In a lengthy interview with Comic Book Resources, Scottish writer and creator Mark Millar has revealed a ton of new info about both his upcoming comic book work and the big screen adaptations planned for them. You can read everything he had to say in its entirety by clicking the link below. We also have our first look at the cover to Superior #6, which you'll find alongside a ton of new preview art over at the site.
On The Current Status Of Superior And Supercrooks:
"We've got 'Superior' coming back in October, and we're double-shipping in the same month to help get it back on track. Lenil [Francis Yu] had to go and do 'Death of Spider-Man' for six issues, but now he's back full-time on the book, and the first story finishes with a double-sized issue seven in November. Then, he's jumping straight on to 'Supercrooks,' which launches in January and kicks off a pretty amazing year in the Millarworld plan. This is where I go full time with my own books and this is all the stuff I'm beavering away on at the moment. So in January, we're launching 'Supercrooks,' which is my super-villain heist book. It's a big, fun book about a gang of ex-con super-villains who wonder why everybody is always going up against Batman and Spider-Man every month, and so they head for Europe where the only comic book heroes are bloody Lucky Luke or Asterix. It's 'Ocean's 11' meets the X-Men."
On The Movie Adaptation Of Supercrooks:
"It was crazy. I'm very fortunate that all my creator-owned stuff is in various stages of movie development because it creates a lot of heat around the books. We had Timur on 'Wanted,' Matthew on 'Kick-Ass' and last year, Tony Scott bought 'Nemesis' to direct, himself. Nacho Vigalondo and I had been talking about working together for a while. he was nominated for Oscar a few years back and I'm a huge fan of his Time-Crimes movie. We met back in 2008 for lunch, but he couldn't speak English much at all. And I can barely speak English either so that made it twice as hard! But he's learned it slowly and he's pretty good now, like E.T. learning with the Speak N' Spell. Eventually, we worked out enough common language so we could get some kind of conversation going. Then the 'Supercrooks' comic got bought very quickly as a movie, and when they said 'Well, who will direct it?' I thought, 'Actually, there's a guy I'm meeting in the pub tonight and we'd been talking about shooting this in Europe outside the studio system.' We were going to make it independently maybe a year down the line, but then the studio said they'd give us a bunch of money to make it as big summer picture. So we went off to write a screenplay for them, and I'd never written a proper Hollywood screenplay before, but I figured I'd give it a shot. So Nacho came over and lived with us for a week. It could have been an absolute disaster, but his English was great by that point. We had a brilliant week, and it was kind of sad to see him go. It was kind of like adopting a Spanish child for a week, and when he left, we were all quite teary. But Nacho and I wrote the rest of the screenplay afterwards, just firing it back and forth, and we got it into the studio just last Friday. It's all been very pain-free. The comic is out in January and, all going well, the movie should be filming shortly afterwards."
On Matthew Vaughn's Next "Millarworld" Adaptation:
"At the same time, we're launching the book I've waited my entire life to do. This is a project with Dave Gibbons and it's got the potential to be the biggest of the lot. Basically, I wrote to Dave when I was at school and begged to work with him. Now, that wish has been granted and we're both working hard on it. The main character was something Matthew Vaughn and I came up with -- and he's going to be making this into a movie, as he explained on the X-Men press junket. Usually, I'm the one who spills the beans, and we were both sworn to secrecy on this, but Matthew must have been drunk or something as he gave away a chunk of info that mercifully didn't all make it to the internet. But it's really, really exciting. I'm off to Italy for a short break and then we're getting together to block out the screenplay once I get back home. I don't want to get specific about the project or even the genre, but we're going to announce everything in October. Both 'Supercrooks' and the Gibbons project launch at the same time, so all the real promos will be happening then, too."