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Watchmen, easily next year's most anticipated comic-book movie, is based on a graphic novel that's more than 20 years old. What Hollywood would really like is the next big thing. If studio execs can't find one they like by thumbing through publishers' catalogs, they'll create it themselves. In May, Disney announced that Ahmet Zappa, son of Frank, will head up its new Kingdom Comics, a publisher with the express purpose of developing graphic-novel film projects for the studio. This month TokyoPop, a Los Angeles-based manga publisher, announced the creation of a comics-to-films unit. Though it may be good news for any comic-book writer with a mortgage to pay, all those carnivorous studios make some comic-book fans nervous. "As soon as you start reverse-engineering the process, it's broken," says Snyder. Miller, who now needs bodyguards at comic-book conventions, cautions his industry against embracing fast nickels at the expense of good products. "You can't make a sword with more than one blade," he says. "Comic book, movie and game. It's bound to be bad at all three."
Millar, meanwhile, is giddily anticipating the opening of Wanted on June 27, even though the poopy bad guy didn't make the final cut. (Imagine the missed merchandising opportunities!) Millar views the graphic-novel-to-movies trend as being likely to stoke creativity, not stifle it. "Hollywood eats up ideas quickly, but comics come up with 300 new ideas a month," he says.
His next comic is about a 100-year U.S. war in the Middle East, with superpowered soldiers and flying Islamic fundamentalists. It's the kind of idea that would get squashed at a studio meeting, where the poor performance of all the Iraq-war movies would be trotted out. But then, Millar doesn't need anyone's green light. He just needs an artist and a pen.
Four Famous Comics Junkies on graphic novels they'd like to see on film [This article contains a table. Please see hardcopy of magazine.]
WHO Frank Miller, creator of Sin City and 300 Mark Millar, creator of Wanted Kevin Smith, director and comic-book-store owner Mike Richardson, founder of Dark Horse Comics WHAT Bone By Jeff Smith The Walking Dead By Robert Kirkman The Dark Knight Returns By Frank Miller Concrete By Paul Chadwick WHY The "fully realized adventure fantasy" is "Disney meets Moby Dick." "A chronicle of life after zombies have taken over. It should be an HBO series." "An intense, quasifuturistic, retired Batman with real-world issues." "A speechwriter is encased in concrete. Kafka meets Beauty and the Beast."