There hasn't been much news on the Witchblade movie front recently. Last we heard Director Michael Rymer was attached, but the movie still needed a writer.
When MTV caught up with Top Cow head honcho Matt Hawkins, he said that has not changed, but they have come up with a new direction for the story to go.
"We sat down with a couple of guys, [co-producer] Platinum Studios and Marc Silvestri and I, and we banged out a three-page document that says here’s the basic story idea we want to do," said 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?" he explained.
Hawkins then name checked the other Top Cow comic that has had the movie treatment,
Wanted, as a comparison:
"You look into the feelings, the tones, and how the character acts, the thing that is the same in
Wanted is the character arc of Wesley," said Hawkins of the main character in the
Wanted movie and comic book series. "If you actually look at his journey, it’s the same arc—the circumstances are slightly different and the other characters are slightly different, but it’s the same character arc—so that's what we've been diligently working on with
Witchblade too."
"When you do a female-lead film that’s successful, they always turn it around and they say it was the effects," he explained. "People in Hollywood... When you talk to people about something like 'Underworld,' it’s always the werewolf/vampire thing and it’s not Kate Beckinsale. ... It's not that they always think a female lead film is going to fail, but... I don’t know. It’s just one of those things."
The project could lose out on some financing if it doesn't go into production soon, but Hawkins has no intention of rushing to complete the movie..
"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," he said. "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."
I like his attitude, but not so much the
Wanted comparison. Sure the character arc may have been SIMILAR, but that movie did just what he said he hopes not to do with
Witchblade. They changed it so much that it may as well have been another story all together. Fans of the comic should hope that is not the route they take.