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WIRE Buzz: Elizabeth Banks going transparent for Invisible Woman; James Bond anthology; more
Leigh Whannell's Invisible Man remake won't be the only see-through horror project coming from Universal Pictures.
According to Variety, Elizabeth Banks has been hired to direct an Invisible Woman movie based on a pitch from Banks herself. Erin Cressida Wilson (The Girl on the Train) is locked in to write the screenplay.
Despite the closeness of their titles, Invisible Woman and The Invisible Man (the latter is out in theaters Feb. 28) are not related and there are reportedly no plans for any sort of crossover between the two.
Originally hoping for a cinematic universe connecting all of its classic big-screen monsters, Universal was forced to scrap its "Dark Universe" plans after the failure of The Mummy. Nevertheless, the studio has still given the green light to several creature-oriented projects like Paul Feig's Dark Army and Dexter Fletcher's Renfield.
Banks' second directorial feature came just a few weeks ago in the form of a Charlie's Angels reboot, which she also wrote and starred in. Sadly, the film bombed at the box office with less than $50 million in grosses worldwide.
To help ring in the release of No Time to Die in April, Dynamite Entertainment is releasing a comic book anthology all about James Bond.
Titled "Reflections of Death," the publication will consist of 128 pages contributed by over 20 creators such as Andy Diggle, Mark Russell, Luca Casalanguida, Greg Pak, Gail Simone, Benjamin Percy, Jordi Perez, Robert Carey, Eoin Marron, and Kewber Baal.
"It’s an interesting thing, because I read several of the Fleming books before ever seeing a proper Bond film, and I liked that spy," said Simone in a statement. "He wasn’t incredibly noble, he didn’t have a lot of human empathy. But he was the man for the job. He was a human being who had to go to some dark places. That’s my favorite Bond. I love the stunts and glamour, I love the locations and gadgets, all of that. But the Bond I most enjoy is the guy who goes where the snakes are, so the rest of us don’t have to."
While Reflections is an anthology, all of the stories contained within it will be loosely held together by a common framing device in which Ms. Moneypenny reviews past 007 missions in an attempt to free herself from a kidnapping.
“We're incredibly fortunate to work with so many talented creators, and of course they all want to write one of the most crucial characters in modern fiction," added Nick Barrucci, Dynamite CEO and publisher. "Just in time for the new movie, for fans to enjoy a bounty of Bond too!"
Reflections of Death goes on sale in February. No Time to Die hits theaters on April 8, 2020.
With Damon Lindelof's take on Watchmen currently killing it on HBO, it's time to turn the doomsday clock back to 2003 when David Hayter was going to write and direct a film adaptation of the graphic novel for Revolution Studios. That never happened, but test footage from the failed project has surfaced and it stars Jorah Mormont as Dan Dreiberg!
Written and directed by Hayter, the nifty footage, which was verified by Hayter on Twitter, stars Ray Stevenson as Rorschach and Iain Glen as Nite Owl. The five-minute scene is one ripped straight from the comic: Dan comes home to find Rorschach in his kitchen, eating beans, talking about the Comedian's mysterious death, and theorizing about a conspiracy to kill masked heroes.
Take a look below. The music was composed by Joe Kraemer (The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then The Bigfoot).
Of course, Hayter's version never made it to the big screen and it would be another six years before the Zack Snyder version arrived in theaters with Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach and Patrick Wilson as Nite Owl.
No offense to Haley who crushed the role of Walter Kovacs, but Stevenson's take on the character is just as unsettling, if not more. Oh, and we have to give some credit for Glen's American accent as well. Just as Watchmen imagines an alternate reality full of superheroes and Richard Nixon, this footage offers us a glimpse into a world where the beloved graphic novel became a major theatrical presence years before it did in our timeline.
In the end, Hayter, who is famous for voicing Solid Snake in the Metal Gear video games, still received screenplay credit on the 2009 adaptation alongside Alex Tse.
