Welcome back to We Want Comics, our column for the intellectual properties we want to become comic books. Following last month’s news that influential author William Gibson’s rejected Alien 3 script will become a miniseries by artist Johnnie Christmas and colorist Tamra Bonvillain, we’ve gone deep into the archives for other unproduced screenplays that could make great comic books. Here are, without further ado, ten potential adaptations:
Harlan Ellison’s I, Robot
We may be jumping the gun here, given Isaac Asimov’s collection of short stories revolving around the Three Laws have never been adapted for comic books, but you could make a worse start than adapting the late Harlan Ellison‘s rejected 1978 screenplay. Inspired by Citizen Kane, the screenplay weaved a new narrative around Asimov’s original stories following Robert Bratenahl, a journalist tracking down the elderly robopsycholgist Susan Calvin after the death of politician Stephen Byerly, her alleged lover.
The screenplay was published in 1994 with illustrations from painter Mark Zug, and a comic book would be the next step up for Ellison’s take on the material. J.K. Woodward, who illustrated “Star Trek: Harlan Ellison’s The City on the Edge of Forever” (the IDW adaptation of Ellison’s original draft of the episode), would be a worthy successor to Zug.
Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon
Stanley Kubrick’s unrealized biopic of Napoleon Bonaparte is often regarded as the greatest film never made, not least because Kubrick promised it would be “the best movie ever made.” Kubrick’s exhausting docudrama presentation of the Corsican Emperor’s whole life ultimately went unfilmed after the commercial failure of 1970’s Rod Steiger vehicle Waterloo, with the director channeling much of his R&D for the film into 1976’s Barry Lyndon.
Regardless, the project has continued to fascinate devotees of the filmmaker, with both Steven Spielberg and HBO having announced plans to turn Kubrick’s screenplay into TV miniseries, and a staged reading off-Broadway, directed by and starring French singer David Serero, was just performed this month. A Kubrick script would be a daunting task for any comic book creator, but we reckon Colin Lorimer (“The Hunt,” “The Prisoner“), would be a fine fit: his cool, collected artwork could be perfect for Kubrick’s cold, cerebral vision.
Star Trek: Planet of the Titans
Star Trek: Planet of the Titans wasn’t the first attempt to bring back Star Trek after the show’s cancellation in 1969, but thanks to spectacular concept art by James Bond production designer Ken Adam and Star Wars‘s Ralph McQuarrie (whose work inspired the look of the USS Discovery), it may be the best known aborted Star Trek project. Set to be directed by Philip Kaufman (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Right Stuff), the film would’ve had seen the crew of the Enterprise accidentally cast back in time to prehistoric Earth, and wind up responsible for the discovery of fire.
The project fell apart as Kaufman grew disinterested in the story (he began reconceiving it as a Spock solo movie), and because Paramount couldn’t make up their mind whether to revive Trek as a TV show or a movie. IDW have had many talented artists on their “Star Trek” line of comics, and adapting this script would be a perfect opportunity for Scott and David Tipton, who have written plenty of those series (including “Harlan Ellison’s The City on the Edge of Forever“) over the years.
Jorodowsky’s Dune
You can’t talk about unproduced movies, and not mention Alejandro Jodorowsky’s canceled Dune project from the ’70s, which was the subject of its own documentary, Jodorowsky’s Dune. Granted, an adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel itself is in the works, but Jorodowsky’s vision, which had an art team that included the likes of Jean “Moebius” Giraud, H.R. Giger (Alien), and Chris Foss (Guardians of the Galaxy), was so bonkers that it deserves its own take as a comic.
For example, the director envisioned spaceships “like fish that swim and have their being in the mythological deeps of the surrounding oceans […] sublime as snow crystals, myriad-faceted fly eyes, butterfly pinions, not giant refrigerators.” He also wanted to cast Salvador Dali as the Emperor, who unlike the novel, “lives on an artificial planet of gold, in a palace of gold constructed according to the non-laws of anti-logic.” Trying to follow Moebius is a tough act, but Jerome Opena (“Uncanny X-Force”), or Esad Ribic (“Secret Wars”), whose superhero art has always felt surprisingly hallucinogenic, could have what it takes.
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Hollywood is littered with unproduced scripts for films based on comic books themselves, so we were spoiled for choice with this entry. Ultimately, as disappointing it is that DC rejected a “Batman ’89” series, we’re going for James Cameron’s ’90s treatment for Spider-Man, a darker, sexier spin on the character’s origin story than Sam Raimi’s film.
