Tag: Dark Horse Comics

Posted on in Film News

Blake Lively & Diablo Cody Team For ‘Lady Killer’ Movie For Netflix

We’re starting to see Netflix develop more and more comic book projects, they claim that their recent film adaptation The Old Guard starring Charlize Theron was extremely popular and they’re already working on sequel. There are even more comic projects coming.

The streaming giant is reportedly developing a feature film based on the Dark Horse Comics property Lady Killer as part of their development deal, according to Deadline. Their report reveals that Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody (Juno, Jennifer’s Body) is set to adapt the comic with Blake Lively attached to play Josie Schuller.

The plan is for Lively to play Josie Schuller. By all appearances, she is the perfect 1950’s housewife. But when she’s not catering to the needs of her family, she leads a secret life as a highly-trained killer for hire. She really likes the second job, and her husband has no idea.

Lady Killer is a comic book series written by Joëlle Jones and Jamie S. Rich, illustrated by Joëlle Jones, and colored by Laura Allred. It has been published by Dark Horse Comics since January 2015 and was nominated at the Eisner Awards as Best Limited Series in 2016.

This wouldn’t be Lively’s first brush with comic book movies as she worked with future husband Ryan Reynolds on the disastrous Green Lantern movie. Diablo Cody working again on genre projects is fantastic and I’m hopeful this leans more int he realm of Jennifer’s Body, which is an extremely underrated horror flick.

Netflix previously worked with Dark Hose Entertainment to adapt comics such as The Umbrella Company and Polar, the latter starring Mads Mikkelsen.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

George Lucas Wanted Darth Maul and Darth Talon To Be Villains of The ‘Star Wars’ Sequel Trilogy

One of the biggest issues a lot of fans of myself with the prequel trilogy is that it never really had a menacing villain and once they killed off Darth Maul, who at the time felt like was going to become the next Darth Vader was dispensed so quickly it felt like a horrible mistake on the part of George Lucas. Neither Darth Sidous and Count Dooku really measured up “great villains” feeling like Maul was wasted potential.

Well, it sounds like Lucas had plans on bringing him back for his version of the sequel trilogy that was never used by Lucasfilm/Disney.

During a interview for a new retrospective book on the prequels titled The Star Wars Archives: 1999-2005, George states that he wanted to use both Darth Maul and Darth Talon (Legends/Expanded Universe character) as the villains in the new trilogy with the latter becoming the new Vader of those films.

What looks like a page from the book with these details leaked on Reddit.

LUCAS: “Darth Maul trained a girl, Darth Talon, who was in the comic books, as his apprentice. She was the new Darth Vader, and most of the action was with her. So these were the two main villains of the trilogy. Maul eventually becomes the godfather of crime in the universe because, as the Empire falls, he takes over.”

Darth Maul got a bit of redemption from his wasted use in The Phantom Menace in The Clone Wars and Rebels becoming more of a developed character. Then reappearing in a brief cameo at the end of Solo: A Star Wars Story as a crimelord in Crimson Dawn, which seemed to mirror what Lucas had in mind for the new trilogy. Despite unverified rumors it doesn’t seem likely we’ll see the character return in the live-action realm anytime soon given that Darth Maul actor Ray Park may have posted revenge porn on his Instagram account.

The inclusion of Darth Talon is interesting since we’ve seen her pop-up in a lot of places in the Star Wars mythology and development.

Darth Talon from Star Wars: Legacy published by Dark Horse Comics

Darth Talon originally came from the Dark Horse Comics run but under Disney wouldn’t be part of canon anymore allowing Lucasfilm to use the character however they’d like. There had been development on a Darth Maul game titled Battle of The Sith Lords that included Talon in concept artwork but the project was ultimately killed after Disney acquired the company.

Darth Maul & Darth Talon concept artwork from Battle of The Sith Lords

Her journey didn’t seem to end with Disney there as unused concept artwork from Star Wars: The Force Awakens confirms that someone at Lucasfilm considered using Darth Talon in the new films but for whatever reason J.J. Abrams or Kathleen Kennedy decided against it.

Darth Talon concept art from Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Asajj Ventress, a key figure in The Clone Wars happened to be based on a rejected Sith design from the prequels but got second life in the animation side of things. It sounds like Lucas wanted the same thing for Talon on the live-action side, but it was never fully realized.

I’d personally love to see Talon get her own series which could be in the cards as Disney+ seems to be keen to develop various Star Wars shows.

SOURCE: THE STAR WARS ARCHIVES 1995-2005