Film Version Of Classic Epic Comics Title Alien Legion Inches Forward
When I scan through my newsreader each morning, I really don’t expect to see a feature-length article about a comic series likeAlien Legionin a major US paper. The comic was one of the early efforts from Epic Comics, the direct-sales Marvel imprint that skirted the comics code beginning in the early ’80s. The comic’s concept was simple: the French Foreign Legion in space, with a rogues gallery of humans and aliens fighting alongside one another.
The title has long been on many fanboy wishlists for adaptation to film, and while things have been simmering for a long time, it seems that the heat is being turned up, if only incrementally.
USA Todayhas the bigAlien Legionarticle. (It is a major US paper, like it or not.) I’d known that the series had been optioned some time ago, and also thatDerek HaasandMichael Brandt(theWantedand3:10 to Yumaremake team) are the writers currently on board.
Without having any direct quotes saying that, yes, the film really is going to happen, USA Today’s writer (seemingly quite a fan of the comic) pushes the notion that it is very much a going concern. “Legionis painted on an immense canvas,” says former Legion artist and current Legion omnibus editorChris Warner, “and today’s effects can really carry that off. The themes and characters have a lot of depth and resonance, and ultimately that’s what storytelling is about. Good stories are always good stories.”
Yeah, OK, not a lot there. Series creatorCarl Pottsnotes that the Haas/Brandt draft is rewrite number three, and offers that the film might be a satisfying activity for producer Jerry Bruckheimer.
Bruckheimer’s never done a science-fiction before, so that challenge, I think, is something that would hold his interest. The success they’ve had with blending CGI and live-action characters inThe Pirates of the Caribbeanseries could translate easily to anAlien Legionfilm.
But again, that’s not any sort of definitive statement that the film is a priority. Am I just getting your hopes up? Probably. If it’s any consolation, I’m in the same boat. I haven’t revisited the comic series in a decade or more, but I like the ‘men on a mission’ possibilities inherent in any adaptation. I’d be happy to see an adaptation of the graphic novelA Grey Day to Die, but let’s see what Brandt and Haas are cooking up for Bruckheimer.
