Black Summer Optioned aka Another Warren Ellis Comic Book Heads to the Movies

I hate to be all pessimistic on ya, but let’s face it, Warren Ellis’ “Black Summer” ain’t ever gonna get made into a live-action big-budget Hollywood movie. And without the big budget, it’s never going to be done right, which probably means it won’t get made. You’d need a “Watchmen”-sized budget to make this thing, especially if you plan on being even just a little bit faithful to Ellis’ original comic book. Of course, that hasn’t stopped the guys at the fledgling Vigilante Entertainment from optioning the comics for a possible movie adaptation anyway, so God bless them for feeling ambitious.

If you’ve never read Ellis’ “Black Summer”, it was a bloody, messy comic book about a gang of vigilante superheroes called “The Seven Guns” who got themselves all “wired” up. This results in them being able to make guns out of their asses. Okay, that’s not really true, but basically these guys went from college homeboys to Supermen (and gals) because they went through some vague surgery that allows them to fly, run fast, and in the case of one character, control floating balls that can do pretty much everything. In the world of comic books, that’s perfectly acceptable. In the world movies, well, people are going to laugh at you, so you’re looking at a major rewrite ala Mark Millar’s “Wanted”.

The storyline of the comics had one of the Seven Guns killing the President of the United States (pic below) for what he calls international crimes against humanity. Basically, Ellis’ entire run on “Black Summer” was a “Bush is Evil and should be killed” fantasy. Ellis is a pretty damn good writer, but every now and then he turns in one of these, comics that are as subtle as a fat guy in a Mack truck running you over, then getting out and telling you why he ran you over, then kicking you in the nuts for good measure. That’s what “Black Summer” felt like. On the bright side, the artwork by Juan Jose Ryp was pretty awesome.

This will be just one of many Warren Ellis comic book properties headed to the big screen. His “Red” is well under way over at Summit Entertainment, with Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman attached. “Ocean” is in development over at Warner Bros., while “Gravel” just got picked up by Legendary Pictures.

Gee, I wonder what Warren Ellis was trying to say here...