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Which Comic Book-Inspired Movies Are the Best? (No Capes!)
Superheroes were in demand among moviegoers in 2012, claiming the first, second, and fifth spots on the list of the highest-grossing movies of the year, but the recent announcement that rising star Joseph Gordon-Levitt (The Dark Knight Rises) has joined the cast of Sin City: A Dame to Kill For reminded us that some of the best comic-based movies don't have anything to do with superheroes at all. A fertile ground for movie adaptations, the comic book medium encompasses every imaginable genre of fiction and even non-fiction, with stories that deal with everything from the mundane — a pair of geek girls rage against, well, everythig — to the fantastic — a secret police force exists to monitor alien activities on Earth — to the sublime — the son of a princess ventures into a magical land to recover a fallen star. Forget Batman, Iron Man and the rest for now and help us choose the best non-superhero comic book movie adaptations.
Rate the Top 10 Comic Book Movies >>
Posted 01.15.13 by BrentJS -
Earlier this week, Relativity Media and The Weinstein Company finally settled their long-standing legal issues and decided to "work together" on the in-development "re-imagining" of The Crow, and while we assumed a new director and screenwriter would be sought eventually, we had no idea that it would happen this fast.
According to Deadline, screenwriter Jesse Wigutow (Eragon) has been hired to write a new screenplay for the movie. Watchmen screenwriter Alex Tse was the last writer hired for scripting duties, but whether any of his work will end up in the movie remains to be seen.
who will direct? Posted 01.25.12 by Ryan -
After being in development since 2008, progress on Relativity Media's "re-imagining" of The Crow seemed to be on track early last year, with director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) hired to replace the departed Stephen Norrington (The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) and actor Bradley Cooper negotiating to play the lead role of resurrected rock musician Eric Draven. Then, everything changed.
First, The Weinstein Company — who produced director Alex Proyas' 1994 movie adaptation of creator James O'Barr's cult hit comic book — slapped an injunction against Relativity last April, claiming that they owned the worldwide distribution rights to The Crow and not Relativity. Four months later, Cooper left the project, citing scheduling conflicts, and Fresnadillo followed two months later.
At long last, it looks like Relativity and The Weinstein Company have finally decided that they can make more money if they work together rather than apart, issuing a statement that their legal battles, including a lawsuit that involved 2009 musical Nine, are finally over.
read the statement >> Posted 01.24.12 by Ryan -
The remake of The Crow has been gaining steam this month, starting when director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) was hired to helm the remake earlier this month. Less than a week later, Bradley Cooper was reportedly in early negotiations for the lead role of Eric Draven, the rock musician character from James O'Barr's comic book, who is resurrected by supernatural forces to take revenge on those responsible for murdering his fiancée. However, despite the progress made on the remake, a lawsuit could stall the project which was planned to start production this fall.
Deadline reports that The Weinstein Company has slapped an injunction against the remake stating that their company — and not Relativity Media, who are producing the remake — own the worldwide distribution rights to The Crow. The original, 1994 adaptation was released by The Weinstein Company's Harvey and Bob Weinstein when the siblings worked at Miramax.
both sides respond >> Posted 04.21.11 by Ryan -
Relativity Media has formally announced that Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) will direct the "re-imagining" of The Crow, based on the comic book by James O'Barr and originally adapted in 1994. The Crow follows the character of Eric Draven, who returns from the dead to avenge his wife's murder.
"Juan Carlos Fresnadillo is an incredibly talented and imaginative filmmaker," said Relativity president Tucker Tooley. "We are thrilled to have him at the helm and are excited to work with both [producer Edward R.] Pressman and [Spain-based production company] Apaches [Entertainment] on what we all believe will be a compelling and innovative re-imagining of The Crow."
more about The Crow >> Posted 04.09.11 by Ryan -
There's been scant little news about writer-director Stephen Norrington's planned new live-action feature based on The Crow comic book created by James O'Barr since it was first announced back in December 2008. Edward R. Pressman, who produced The Crow (1994) and its three sequels, is also producing the as-yet-untitled new Crow movie and said last month that Norrington had completed a "terrific" script for the movie and that an offer had gone out to a "major actor" for the lead role. Apparently, Norrington's script wasn't as polished as Pressman originally let on, because TheWrap has just reported that musician and screenwriter Nick Cave has been brought in to do script rewrites.
Announcement forthcoming about lead role actor? >> Posted 07.30.10 by BrentJS -
Director Stephen Norrington has a hit-and-miss record when it comes to comic book movie adaptations. His Blade was praised by comic book fans and performed well enough at the box office to spawn two theatrical sequels and a short-lived TV series. However, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen failed to cover its budget at the domestic box office and was almost universally panned by critics.
When it was first announced that a new The Crow movie was in the works back in December 2008, Norrington, who is writing the script as well as directing, said that his intention is to make a more "realistic, hard-edged, and mysterious" movie than director Alex Proyas' "gloriously gothic and stylized" 1994 original. Not much has been heard about The Crow since then, but Norrington recently updated the status of the movie in a brief interview with Mania.
The producer and visual effects people are crunching numbers. We've opened discussions with major cast but nothing is final yet.
Though Norrington's The Crow will be the fifth in the franchise, he said that his movie will not be a sequel or a reboot, rather a new story with new characters based on the mythology created by James O'Barr in The Crow comic book. Norrington also said that he hoped to start shooting The Crow in the summer, but that it was more likely that it would have to wait until after he directs the WWII supernatural movie The Lost Patrol.
Posted 02.21.10 by BrentJS