“World War Z” author to write G.I. Joe miniseries.
If nothing else, we should at least get a well-written G.I. Joe something, because I’m pretty sure we won’t find anything well-written in the movie. Max Brooks, Mel Brooks’s son, will write a G.I. Joe mini series coming from IDW.
“Both Chris Ryall (IDW Editor-in-chief) and I read ‘World War Z’ and we knew we had to try to get Max to write something for us. What we didn’t know is that Max is a huge ‘G.I. Joe’ fan and had expressed interest in writhing ‘G.I. Joe’ to (’COBRA’ writer) Christos Gage,” said Andy Schmidt, IDW’s ‘G.I. Joe’ editor. “Synchronicity ensued and ‘G.I. Joe’ has never looked or read so well! We’re very pleased to add Max’s vision to the ‘G.I. Joe’ canon.”
Brooks would go on to say this is a dream project for him and that he would go on to write “Different Strokes 2.5.” I think the former SNL writer is pulling someone’s leg, but quite honestly, “World War Z” was probably the best genre novel in the last couple of years. Not an hour ago, did I convince a friend to pick it up in the underground basement that is the Barnes and Noble of 86th street. The 60 Minutes style of interviewing that takes up the book is a smart approach at the satirical science fiction novel. Especially the “interviews” with the military commanders that fought the Zombie War the book that the book orally dictates. I found them to be quite well written, I can imagine that will follow-through with this miniseries, and get me reading a G.I. Joe book for the first time.
Warren Ellis and the movies.
Warren Ellis says he is writing a treatment for “Excalibur.”Well, really, he says its an “Untitled Arthurian Legend” treatment, but his producers call it Excalibur.
I’m writing a film treatment for Hollywood Gang, who co-produced Frank Miller’s 300. Hollywood Gang have previously optioned my graphic novel (with Chris Sprouse) OCEAN.
On my desk, the treatment is called Untitled Arthurian Project.
On their desk, the project is called EXCALIBUR.
And yes, it has absolutely nothing to do with his run on the X-Men spinoff book in the early 90s. Its been a long time since I’ve read anything of Ellis’s since the end of “Nextwave” and “Fell” hasn’t seen an issue in at least a year, but I did really like his short graphic novella “Crecy”. The book is about the battle of Crecy, France in 1346. It had to be one of the most thoroughly researched, and meticulously written historical graphic novels I can remember. So, given how much I liked that book, I must say this treatment could be something I’m very much looking forward to Ellis’s take on the Arthurian legends.
Internet Jesus is working with Hollywood Gang, the same people who optioned his and Chris Sprouse’s “Ocean” and produced “300.”
In other Warren Ellis movie news, the adaptation of his and Cully Hamner’s “Red” is moving along nicely. MTV’s Splash Page reports that Robert Schwentke, the director of the sci-fi romance “The Time Traveler’s Wife”, may be taking the helm of the film. Hamner, on Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman staring in the film, said:
“I have to point out that, to my knowledge, neither actor is a done deal,” he said. “And even if I’m wrong and they are, it doesn’t mean the movie will even get made.”
Regardless, I think the state of the comic book cinema landscape could use a little bit of Ellis to shake things up.
“Prisoner” remake not really a remake.
TV Squad covered the Prisoner panel which had star Jim Caviezel and producer/writer Bill Gallagher as guests. They showed a nine minute clip from the miniseries, and this is the impression blogger John Scott Lewinski had:
Also, the design of the new Village captures that creepy, soulless atmosphere of the planned housing community. The Village is evidently located in a massive desert, and its architecture wears the bland coloring and polished uniformity of the newer areas of Las Vegas or Phoenix. The only atmosphere is no atmosphere, and that was a stroke of genius by the art department.
Still, I could tell little else from the preview footage. Worse still, Gallagher had a line during the open discussion that makes me worry: “McGoohan’s (Prisoner) was about the assertion of the individual. Mine was more, ”What if the arrogance of the individual became our undoing?’”
First of all, this is still McGoohan’s Prisoner. It may be updated, but the premise belongs to him — no matter how a new writer seeks to possess and re-present it.
Second, if Gallagher’s remarks are an indication of the thematic soul of the show, it’s as far removed from McGoohan’s Prisoner as it could possibly be. I’m left with a nightmare vision of a Prisoner urging the individual viewer to act in the best interests of society or the state. Please tell me this isn’t going to be a 2009 Hollywood’s populist wet-down on a classic celebration of individual will and rights. The Prisoner should rise above current politics and examine greater themes of philosophy and civilization.
This is an intriguing observation for me. What I took away from the series, and I only recently re-watched it having seen some episodes way back in sixth grade, was about personality control. It was about conformity, and how a given society forces us to conform to values that are inherent to survive in that atmosphere. Number 2’s struggle was to break out of the conformity imposed upon him, and was about defining his own person. I feel like the show was literally the birthplace of the thought “being more than just a number” that I found was often used when deciding on colleges. Where kids wanted to go to smaller schools rather than big ones with class sizes numbering in the hundreds.
