Warren Ellis already has his Wildstorm series’ Red (with Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman) and Ocean optioned and in development with film studios but neither of those movies will feature Ellis in any writing capacity. Instead, Ellis is getting his first crack at transferring his characters from page to screen with one of his lesser known titles….
From Variety:
“Legendary Pictures plans to delve into the world of the occult with “Gravel,” picking up the rights to the comicbook series created by Warren Ellis and published by Avatar Press. Project revolves around the character William Gravel, a soldier in the British S.A.S. who uses his skills in dark magic to moonlight and battle supernatural beings for clients in order to make some extra cash. Ellis introduced the character in a 1999 limited series of graphic novels published under the title “Strange Kiss.” He will pen the initial draft of the screenplay for the pic and serve as executive producer on the project.”
Yep, Avatar do it again. They really are the little company that thinks big aren’t they? Strange Kiss and the various follow up series and then the Gravel books have been strong and steady sellers over the years and have a simple and instantly cinematic storyline. They’re just the sort of thing that you can see transferring to screen really well, especially if Ellis’ first draft makes it through the film-making process relatively unscathed. Of course, it could all go horribly wrong – after all, I can still remember the excitement when we heard that Frank Miller was going to be scriptwriting for Robocop2. It would certainly be interesting to see how Hollywood copes with Ellis’ booze, Red Bull and fag dependancy. Coke they can handle, but someone wanting to light up in public – that may be too much.
Sun, Oct 11, 2009
Comics and cartoons, Film, TV and radio