MTV News sat down recently with Matt Hawkins, President of Top Cow Comics, to talk about the long-rumored movie adaptation of Top Cow's Witchblade. In the interview, Hawkins insisted that the Witchblade movie is indeed still alive and kicking - financing has been secured, they've found a director, Michael Rymer (Battlestar Galactica, Queen of the Damned) - all that remains is finding a writer to hammer out the script.
To get that ball rolling, Hawkins revealed that he (along with co-producer Platinum Studios and Top Cow writer/artist/producer Marc Silvestri) prepared a three-page story treatment for Witchblade, fleshing out their vision of the film...and it doesn't follow the comic book.
Here's the quote from Hawkins:
"...It’s sort of a balancing act—it’s very different from the book, but thematically, it’s very much the same...We always say you don’t want to stay ridiculously faithful to the comic, but at the same time, if you make it so radically different, what’s the point?"
Now, a lot of us comic book fans usually start to get nervous at this juncture, hearing that adaptations of our favorite titles are going onto the Hollywood surgical table for some "light cosmetic work." To give us a more specific sense of what is going to be done to Witchblade, Hawkins compares the upcoming film to Wanted, another Top Cow comic that got a serious overhaul to its plot before it went up on the big screen. For those of you who both read and watched Wanted, how you felt about the changes made for that film is likely how you'll feel about the changes being made for Witchblade - in my case, I thought Wanted the comic was just ok, while the film was slightly less ok, but I understood the liberties that were taken.
This movie adaptation of Witchblade won't be the first time the property has been altered for consumption by the masses; there have been both live-action and anime TV series based on Witchblade, and while the live-action version adhered pretty closely to the comic (with the usual for-TV alterations), the anime version (see below) can certainly be defined as a "loose interpretation."
The original Witchblade comic was about an NYPD detective, Sara Pezzini, who comes into contact with a mythical artifact known as (duh) the witchblade, passed down to women of great will and strength throughout history (Joan of Arc, Cleopatra). In the comic's 14-year run, it has been revealed that the blade is connected to another mythical entity (which also has a film in the works), The Darkness. But I wouldn't count on any crossover films between the two anytime soon.
Speaking of long waits, Hawkins seems kinda easy-breezy about the whole push to get Witchblade in theaters - just check out this quote he gave to MTV:
"Yeah, if we don’t have it in process next year, we’re going to run
into trouble—but trouble is irrelevant. You can always just start
over...It’s certainly not a property we’re going to give up
on, we’re on issue 140 in the comics. ... But I’d rather there not be a
'Witchblade' movie or television show if it’s going to be some piece of
crap. If we're going to do it, it's got to be good."
That's a noble sentiment - let's just see if it holds true once the money starts changing hands and the spotlight starts shining their way. For the full interview with Hawkins, head on over to MTV.
Are you excited about a Witchblade movie would you want the film to stick to the source material, or is it ok to re-imagine the particulars?
Source: MTV (comic book art by Marc Silvestri)