Looking Back #8: Warner Bros. Lobo Movie

Looking Back #8: Warner Bros. Lobo Movie

We came oh so close to getting a Lobo movie from Guy Ritchie and Warner Bros. but plans were scrapped in favor of a Sherlock Holmes sequel. Find out all the details on the project as we look back here.

Feature Opinion
By MarkJulian - Oct 01, 2011 05:10 PM EST
Filed Under: Lobo
Source: Mark Julian



Previously, I took a look at the failed attempt at a 2005 Sandman movie from Warner Bros. In the eighth installment of Looking Back, we’ll be examining a character that was absolutely dominating DC Comics during the '90s. Who you ask? I'm talking about the Main Man of course!

For this latest installment of Looking Back, we don’t have to actually travel too far back in time as we look at Warner Bros. planned big screen adaption of the Main Main, Lobo. While the movie was in development for nearly a decade, it suddenly picked up traction in 2009 with the announcement that Guy Ritchie would be following up Sherlock Holmes with Lobo.

In September 2009, Warner Bros. announced that Guy Ritchie would direct a live-action adaptation featuring the comic book character ,replacing Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Jumper) who had been attached previously. The script was penned by The Simpsons writer Don Payne (My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer). Variety described the premise as :

"Lobo is a seven-foot tall, blue-skinned, indestructible and heavily muscled anti-hero who drives a pimped out motorcycle, and lands on Earth in search of four fugitives who are bent on wreaking havoc. Lobo teams with a small town teenage girl to stop the creatures."


Ritchie was scheduled to begin production of Lobo in early 2010 and bring an "irreverent, gruff tone" to the film as he did with previous films Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. The studio was aiming for a confusing, PG-13 rating from the Motion Picture Association of America. However, I’ll give Warner Bros. the benefit of the doubt here, as The Dark Knight showed us just how far you can stretch a PG-13 rating. While many fans were questioning the choice of scriptwriter, Payne doesn’t exactly have a stellar track record, but one of the earliest quotes from Richie about the project was that he was currently re-writing the script.

Nearly as soon as the project was announced, Jeffrey Dean Morgan stated in an interview with Collider, that he would love to play the Main Man on the big screen:

Collider: Are there any other comic book properties that you have your eyes on?

Jeffrey: You know, they’re making “Lobo” right now. That would be cool. “Lobo” would be very cool. I don’t think that I’m as big as Lobo is, but if you could, like, transplant Mickey Rourke’s body on my head, that would be just great. But I don’t know. It’s an untapped world for me as well. Every time I kind of hear about something I go out and get the book or I look it up on one of your guys’ sites. We’ll see. You’re always looking for material that’s kind of smart and fun and this seems to be where it is right now. The studios are really gravitating towards it. More than I’ve ever seen them gravitate towards anything in a long time. Comic books are really the thing right now and I don’t see that going away for at least the next couple of years.

Colider:Well, you do have an in with Joel Silver doing this and doing that.

Jeffrey: That’s true. And I think that Akiva Goldsman is doing it as well. So I do have an in. I’ll be elbowing somebody soon.


Another name that was rumored to be in the mix was Clancy Brown, most famous for voicing Lex Luthor in the DC Animated Universe and portraying the villainous Krugan in 'Highlander'

. However, it should be noted that much of the early talks were about how to depict the character; “Whether to go the Del Toro Hellboy route or go for the pure motion- capture, CGI route ala Andy Serkis (Gollum). “ That’s a pretty interesting dilemma as you would have a pretty hard time finding a quality actor who also has the physicality required to do Lobo justice. However, the casting of the movie never developed past the work that Legacy Effects did making body casts and concept designs (Legacy Effects also worked on Captain America: The First Avenger and Thor, I would also strongly bet that they worked on The Avengers too). However, with Joel Silver producing both Lobo and Sherlock Holmes 2, it seems that he will probably be finding a new director for Lobo in order to clear up Ritchie’s schedule for another Holmes flick. Said Silver:

“I don’t think he’s going to do it now… The studio wants us and Guy to focus on making another Sherlock Holmes. So I think we’re going to be doing that. But we’re seeing what happens with this. Sherlock is sitting at just about $400 million in worldwide gross and showing itself to be pretty effective and pretty strong. So we’re trying to see if we can do something quickly with another Sherlock Holmes movie. We have some ideas and some good story points.”


The future of the Lobo feature film project is currently undetermined. Hmm. For all intensive purposes, it looks like the success of Sherlock Holmes cost us a Lobo movie. Still, with a recent track record of The Losers, Jonah Hex, and Green Lantern we probably wouldn’t have gotten a Lobo movie anyway. For all intensive purposes, Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel has a lot riding on it; if it doesn’t perform well, good luck getting any superheroes not named Batman out of Warner Bros.

If you need more to satisfy your Lobo fix, you can find the Lobo fan-film, The Lobo ParaMilitary Christmas Special, here.











LOOKING BACK SERIES







Lobo is a fictional character that appears in the comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appears in Omega Men #3 (June 1983), and was created by Roger Slifer and Keith Giffen. An alien, Lobo works as an interstellar mercenary and bounty hunter. Although introduced as a hardened, rarely used noir villain in the 1980s, he languished in limbo until his revival as an anti-hero biker in the early 1990s. The character enjoyed a short run as one of DC’s most popular characters throughout the 1990s. This version of Lobo was intended to be an over-the-top parody of Marvel Comics superhero Wolverine (in issue #41 of Deadpool, another Marvel series, Lobo himself was parodied in the likeness of Dirty Wolff, a large blue skinned man who drove a demonic motorcycle. He was also parodied in the Image Comics series Bloodwulf as created by Rob Liefeld).

