Del Toro to produce Deadman
20 July 2006
source: Hollywood Reporter

Fresh off the back of critical success with the fantasy horror movie Pan’s Labyrinth, Guillermo Del Toro is set to adapt the DC comic Deadman for the big screen. Deadman is a DC Comics superhero created by Arnold Drake and Carmine Infantino in the comic book series, Strange Adventures.The project will be produced by Del Toro, Don Murphy of Angry Films and Susan Montford.
“I have been producing features for first- and second-timers in Spain and Latin America, and I would to do the same here,” said Del Toro “If there is a window and an opportunity, I could end up directing but right now, I am only producing.”

Speaking about Deadman, Del Toro said “(Deadman) has great supernatural elements and is one of the more off-kilter superheroes. What I like is that it has some of the canon of horror films but it has a quest and the heroics in the more traditional superhero roots. It’s a great combination that is not very common to superheroes.”

The [Deadman] series, which could be described as a mixture of the The Fugitive and Quantum Leap, is most associated with the naturalistic art style of Neal Adams and the writing of Bob Haney, who took over from Drake and Infantino shortly after the series began.
The Adams run was reprinted in 1985 as a 7-issue series. Although he appeared from time to time in the 1970s and 1980s as a supporting character in various comics, Deadman did not get his own series again until 1986, namely a four-issue limited series written by Andrew Helfer and drawn by José Luis Garcia Lopez which followed the plot immediately after the Adams storyline. Deadman’s next major storyline was in the limited series Deadman:Exorcism in 1992, written by Mike Baron and drawn by Kelley Jones. Jones’ gaunt, zombie-like rendition of the character would later appear in the pages of Batman. There was another Deadman series in 2002, this time nine issues, as well as a couple standalone issues. His cameo appearances also continued, including several issues of Alan Moore’s run on Swamp Thing. His most recent cameo is in book two of Batman: Gotham County Line, which was released in November 2005.
The character and self-titled series have won several awards over the years, including the 1967 Alley Award for Best New Strip (by Arnold Drake and Carmine Infantino in Strange Adventures), and the 1968 Alley Award Hall of Fame (for Neal Adams).

——————————————————————————–
Big screen Doom Patrol adaptation
20 July 2006
source: Hollywood Reporter

In other news set to please DC comic fans, Warner Bros. Pictures is poised to develop The Doom Patrol. Adam Turner has been brought in to write the screenplay with Akiva Goldsman producing.
The Doom Patrol is a DC Comics superhero team created by writers Bob Haney and Arnold Drake in 1963.

The first Doom Patrol consisted of super-powered misfits, whose “gifts” caused them as much alienation and trauma as they did abilities beyond normal human beings. Although superficially similar to the X-Men, who debuted the same year, the Doom Patrol are considered one of the most unique superhero teams of the Silver Age. However, the team failed to find a large audience, and Drake killed them off in 1968.
After their apparent deaths, the team developed a cult following and several subsequent Doom Patrol series were launched. Each of these attempted to utilize the spirit, if not any of the line-up, of the first. The most successful was perhaps the 1989-1992 run by future star writer Grant Morrison. His writing utilized elements of surrealism previously unseen in mainstream American comic books.

Recently, writer/illustrator John Byrne rebooted the series, bringing back the original team without its long-standing continuity. This reboot was both controversial and short-lived, and the Doom Patrol’s continuity was restored as a result of DC’s Infinite Crisis crossover.

——————————————————————————–
Leterrier to direct The Incredible Hulk
20 July 2006
source: Hollywood Reporter

Louis Leterrier will fill the director’s chair in Marvel’s upcoming picture that will return the superhero to his comic book roots. The Incredible Hulk will be written by X-Men 2 and 3 writer Zak Penn and produced by Avi Arad, Kevin Feige and Gale Anne Hurd.
Letterier is best known for directing The Transporter, Transporter 2 and the Jet Li movie Unleashed and will be formally introduced at this weekend’s Comic-Con event in San Diego.

“His movies have humor and character depth set against fantastic action, and these aspects will be explored to the fullest extent in ‘Hulk,’ ” said Kevin Feige, Marvel Studios’ president of production.

Posted by Elgar in Movies • Add to del.icio.us Add to Digg