Here’s a few reasons why Dinosaurs Vs. Aliens can succeed where Cowboys & Aliens failed….
1. Dinosaurs are not capable of being boring. I love Daniel Craig, but an emotionless, nameless cowboy in a movie with no flavor is dull. A Tyrannosaurs Rex is never dull, even if it’s just standing there.
2. The title is actually VERSUS rather than just a dumb ampersand. It’s an aggressive suggestions of fun! and conflict! rather than flatly stated fact. People pick up on that shit…
3. Dinosaurs
4. Grant Morrison vs. The Guy Who Came Up With Cowboys & Aliens
5. Dinosaurs
I could go deeper, but you get the idea: my excitement remains as strong as on the first day this project was announced. If you don’t recall, Grant Morrison has been tapped to simultaneously write a graphic novel and a screenplay of the Dinoasurs Vs. Aliens concept for Barry Sonnenfeld to direct. According to a new interview in the Daily Record though, he’s on his second draft of that script.
The real unexpected nugget coming from the interview though, is the news that Morrison will also be churning out a screenplay about a character from 2000 A.D. (the comic that spawned Judge Dredd), the lesser-known Rogue Trooper. A blue-skinned mercenary type, he’s a genetically modified soldier capable of surviving both a vacuum and being submerged in caustic chemicals with no protection. The character is definitely new to me, but he sounds like a very weird, very comic book character. That said, Morrison was hired onto the adaptation by the company of a well-known soldierly actor with no fear of a being blue… Sam Worthington. There are few details beyond that.
Rogue Trooper seems like the kind of quirky, but gritty comic book character that may start making it to screen as Hollywood digs deeper into the obscure. Empowered by Marvel’s success with some weirder characters, and driven by an actor with a vested interest in developing starring action roles for himself, the Trooper may actually make it to the big screen rather than sit as a forgotten property for ages. And hell, with Morrison behind the script that may not be a bad thing at all.
Twitter
Comment below
Message Boards
(via Bleeding Cool)
11 comments
Yes, there is a world, a better, smarter world outside generic US superhero comics.
Rogue Trooper could be a cool movie … imagine a futuristic “saving private ryan” only he’s by himself with a sentient Gun, sentient Helmet and sentient Backpack.
(in the comic, if a comrade fell, you can take his “personality chip” out of him and “save it” in either your gun, helmet or backpack. These chips can then be re-downloaded to a new clone body)
I seem to remember there was a Rogue trooper story in Heavy Metal magazine around 89 or so. From what I can remember I liked it.
A Rogue Trooper movie?? Color me excited. Of course you could do endless movies on the stuff in 2000 AD, like an ABC Warriors movie for starters. Heck, we should be looking to do some British Comics movies, and some obscure but still popular characters like maybe Dan Dare, Tom Swift and a CGI Thunderbirds movie.
Didn’t Brendan McCarthy do some pre production art for Dan Dare? As well as Fury road years ago.
Brendan McCarthy did production design work on a Dan Dare TV series in the late 70’s. The company ATV went bankrupt after Lew Grade’s flop, “Raise the Titanic” and the Dare series was never made.
He co-wrote the script for Mad Max 4 with George Miller and did some design work about 10 years ago (when Mel was in it) but hasn’t had any involvement since. Interesting with McCarthy being a Dredd artist and the first Mad Max partially based on Dredd.
Dan Dare featured James Fox as Dare, Rodney Bewes with silver hair as Digby and for one glorious moment, Johnny Rotten as the Mekon. Other comic artists that worked on Dare were Brett Ewins and Brian Bolland. One of the original Dan Dare artists, Keith Watson, was quoted as saying they were capturing the spirit of the 50’s Dare beautifully. Unfortunately the show was canceled before airing due to Lew Grade’s mega flop “Raise the Titanic” which resulted in making ATV bankrup
Rogue Trooper would be all wrong for Worthington. If anything it will probably fit Tatum better or Hemsworth. When i saw the remake of Night of the Living Dead, I couldnt imagine anyone could look so much like Venus Bluegenes as Patricia Tallman did.
Surely this will lead to a Strontium Dog Film. I hope this new Dredd film does him justice.
No one said Worthington would be Rogue Trooper, only that his production company is developing it to an extent.
By the way the ‘Cowboys & Dinosaurs’ was an idea explored in 2000AD’s series FLESH written by Pat Mills in the 70’s. It was better too with future coboys travelling back in time to farm dinosaur meat.
There’s only one name for Rogue Trooper and that’s Ray Stevenson. The character is too grizzled for a cookie cutter All American, and the comic is bone dry. It needs a touch of weariness and the ability to sell tough.
Dude needs to make that DOOM PATROL screenplay a reality so filmmakers can give us something to chase The Avengers with.
Comments are shown as archived from the original site; new comments are closed.