Uber-producer Jerry Bruckheimer has another project to add to his always-burgeoning slate of forthcoming features, with the news that he has signed a deal to bring artist Ashley Wood’s graphic novel
World War Robot to the big screen.
Having also spawned a toy line in addition to the comic book,
World War Robot depicts the dying days of a catastrophic, all-encompassing conflict between Earth and Mars-based human factions. Hostilities between the two sides are conducted using proxy robots, with the scrapping happening on both planets, as well as the Moon. The comic is published by IDW Publishing, who deal primarily in properties licensed from other media - such as
Transformers,
G. I. Joe and
Star Trek - but who did provide the original source series for 2007’s
30 Days of Night.
The story in
World War Robot is recounted via diary snippets from both sides - an approach bearing comparison to the structure of Max Brooks’
World War Z, an adaptation of which is also presently in development, with
Quantum of Solace helmer Marc Forster attached as director. Writing on his
blog, Wood is unsurprisingly upbeat about the proposed movie version of his book;
‘Don’t expect any changes in books or toys etc, it’s still business as normal but with a powerhouse film maker in the
WWR corner!’
Bruckheimer’s latest project, secret agent guinea pig flick
G-Force (er, it’s a burgeoning genre) is just out, and the studio behind that movie, Disney, are set to shepherd
World War Robot too.
Collider have reported that the House of Mouse have been busy hoovering up various internet domain names in recent days, with several of them pertaining to Wood’s brainchild.
Ashley Wood’s mecha designs are pretty neat and his painted art is certainly atmospheric, so it would appear the challenge for Bruckheimer’s film version of
World War Robot will be in retaining this visual quality during the transfer to the silver screen. You do wonder about Bruckheimer’s motives in snapping up this property though. Has he been feeling a few pangs of envy as old mucker Michael Bay has cleaned up at the box-office with his
Transformers movies? In the immortal words of Penry, the mild-mannered janitor; “Could be...”
Sources:
Empire,
Collider
December 02, 2008, 12:44:30 PM
