Back in January Wim reported that a brief teaser trailer was now online for The Strange Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec, a film adaptation of the turn-of-the-century adventure comics from the great Jacques Tardi, starring Louise Bourgoin (as the titular Adèle), Gilles Lellouche and Mathieu Amalric (the baddie in the last Bond movie) and directed by Luc Besson, who has varied his career from style over substance -- if enjoyable -- work such as Subway to the fantastic hitman film Leon. And of course Besson has a track record with feisty heroines -- witness his stylish Nikita. The film is due out in France next month and a new trailer has surfaced -- it isn’t that much longer than the teaser trailer Wim flagged up in January, but it does show a bit more of what to expect (link via BoingBoing).
No idea yet if and when it will get a release in the Anglophone world and given the fact Tardi’s name is not as famous with as large a readership here as it is in France I wonder if it will get a general release in the UK or if it will be on the European/arthouse circuit only, but I guess we will just have to wait to see what happens with UK screenings further down the line. For those unfamiliar with Tardi’s work I’m delighted to say that the good folks at Fantagraphics have been working on English language editions of some of his work -- You Are There (regarded as one of the earliest full-length European graphic novels) and West Coast Blues (a powerful graphic novel adaptation of Jean-Patrick Manchette’s 70s crime novel) were both released in 2009 and his It was the War of the Trenches is due for publication from Fantagraphics this spring. If, like a lot of the English-language world, you’ve not had much exposure to Tardi I highly recommend having a look at them. I’m currently having a sneak peek at Trenches, a work I’ve seen a little of in French and wanted to read in translation for quite some time and I’m sure I’ll talk more about that soon. Meantime it would also be nice to see some of the Adèle albums translated, hint, hint!
Update: George, one of our reader, has kindly left a comment with a link to Fantagraphic’s Flog where they confirm they’ve been translating Adèle for publication later this year (thanks, George!). Great news.
March 15th, 2010 at 9:31 am
Fantagraphics have already announced, in a round about way, that they’re doing those very books.
http://www.fantagraphics.com/i.....Itemid=113
I’m sure there’s more concrete confirmation somewhere but can’t track it down right now.
March 15th, 2010 at 7:39 pm
The series should be two stories per book, with a new translation from Kim Thompson, in a similar presentation to the current 3 Tardi books from FG.
March 16th, 2010 at 1:06 am
In this intervew they say ABS is on their long-term reprint list but it sounds like there are 7 or 8 volumes they want to release before getting round to them:
http://www.comicsreporter.com/.....ues_tardi/
The justification seems to be you can still get the NBM volumes at Amazon but only if you are prepared to lay out some serious cash. I imagine a movie cash-in might sharpen a few minds.
March 18th, 2010 at 10:44 am
Confirmed as out later this year – whenever the San Diego Convention is.
http://www.fantagraphics.com/i.....Itemid=113
March 18th, 2010 at 10:50 am
Thanks, George, was going to ask Fanta directly but don’t need to now! I was wondering if they’d do it as part of their very welcome Tardi translations or if it was more the sort of album that maybe Cinebook here in the UK might do. Something else to look forward to