One of the big announcements around the time of the C2E2 convention was that Preacher creator Garth Ennis' comic book series Crossed had been picked up for big-screen adaptation by Kickstart Productions.
The vicious comic deals with..
.. A group of survivors beset by victims of a disease that makes people engage in all manner of deranged, vile and inhumane acts upon each other. The title of the series comes from the cross-shaped rash that develops on the faces of victims.
I have read a couple of issues and its pretty damn sick. Ennis is writing the screenplay for the movie adap and chatted to MTV all about it..
"We're at the very, very early days," said Ennis' of the current status of the film, adding that his involvement beyond writing the screenplay "remains to be seen."
"I've written a screenplay — a second draft, really, So I've done that, but in terms of casting or any type of production, we're not there yet, so it's very hard to say how much I'll be involved."
So given the horrific nature of the comic, is it a possibility, like many movies adaptations, that Crossed will be toned down for the screen?
"It's hard to say [if it will be changed]. On one hand, it's an incredibly simple story, You look at it and think it would be hard to make a mess of it. In terms of content, yes, it's possible they might want to tone something down. This is one of those total unknowns when it comes to the film industry — you never know what they're going to do."
"At the moment, I'm very encouraged by everyone I've spoken to at Kickstart — they get i., They like 'Crossed' for what it is. No one has ever given me the impression they just want an image they can stick on a t-shirt, or a title without a story. They like the characters, they like the villains, and they like the notion of The Crossed. So that's encouraging. As always, it's hard to say where it will end up, though." Crossed, like much of Ennis's work, mixes a lot of elements and styles, so there is comedy, action, horror etc. Will the movie follow suit?
"In the comic, with 240 pages you can veer from humor to tragedy and back again, because you've got more breathing space and the transition won't seem as jarring, When you're talking about a shorter story, you can't really make those transitions without it being very jarring — funny one minute, tragic the next. That doesn't really work."(Tell that to George Lucas, Michael Bay, Stephen Sommers...)
"So I had to decide: is this a horror-comedy or a straight horror?" he added. "And I decided to go with a straight horror story." Sounds good. But why decide to focus on this screenplay when their are already adaptations of his earlier(better?) comics like
Preacher and
The Boys in the pipeline?
"It worked well for me because I think 'Crossed' is incredibly simple, It's such a simple story: here is the monster, here is what it looks like, and it's instantly recognizable. It only does one thing, and our heroes only have one imperative: to stay the hell away from them."
"So it's a very simple story, and I think that helped when it came to adapting it, there weren't the 200 elements that you need to deal with in a story like 'Preacher.'" I wasn't crazy about the issues of
Crossed I read but was urged to have another look by a fellow Ennis fan so I shall do that. Needless to say if your a fan of ultra violent Zombie type scenarios it should be right up your alley.
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