Hero Complex from the LA Times has an article up about producer Adrian Askarieh plans for a few movies, and the one that caught my eye features the very fetching Abbey Chase, Sydney Savage and Natalia Kassle – the Danger Girls as they would be known. Todd Lincoln has been attached to direct, and so it looks like the project is moving on pretty quickly. While I haven’t read any Danger Girl for a really long time, it’s still a comic that I love dearly, and I really hope they do it right.
I loved the era of Danger Girl, it was when a 2nd group of up and coming artists were making Image their home and really kicking ass while they were there. We had Joe Madureira and Battle Chasers (my favourite of the 3), Michael Turner’s Fathom (God rest his soul) and J. Scott Campbell’s Danger Girl. Joe Mad’s Battle Chasers was what got me restarted on collecting comics once again, way back in 1998 when I got my first paycheck for temping, and a comic store opened really close to my home. 12 years on, and here I am still collecting comics, and still missing more Battle Chasers.
Before I’m taken to task for being some comic book protectionist who wants to “always maintain the purity of the comic” etc etc, I personally think, that as a filmmaker, one can’t quite go out the make a comic directly into a movie (unless you’re Zack Snyder). The language of the motion picture and the language of the drawn frame can be quite different – pacing, storytelling, word bubbles are work differently. But in the end, as long as it’s a good movie, that’s half the battle won (hi, Catwoman), and the other half is really holding true to the spirit of the original work. Some things have to give (see: Avatar: The Last Airbender), but if in the end it’s not something that goes against the spirit of the book, that’s still somewhat permissible.
What worries me now, is how the producer describes Danger Girl.
I would describe it as “Kill Bill” meets “Raiders of the Lost Ark” with the “team” element of “Mission: Impossible.”
Ok, that’s not too bad, and he did mention that he’s working with J. Scott Campbell.
First of all, we are taking these characters very seriously; a kind of “Batman Begins” approach, if you will. Also, Todd has a very interesting aesthetic approach to this project, which will actually inform the tone of the storytelling and the movie as a whole. Without giving too much away, he wants to use the technology similar to that used in “Avatar” to bring Campbell’s characters and world to life and yet, at the same time, have the audience fully recognize and be emotionally invested in the actors playing those characters.
His approach, in both the look and the tone for “Danger Girl,” is what I call the anti-“Charlie’s Angels” and feels more like next-step progression from what I hear Zack Snyder is doing with “Sucker Punch,” visually speaking.
What?! I might not really remember Danger Girl that well anymore, but the anti-“Charlie’s Angels”? One thing I always figured was that Danger Girl wasn’t actually trying to be the opposite of that… in fact, it felt rather like a tribute of sorts. And the Batman Begins approach… right now what this spells for me is disaster – we’re going to get an ultra serious too emo for its own good movie with Avatar style special effects and visually copying Zack Snyder? Sounds like basically what they want to do is to copy as many people as possible and make a quick buck. It seems like Adrian Askarieh is saying that the emphasis is on the visuals. While that may be important, I think what drives Danger Girl forward is really the characters and the heart – some of us do remember how fun the adventures of Chase and gang were. His original comparisons to other movies were pretty good, but then this left swerve just really puzzles me. This is the guy who has only actually produced 1 movie that has been released so far, and that’s Hitman, and I’m quite sure I could guess why Timothy Olyphant is back doing TV (and a smashing job right now on Justified. And they also have Todd Lincoln directing – nothing against 2nd time directors, but we really have to see how The Apparition turns out. Suffice to say I’m not too enthused with horror movies either.
The full announcement will come at comiccon, and hopefully we’ll be there to find out a bit more of what they have planned. I’m just going to be really wary for now.
So Danger Girl – Thanks for the memories, I hope they don’t ruin you.
