Bruce Willis will star in The Surrogates, Disney’s big-screen adaptation of the Top Shelf Productions sci-fi series by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele.

Variety reports that production is set to begin in February. Jonathan Mostow (Terminator 3) will direct from a script by Michael Ferris and John Brancato (Terminator 3, Catwoman).

The Surrogates is set in 2054, when humans interact through robots who are idealized versions of themselves. In that “perfect world,” police detectives Harvey Greer and Pete Ford must stop a techno-terrorist who is determined to return society to a time when people actually lived their own lives.

The comic was released by Top Shelf in 2005-2006 as a five-issue miniseries, and then collected as a trade paperback.

The movie is expected to be released through Touchstone.

The New York Daily News has a Q&A up with Jeffrey Brown, creator of The Incredible Change-Bots, Clumsy and the Rom artwork in my previous post:

Are you going to be doing any more Incredible Change-Bots in the future?

JB: I don’t know. I put so much into that book, I poured all my ideas that I had for the time being into it, so I think it’s something that I might revisit at some point, but I don’t know when. The same with Bighead which came out I think 4 years ago, so I’m gonna do a few more Bighead stories. Somewhere down the road there might be some Change-Bots, it’s just I’ve got a whole line up of projects that I want to do. Once I get through those, I might have some more ideas with what to do with the Change-Bots. I did intentionally make it an obvious sequel with an open ending.

The Washington Post Express has posted more videos from this weekend’s SPX, including interviews with Fantagraphics’ Gary Groth, Top Shelf’s Chris Staros, Laika creator Nick Abadzis, and Oni’s Randal Jarrell:

Related: Reports from Liz Baillie, The Daily Cross Hatch, Jeff Lemire, Dave Kellett

Occasional Superheroine chats with Jeff Lemire, creator of the Essex County graphic novels, the second of which is out now:

OS: “Tales From The Farm” seems to be a book about defining the real “heroes” in one’s life. What is your definition or example of a hero?

JL: Anyone who does what they love, and does it for their own sake, and not by anyone else’s agenda. Weather it be a musician, comic artist, athlete, doctor, plumber, farmer …whatever.

OS: Would you ever try your hand at drawing a mainstream superhero comic, given the opportunity? If so, which character would you like to draw?

JL: I would absolutely love to draw and write a mainstream comic for Marvel or DC. I would love to take a crack at Hellblazer, The Unknown Soldier, Green Lantern, Captain America. As I said, I love all the old silver and bronze age DC stuff.