Well before Titanic, Cameron was considering casting Leonardo DiCaprio as his lead, and devised two new villains for the plot who nevertheless possessed the powers of Sandman and Electro. The project fell prey to various legal troubles, with virtually every studio in Hollywood claiming a stake in Spider-Man’s film rights, and Cameron departed to make his tragic maritime movie instead. If Marvel Comics chose to dust off Cameron’s work, then Salvador Larroca would be a fine choice to illustrate it: his “Invincible Iron Man” run demonstrated his highly realistic artwork is better suited to a relatively grounded character like Spider-Man, than the sci-fi setting of “Star Wars.”
Demolition Man 2
1993’s cult classic Demolition Man, starring Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes and Sandra Bullock, marks its 25th anniversary later this year, but did you know there was a sequel planned? According to co-writer Daniel Waters, producer Joel Silver suggested casting Meryl Streep in the role of John Spartan (Stallone)’s daughter. In any case, a comic book follow-up would be a great way to celebrate the eerily prophetic film, especially if it were written by Mark Russell (“The Flintstones”), Gerry Duggan (“Analog”) or Nick Spencer (“Superior Foes of Spider-Man”), whose satirical tendencies could run wild in that world.
Indiana Jones and the City of the Gods
It was hard to pick one abandoned project from Steven Spielberg, who could have a “What If?” series for his whole filmography, from the pre-E.T. horror film Night Skies, to an adaptation of Daniel H. Wilson’s Robopocalypse starring Chris Hemsworth and Anne Hathaway. Ultimately, we’re going for Indiana Jones and the City of the Gods, Frank Darabont’s early draft of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Granted, it’s not that different from the final film (except for Shia LaBeouf, everything you hate about it is still pretty much there), but what better way to announce Marvel relaunching Indy as a comics property? And who could be a better creative team than Rob Williams and Steve Scott, who collaborated on the (confusingly named) 2008 miniseries, “Indiana Jones and the Tomb of the Gods”?
Gladiator II
After Gladiator stormed the box office and the Oscars, producers hungered to make a sequel, despite (spoiler!) Maximus’s death at the end of the film. After pondering a “multi-generational drama about Maximus and the Aurelian and this chapter of Rome” ala The Godfather Part II, Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott turned to singer/screenwriter Nick Cave (The Proposition, Lawless), who penned a deeply mystical draft where Maximus is sent back from Elysium to protect the newborn Christian faith from a now insane Lucius. The outlandish script was evidently the final nail in the coffin for the project, but it would still make a fascinating non-canon spin-off. Mike Feehan, who illustrated Mark Russell’s “Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles,” would be a suitable artist given how seriously he took that seemingly silly series.
Taxi Driver 2
Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese have been talking about a Taxi Driver sequel for over a decade now, and in 2013 De Niro confirmed screenwriter Paul Schrader had taken a shot at writing a storyline for the film. “Somehow we didn’t feel it was right and it didn’t take off,” he said. “But I’d like to see where Travis is today. There was something about the guy – all that rage and alienation, that’s what the city can do to you.” We’re not sure who could crack a script if Schrader can’t, but art wise, Aaron Campbell (“Infidel“) would be a great choice for Bickle’s nightmarish world.
Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis
Megalopolis was an epic sci-fi drama that Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola began brainstorming in 1984. Inspired by the Roman Republic’s Catiline conspiracy, the sprawling story (one draft of the script was 212 pages long) centered on the conflict between the Mayor of New York City, and a hedonistic architect, who both seek to remake the city in their own image. Producer Linda Reisman said the film would’ve explored “the big issues — New York City politics, architecture, race, the struggle between past and future — and how metaphysics ties all these things together.”
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Coppola had shot 30 hours of second unit footage by 2001, but the estimated $100 million budget doomed the art house project: the tragic events of 9/11 also left the director emotionally unable to continue with the film, and he moved onto other, smaller films. If Megalopolis ever became a maxiseries, we’d suggest James Robinson (“Starman”) or Scott Snyder (“Batman”) to hammer out a workable script from Coppola’s work, given the sense of scope and history they always imbued the cities in those titles, while Dustin Weaver (Jonathan Hickman’s “S.H.I.E.L.D.”) or Paolo Rivera and Marcos Martin (Mark Waid’s “Daredevil”) have demonstrated that they have the best eye for space and architecture in comics. Of all the projects on this list, this one has the most potential to be a masterpiece.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Be sure to let us know in the comments. Many thanks to film historians David Hughes and Simon Braund: this article would not be possible without the research in books like Tales from Development Hell: The Greatest Movies Never Made, The Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Never Made, and The Greatest Movies You’ll Never See.
