Summit Entertainment has acquired the film rights to Red, the 2003 DC/Wildstorm miniseries by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner.
This option is particularly notable because it marks the first time a DC Comics title is leaving the Warner Bros./Time Warner umbrella. According to The Hollywood Reporter, it took almost two years of negotiations to pry Red away from Warner Bros.
Still, DC will remain closely involved, with senior vice president-creative affairs Gregory Noveck serving as executive produce.
A three-issue espionage-thriller, Red centers on a retired black-ops CIA agent who’s forced back into action when a high-tech assassin shows up to kill him.
The adaptation, by brothers Erich Hoeber and Jon Hoeber (Whiteout), apparently focuses on an older operative dealing with younger agents and modern technology. Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Mark Vahradian will produce the film.
Another Ellis Wildstorm miniseries, Ocean, recently moved forward at Warner Bros.
Update: Ellis comments on the sale and reported movie storyline.
June 12th, 2008 at 9:02 am
Seriously, Either Patrick Stewart or Ben Kingsley would work for this part.
June 12th, 2008 at 9:25 am
I remember liking the concept more than the actual execution (I think I had the same problem with a couple of Ellis’s Wildstorm minis) but this is still pretty cool.
And for the record, I personally think Kingsley is too old (he was pretty badass in Sexy Beast, but could he handle the phsycality?) and I don’t think Stewart is anywhere near “hard” enough.
I would picture someone more in the vein of Harvey Keitel (but not Harvey Keitel).
But how about Vin Diesel? (KIDDING!!!!)
June 12th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Definitely Kingsley.
I dunno, this seems like kind of a bad idea. The mini was a textbook on tightness, nevermind that it was very, very light on plot. I dunno how this is going to translate into a film…
June 12th, 2008 at 10:44 am
Great miniseries, but considering how it ends, it would never get made. Also, there would be too many critics asking why they simply didn’t fire a rocket into his place instead of attacking him in his home.
June 12th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
I think Bruce Willis would be perfect for this.
June 12th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
As long as it doesn’t go
the same way as Global Frequency!
June 12th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Yawn, Ellis.
June 12th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Awesome! That was a good little mini-series. Cully’s action staging was just phenomenal.
June 13th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
sounds fantastic–this was an awesome read! provided it is fathful, i see no reason why it shouldn’t make a standout adaptation!! now, is the producer really “Mark Vahradian” or mark verheiden, whose work can be found at http://verheiden.blogspot.com/
see ya’ in the funny papers,
chris