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 (does the pic above help?) 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)
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I wish….. and don’t say it cant be done that just one time a comic book could be transferred to the silver screen completely.
There is NO reason with today’s technology it cant. The excuse of “the general public wouldn’t understand” is hogwash also. 99.9% of stories/origins etc have been done to death in literature, theater, movies, tv etc.
/ugh
Sorry….. Ironman was that one time and see what happened….
Or it was close enough for Government work.
Silvestri ‘s artwork is incredible.
It would take an actress with NO qualms about her body to pull off the “comic book” version of Witchblade. I am betting the way the witchblade bonds to the host and what it looks like, is what will be a bug part of “the change.”
Anybody watch the TV show? Did that one stick to the comic books ? I assume no…and I hear it was pretty terrible
@ogb
I remember seeing a couple of episodes, and since I don’t remember them, they must have been pretty bad.
Thanks Kahless
That’s what I thought. I think they should stick to the comic books in the visuals department. The artwork and the look of the heroine is really striking. They should at least try to capture that.
I saw numerous episodes of the TV show, but I’ve never read the Comic, so I can’t tell you if it was close or not. I never heard of a Live Action WitchBlade, this should be fun.
Look, I was/am a huge fan of the comic. I actually *really* liked the live-action TV series. It was good and amazingly close to the comic, minus the nudity, of course.
There’s no reason for them to take any more liberties than the TV series did. It worked. If they mess it up, I’m going to be pissed. Plain and simple. I’d have for Michael Turner to end up rolling over in his grave because somebody messed with one of his original designs.
well since it hasent come up, i might as well ask it .
FANCAST time
who do ya think should play the scantily clad Detective ????
and i swear if anyone says Jessica alba, i’ll….i’ll just snap.
my sugesstion would have to be rose byrne.
any one else ???????
Meghan Fox!
I kid, I kid
I always thought Rhona Mitra would make a good Witchblade.
I rented the witchblade pilot- as a film like 6-7 years ago, and is was very very bad…
Now they should be able to do witchblad good, and yes- you need a actress with no inhibitions, a sexy girl..
I guess people are going to say – megan fox soon… hmmm
I watched the tv show and although I always liked Yancy Butler ( hot!!!)
I thought the show was pretty lame.
I had checked out the comic a few times but I admit I’m no expert . I do remember being very impressed with the fantastic visual style of the comic and being enormously disappointed that ( IMO ) they completely failed to make use of that style on tv.
I think that the box office has repeatedly shown that being faithful to the source material will please ( most of ) the fans and make a lotta $$$$$$$ for the studios
I find the typical comic book style that all of the females HAVE to have huge breasts and 95% of it has to be showing to be pretty immature and makes it hard to take seriously. I mean, can it be more obvious that they are targetting horny 15 year-olds? Are the male versions of the characters almost completely naked when they’re in costume? Of course not… The look of the costume (Iron Man and other armored characters excluded) almost always needs to go through some overhauling for the big screen…
Yah, I’m sure some ancient artifact will have in mind what looks sexy for guys when it transforms its host…
Its gonna suck PERIOD.
Hmmm, I’ve never even heard of this character, but from the synopsis it sounds interesting. As long as they keep the spirit of the comic alive, you get a good movie (i.e. Batman begins, Iron Man, the 1st 2 Spidey movies). If there is gratuitous nudity or sexuality in the comic, I can almost guarantee you that most of that will NOT transfer to the movie because of the audience that will be watching. So the above outfit won’t be there, but a tight spandex suit with cleavage probably will be. NOt that I would complain about either. LOL.
Oh, and I will throw Erica Durance’s name into the ring for the lead role.
Its gonna flop like Talisa Soto and the Vampirella movie.
I want this movie to do well I’m a huge fan of the comic. Why are they changing everything though? The first arc of Witchblade (first eight issues) would make an awesome film. Marc and Matt really need to evaluate whether or not they really should do a movie if it’s going to alienate the longstanding fans.
Well, even if they adhere to the story, they definitely still need to change the costume to be less tacky…
True, but things like that are superficial the main story was excellent IMO.
Honestly, I don’t really know who to recommend for Sara Pezzini. That’s up to the audience who wants to see a half-nude woman with no stretch marks and battle scars on her as she’s beating up horny enemies. (Choose your own selection of women!) But I guess I can throw some of my suggestions in. If you just want hot people to be in the movie, then I can recommend the following with no problems to my ego whatsoever.
Joanne Alderson can be Sara Pezzini if you think about it. She was supposedly in a sci-fi as a detective and studied androids and sex droids as Bethany Montrose. She has a nice body (for you men and homosexual or bisexual women), and she has the character. I couldn’t tell you if she knew how to do combat, but I know what I provided.
I have a couple of other people to suggest, but I’ll leave it up to the people slightly interested to ask me who else.
Hi, I would like to say Jessica Alba fits the acting criteria for “Witchblade”. As for a writer I am willing to do some free hand work if interested please get a hold of me and I will work on collecting all the information I need to write a script. I am new at this so I do not expect much. I currently bot the “Witchblade” t.v. series and I am going through and watching it when I have the time. I am really interested in helping if I can at no expense. I have been a fan since I was 14 years old and I am 24 years old now. Thanks for reading, hope to hear a response back.
I saw a picture in a comic of witchblade. Looks like skimpy spaghetti strap a gun and baggie cargo pants. Has anyone considered Rebecca Romijn-Stamos? Or maybe the Chick that plays her younger self in First class? What about Natalie Portman? I have never read or seen any of the tv spots. However, if none of these spark interest may be They should stick with the girl from the TV series. I do agree that if it’s gonna be done to do it right, cause for those that are die hard fans it’ll be amazing and for those that are like me and haven’t read or seen any previous images it’ll attract attention.