Depp will be Rex Mundi. Should Snyder direct it?

Johnny Depp’s production company, Infinitum Nihil, already has its script and an impressive lead actor in Depp himself tagged for the live-action adaptation of Arvid Nelson and Eric Johnson’s comic book series Rex Mundi.

According to Infinitum Director of Development Sam Sarkar, the studio wants a talent on the level of “Watchmen” mastermind Zack Snyder to bring the Dark Horse series to the big screen.

“We really need to find a guy who has that kind of visual style — not unlike Zack Snyder,” Sarkar told MTV News. “You need a guy that’s that kind of visionary to do ‘Rex,’ because it’s a really visually complex world.”

To be honest I really don't get the "Visionary" director thing being attached to Zack Snyder. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy his work, but both 300 and Watchmen are Frank Miller, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon's visionary work. Snyder just made very faithful adaptions of them both. That is by the by. I mention it as it just seems a bit weird.

I have not read Rex Mundi, I've seen it in the comic shops and heard it mentioned on various websites, but it does seem to have a pretty cool concept.

The series is a quest for the Holy Grail told as a murder mystery. It is set in the year 1933, in an alternate history Europe, where magic is real, feudalism persisted, and the Protestant Reformation was crushed by a still politically powerful Roman Catholic Church. All of this is woven together as "... a meditation on the prophecies surrounding the advent of the Bahá'í era.” The book takes its name from the Latin term meaning 'King of the World'. It is derived from the Cathar heresies of the Middle Ages, and taken up in works like Holy Blood, Holy Grail. Within the Cathar context it seems to have been equated with the Demiurge.

Real magic, vast conspiracies, the Holy Grail, 1930s. That all sounds cool to me. Not your superhero kind of deal, but also not the kind of thing that I would associate with a director like Zack Snyder. I think that the subject matter would work better with a director not associated with comic books. The little synopsis gives me a Ninth Gate meets The Da Vinci Code meets Angel Heart kind of vibe.

Thanks to Pam for sending me the link. Have you read the comic book? Do you think
Snyder would do it justice? Who would you like to see direct it?

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Depp's Dark Shadow may not fall on Tim Burton

Warner Bros.' big screen version of the TV vampire soap opera cult classic Dark Shadows, starring Johnny Depp as vampire Barnabas Collins, is reportedly gearing up for production, but the schedule of its rumored director Tim Burton appears to have impacted the project.

MTV recently caught up with Sam Sarkar, director of development for Depp's production company Infinitum, who advised them that Dark Shadows "is very active. ... The studio will be making some announcements regarding it pretty soon. Very soon, probably."

Sarkar was coy, however, when asked about Burton, neither confirming nor denying his involvement with the project. The reason for that appears to lie in Wonderland.

Deadline Hollywood Daily reports that the start date for filming Dark Shadows may have to be postponed because of production on Burton's Alice in Wonderland, also starring Depp, which Disney has slated for release on March 5, 2010. Unfortunately, Warners has already reserved studio space to shoot Dark Shadows, with a Depp insider telling DHD, "It is our intention to still start the movie in the fall. We're trying to work it out. ... And Tim Burton is Johnny's first and only choice to direct."

Thanks to Pam for sending me this.

Source: IGN

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Caliber - The Wild West King Arthur tale probably won't star Johnny Depp

Caliber sounds like my kind of comic book. Published by Radical Comics and written by Sam Sarkar it is a retelling of the legend of King Arthur set in America’s Wild West era. Ex'Caliber' has been turned into a gun (love the use of Caliber). Sadly I've not been able to get hold of a copy to have a read, but the artwork by Garrie Gastonny looks stunning.

A while back it was announced that Johnny Depp's Infinitum Nihil production company (where Sarkar serves as head of development) came onboard and have fast tracked the comic for the big screen with John Woo rumoured to be attached to direct it. Recently Pam, the intrepid reporter, sent me an update on it. Thanks Pam

MTV caught up with Sarkar and asked him how it was progressing.

“I just finished the adaptation of the screenplay. Between now and the Cannes Film Festival we’re setting it up.”

However, the question on most people’s minds are, first, since Depp will be producing, will he also star in the adaptation? And secondly, what’s the status on Woo’s involvement with the film?
“Johnny [Depp] will be a producer on the project, and certainly if he ever wanted to show up, shoot somebody and walk off for a day, he can do anything he wants on a movie of ours,” laughed Sarkar. “But it was never intended as a vehicle for him. ‘Caliber’ is one he doesn’t have to do.”

And as far as Woo?

“He just finished the international release of ‘Red Cliff,’ so he’s back in China,” said Sarkar. “He’s reading and we’ll see what his reaction is. We’re waiting to hear from him.”

Have you read the comic? Is it as good as the concept and artwork suggest? Will it make a good film and should Depp star in it?
Source: MTV Splashpage

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Depp is going all Western - The Lone Ranger shooting soon and Caliber comic book continues

The Midland Reporter-Telegram out of Midland Texas reported on 2-8-09 that the Texas State Railroad's new owner, the American Heritage Railway, said part of the Johnny Depp movie The Lone Ranger will be filmed on the railway in the coming months.

It's still not clear who will be playing the Lone Ranger opposite Depp's Tonto.

It was also recently announced at the New York Comic Con that Sam Sarkar’s Caliber, which along with Hercules was one of Radical Publishing’s debut books, will continue. Sarkar described the series as “King Arthur as a Western.” There is also a movie in the works, with Johnny Depp’s company producing and John Woo slated to direct.

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