George R.R. Martin's Wild Cards coming to the big screen!

[Figs]

Universal Pictures has plans to develop the George R.R. Martin superhero anthology Wild Cards for the big screen through their partnership with Syfy, says a story at The Hollywood Reporter. Now featuring over 20 volumes of short stories, the series is described by Martin on the official site as follows:

"'Wild Cards' is a shared world anthology series, set in a universe where an alien experiment unleashed a deadly virus on the human race in 1946. The virus kills nine of every ten victims, and twists and deforms most of those who survive (the jokers)… but one in every hundred gets lucky, and is gifted with the proverbial ‘powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men’ (the aces). Superpowers, in other words. Edited by George R.R. Martin (that’s me) and written by a consortium of twenty-odd (some very odd) wonderfully inventive and talented science fiction and fantasy authors, the 'Wild Cards' series made its debut in 1987 with a book titled, appropriately, 'Wild Cards'."

In addition to the anthology books, Wild Cards has been explored in comic books and in a role playing game adaptation.

Martin, best known for his "Game of Thrones" series which is enjoying tremendous critical acclaim with its HBO adaptation, notes that the film version will feature a contemporary setting, but isn't yet revealing what stories will be incorporated to the initial film. It is being eyed as franchise, however, and Gregory Noveck, Syfy Films' senior VP of production, notes that the property could expand to television as well.

All I have to say is it's about damn time. Great series, lets just hope they don't tone it down to a PG-13 rating.

 

[Duke]

I agree. It needs to have mayhem & violence, but most importantly needs to be well written as well. I'll be looking out for this one!!

 

[Ultra Lantern]

This looks interesting enough to see when it hits theaters.

 

[WarBlade]

I read the headline with a huge grin on my face. Wild Cards is a series that isn't afraid to confront the darker extremes of human society. Where the X-Men drape a thin veil of racial disharmony through its pages, Wild Cards takes bigotry head on and pulls no punches.

I also like how Wild Cards treats random mutation as literally random. A 90% mortality rate for those infected by the Wild Card Virus as they explode, evaporate, split in half or whatever, when they "draw a black queen". A 9% chance of survival as a freakish "Joker", and only a 1% chance of becoming an "Ace".

My only concern is that it might be toned down for a mature audience. The rapes, murders, and other horrific elements of the stories often play an integral role within the overall plot.

 

[Figs]

I read the headline with a huge grin on my face. Wild Cards is a series that isn't afraid to confront the darker extremes of human society. Where the X-Men drape a thin veil of racial disharmony through its pages, Wild Cards takes bigotry head on and pulls no punches.

I also like how Wild Cards treats random mutation as literally random. A 90% mortality rate for those infected by the Wild Card Virus as they explode, evaporate, split in half or whatever, when they "draw a black queen". A 9% chance of survival as a freakish "Joker", and only a 1% chance of becoming an "Ace".

My only concern is that it might be toned down for a mature audience. The rapes, murders, and other horrific elements of the stories often play an integral role within the overall plot.

I'll be pissed if they tone it down. It's for mature readers and should be kept that way. We have plenty of PG-13 films with people dealing with powers and abilities, this should be rated R like Watchmen.

Hopefully if this project does happen, they'll re-release the books since they're kind of hard to find right now. Haven't read them since middle school.

 

[Project862006]

would it need a big budget will determine if it is rated r or not

 

[Figs]

would it need a big budget will determine if it is rated r or not

There's been a fair amount of R rated films with fairly large budgets. If it needs one, that doesn't mean they'll instantly slap it with a PG-13 rating. From what I remember of the stories, it shouldn't require a massive budget, I think they can get away with a moderately sized one.

 

[WarBlade]

would it need a big budget will determine if it is rated r or not

I think it might. The more they head into Jokertown, the more you can expect to see of mutated jokers. One Jokertown mayor was a guy with a trunk for a nose that matched his skin tone and terminated in a little seven-fingered hand. He would be one of the easier characters to recreate, but consider that most jokers have body-wide mutations; featured jokers will be complex, like Bill Nighy's transformation into Davy Jones; background extras would probably be under extensive costume and prosthetics; and so on.

Example characters:
Peregrine - Beautiful joker with angel wings.
Croyd Crenson "The sleeper" - new and unique mutation every time he wakes up.
Dr. Bradley Finn - Centaur
Dorian Wilde - Right hand is a mass of oozing tentacles
Ti Malice - Gollum-like vampiric midget parasite
Chrysalis - Woman with transparent skin

More...

Basically, if you can imagine elements of Hellboy II's Troll Market creatures and Total Recall's mutant population going about their day to day lives in the poorest streets of New York, then you'd have a decent mental picture of Jokertown.

Then there are the aces, the superpowered 1% who provide even more of the central focus of the stories. With them you have the usual collection of explosions and light shows seen in better known franchises.

The creators can avoid budget blowouts easily enough, but elements that are central to Wild Cards are going to cost money if a movie is to be faithful.