Variety reports that former ‘Mr Madonna’ Guy Ritchie, currently working on the Robert Downey Jr/Jude Law-starring Sherlock Holmes movie (which is creating quite a buzz in movie circles) will be directing a film based on DC Comics’ Lobo for his next flick. The alien bounty hunter, created by Keith Giffen and Roger Slifer, was originally meant to be a pastiche of over the top action in comics but his brand of cartoony lashings of the old ultra-violence propelled him to much popularity, not least when writer Alan Grant teamed up with artist Simon Bisley for a spell on Lobo; hard to imagine a better writer-artist pairing for a humorously violent, muscle-bound anti-authority, anti-hero figure.
(Simon Bisley’s pretty definitive interpretation of Lobo, (c) DC Comics)
According to Variety Warner Brothers are aiming for a PG-13 rating in the US, so I’d imagine the violence will be suitably ridiculous rather than simply gratuitous. Production on Lobo should begin next year, a reminder, as Variety notes, that while Marvel (especially with news of the Disney deal this week) is dominating the big studio comics-to-movies adaptations right now DC and WB still have a number of projects in hand, including The Losers (which I rather fancy) and Green Lantern. According to Reelz Channel uber-producer Joel Silver is planning to use motion capture animation technology similar to Cameron’s Avatar to realise the enormous, indestructible alien bounty hunter.
Fri, Sep 4, 2009
Comics and cartoons, Film, TV and radio