special attention to the Grant Morrison era, which was incredibly odd and inventive (and I still don’t quite understand it all!) and in many ways pre-figured his later Invisible work. ICV2 speculates that Deadman, the tale of a deceased flying trapeze artist given the chance to avenge his death, would be a perfect vehicle for Guillermo del Toro, director of Hellboy, Cronos, Devil’s Backbone and others (they are probably right there I think). If you haven’t read Deadman you have probably still come across the character who crops up often in other comics, including Neil Gaiman’s original Books of Magic.
In other movie news Variety talks to JJ Abrams, the Lost, Alias and now MI3 supremo, about his plans for a revamped new Star Trek. There are few details since there is no actual script so far, let alone cast or anything else. As we reported a few weeks back the speculation is that the new Trek will centre around young Kirk and Spock’s first meeting at Starfleet Academy, which is quite risky I think since it means fans would have to accept different actors in those roles. It is a little ironic given that before Enterprise the speculation was for a new series based around Starfleet Academy. Of course, this is all still speculation and I am sure the web (including us) will be full of more of it in coming months.
“‘Star Trek’ to me was always about infinite possibility and the incredible imagination that Gene Rodenberry brought to that core of characters,” remarked Abrams in Variety. “It was a show about purpose, about faith vs. logic, about science vs. emotion, about us vs. them. It was its own world, and yet it was our world.”
Meanwhile the Hollywood Reporter picks up on news from the Bond camp, saying that the series’ producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, have already signed up new 007 Daniel Craig for the next Bond movie, months before his first appearance in Casino Royale this winter is screened. The 22nd Bond flick, imaginatively under the working title of ‘Bond 22′ at the moment, may be set to move from the more recent tradition of a big pre-Xmas opening as MGM and Sony have provisionally booked a slot for May of 2008. Still, given the flack poor Dan Craig has had for the role before anyone’s actually seen him in it, it could be seen as a vote of confidence.
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