Screenwriter Mark Bomback has been hired to adapt My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way’s Umbrella Academy comics for the big screen, news which will no doubt please a huge amount of fans. I must admit to having been a bit wary of the comic when it was first announced – I’ve seen plenty of famous celebs who were given book deals on the strength of their names rather than writing ability before – but the series turned out not just to be popular with MCR fans but with many comics readers and reviewers, because it actually was good (and highly enjoyable, damn these people who are good looking and multi talented!) stuff, as Richard noted in his review.
(the young team battle a manic, robotic Eiffel Tower in Umbrella Academy: the Apocalypse Suite, written by Gerard Way, art by Gabriel Ba, published Dark Horse)
So there’s a lot of potential in there for a really enjoyable movie version and along with that the chance to perhaps interest more non comics readers into the medium as a result, which could be good for the business (I think works like Umbrella Academy, Whedon’s continuing Buffy series and Stephen King’s Stand comics have all interested people who don’t normally read comics, which is a potentially great thing for the medium, and that’s before any film version). The only possible fly in the ointment is that Bomback was also the scribe on Constantine, the big screen outing for DC’s Hellblazer, which, let’s be honest, felt pretty removed from the source material, although I’m thinking Umbrella Academy is already so accessible to a wider audience that perhaps it won’t be reworked as much (and badly) as Constantine was away from the original idea. I wonder if MCR will contribute any music to the movie version? (from The Hollywood Reporter, via Cinematical)
(what’s that, you want a picture of gorgeous Gerard to enjoy? Oh, okay then, since you’ve all behaved so well, here you are)
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