"I have no idea why Lobo took off," Giffen once said in an interview. Referring to the 1990s incarnation of Lobo he created, he said, "I came up with him as an indictment of the Punisher, Wolverine, hero prototype and somehow he caught on as the high violence poster boy. Go figure."




Find me on Twitter: @All_Thats_Bueno
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Kokomo
Kokomo - 10/1/2011, 5:38 PM
I'm kinda glad this movie never happened - I don't think it would have been a huge draw at the box office.

With that said...

C'mon WB, bring on THE FLASH!!!
jbak368
jbak368 - 10/1/2011, 5:41 PM
Grammar police: For all INTENTS AND purposes...
jazzman
jazzman - 10/1/2011, 5:54 PM
the Lobo movie would of sucked cause the script was not that good also making a PG-13 movie out of Lobo really WB. even so Alan Grant hated the idea of a pg-13 Lobo movie. i believe Kevin Durand would of been a good Lobo.

i dont know if u guys seen this but heres Latino Review about the Lobo script





warlock
warlock - 10/1/2011, 6:02 PM
Guy richie would have done a great job. And by the way it would have made money hesa great known director. My fan cast for Lobo is the actor that played the Comedian in watchmen.
RyanLantern77
RyanLantern77 - 10/1/2011, 6:28 PM
I woulda dug it
superwolverine
superwolverine - 10/1/2011, 7:11 PM
What the heck is going on with warner Bros./DC anyway?
the only hit they can come up with is Batman and maybe their vertigo series.
RunDTC
RunDTC - 10/1/2011, 7:50 PM
I wouldn't mind Morgan as Lobo, nice choice. Richie's a good director. but the dude that wrote it can't write. you'd need a new script.
Dmon
Dmon - 10/1/2011, 8:15 PM
There should have been a forced perspective option like in Lord of The Rings and The Green Mile.
themayer88
themayer88 - 10/1/2011, 8:38 PM
gotta love Lobo=)
DannyDreg
DannyDreg - 10/1/2011, 8:48 PM
TheDesertGorilla@ I've been saying Jason Momoa should be Lobo for the longest time now! (even though I didn't get the chance to see his Conan movie)

Jason Momoa for Lobo and Bruce Willis for Vril Dox! WB should Have the 'Lobo' movie include the 'L.E.G.I.O.N.' characters and see what the general audience prefers- - hopefully we'll be able to get 2 franchises out of the deal.
JohnPaul
JohnPaul - 10/1/2011, 9:13 PM
Lobo bores the crap out of me, so I don't care.
DarrkEvil
DarrkEvil - 10/1/2011, 9:29 PM
first saw lobo on superman the animated series...main man deserves a good move...
Heres my opinion on who should play the main man...my picks are:

Jeffery Dean Morgan
Jason mamoa
Dave Batista
vermillion
vermillion - 10/1/2011, 11:08 PM
Kevin Durand as Lobo, folks. He'd pull it off easily.

Movie shoulda happened, woulda been awesome.

And where is Lobo in the new DCU? Sheesh.
ThrashLobo
ThrashLobo - 10/2/2011, 12:06 AM
Where's My [frick]ing sycky movie? i ain't need it I'm the [frick]ing main man
thegreek
thegreek - 10/2/2011, 2:14 AM
Jazzman - I only knew they were thinking of making the movie didn't know they had an outline for it ... for the most part it would have been great ... but like the review said it would have been better out in space... instead of earth. And of course it needs the R rating for it to really work
UncleTee
UncleTee - 10/2/2011, 2:33 AM
For all 'intensive purposes'? Isn't that supposed to be 'intents and purposes'?
jazzman
jazzman - 10/2/2011, 5:09 AM
@Dev7

why not Warner Bros give a obscure characters like Lobo a movie. o u remember Warner Bros/Newline Cinema produce Blade a Marvel character who was not well known a movie lol.

@Nubase

true WB/DC did do Watchmen but that was nail in the coffin for R-Rated comic book movies. if Watchmen made loads of money we would get more R-Rated comic book movie.

@ShadowVoy

The Losers and Jonah Hex failer also was Akiva Goldsman fault he producer them two movies for WB/DC. to me WB/DC are idiots to hire Akiva Goldsman cause he ruin Batman and Robin.
Sinza
Sinza - 10/2/2011, 5:11 AM
PaulRom
PaulRom - 10/2/2011, 6:03 AM
I'd love to see Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Lobo.
AC1
AC1 - 10/2/2011, 8:39 AM
A Lobo movie would be cool, but no way should he get a flick before Flash, Wonder Woman, and the Justice League.
Fogs
Fogs - 10/2/2011, 10:40 AM
Since they could make a decent looking hellboy I'm pretty sure a good Lobo is possuble.

Not PG-12 tho, plz.
Fogs
Fogs - 10/2/2011, 10:40 AM
I meant 13
Thunderkutfo
Thunderkutfo - 10/2/2011, 12:18 PM
I would've rather watched a Lobo movie than a green lantern one especially since green lantern was all f*ckered up anyway. just sayin...
RockNRollCC
RockNRollCC - 10/2/2011, 4:29 PM
Can i haz directorial responsibility of le Lobo movie?...Pweez?...
Akercocke
Akercocke - 10/2/2011, 4:42 PM
Who told them Lobo was 7'???? he's 6'4 and 304 lbs. These guys didn't made any research about the character. Lame.
Akercocke
Akercocke - 10/2/2011, 4:45 PM
*make
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