John Woo Packs One Big Caliber

Another day, another comic book gets made into a movie. This time it’s a re-imagining (I think you would call it) of the King Arthur and his Knights of the Roundtable legend, but transported to the Wild Wild West. Yup, Arthur won’t be wielding Excalibur in this one, but he will be throwing about heavy duty calibers. Get it? Excalibur? Caliber? Oh man, whoever came up with this comic book his genius! Ahem. The bigger news is that John Woo, still trying desperately to get that big budgeted “Red Cliff” from going over the cliff, will come on board as director.

The whole shebang was supposed to be announced at the upcoming Comic Con, but what the hey, Variety thought they’d tell you now.

Pic looks likely to be a three-way co-production of Johnny Depp’s Infinitum Nihil, Barry Levine’s Radical Comics and Lion Rock, the U.S.-based shingle that Woo runs with longstanding partner Terence Chang.

Radical Comics’ hit story sets King Arthur and his knights as 19th century gunslingers in the Pacific Northwest.

“Caliber” is unlikely to be Woo’s next pic. He is editing part two of his epic “Red Cliff” for a January release in Asia and will deliver an international version shortly thereafter.

Here’s more about the comics from the Radical Comics website:

The Arthurian legend as retold in the American Old West, with all of its great symbolism, magic and spirit of adventure. The Knights of the Round Table are all gunslingers bound by a code of honor to protect the weak and defend the innocent until they are undone from within by their own moral corruption. In this tale, Caliber itself is a tattooed six-gun, given to Arthur by the Indians and imbued with supernatural power. The secret of the gun is that it is never loaded with bullets, but when a man with Justice on his side is holding it, it can fire. When it does, it fires Thunder itself and never misses.

The comics were created and written by Sam Sarkar and drawn by Garrie Gastonny. Apparently the first issue was just released in May.