Not too long ago, I spoke to veteran comic book writer Grant Morrison about his upcoming movie "Sinatoro," a surreal, Hitchcock-influenced, psychedelic adventure that he's hard at work scripting.
After offering up all the details he could reveal about "Sinatoro," Morrison also shared a few updates on some of the other projects he's involved with these days, including the long-awaited adaptation of his "We3" miniseries, the recently announced "Joe The Barbarian" movie, and that mysterious BBC television series he's working on with "Push" director Paul McGuigan and actor Stephen Fry.
When I spoke to Morrison in April, the writer lamented the slow pace of the "We3" adaptation, which follows a trio of weaponized animals that escape a government lab. According to Morrison, the comic's high level of violence caused some problems in the development process, even though the screenplay he penned for the film was significantly less violent.
And very little has changed since our last discussion, Morrison told MTV News.
"Relativity Pictures keeps saying they're doing it, and they still haven't done it," he said. "That's where we stand right now. There's some news coming that I can't say anything about that might be good for 'We3,' but so far that's where we stand."
Morrison said he's in a similar holding pattern around his planned BBC television series with McGuigan and Fry. The mysterious series, which he said is based in local Scottish folklore, was first announced back in February.
"The BBC have just been very slow," he said. "Everything's in there right now. They're reading it again. We did a couple of tweaks on the pitch, so now we're kind of waiting to hear what happens next."
And while he wasn't able to offer much of an update on the two aforementioned projects, he had quite a bit to say about the recently announced adaptation of his "Joe The Barbarian" series for DC's Vertigo imprint. The eight-issue series follows a teenager named Joe who slips into a vivid fantasy world populated by his action figures and toy rats while fighting to survive diabetic shock in the real world.
"I've been involved since the very beginning," said Morrison of the role he's playing in the project. "I spoke to the director, but I haven't spoken to the writers yet."
Morrison couldn't reveal the project's creative team at this point, but he did explain the decision not to write the screenplay himself.
"I've been writing my own stuff and I've sold a few scripts, but nothing's actually been made yet, so it's getting a bit boring," he laughed. "I thought on this one, if we get a couple of writers who have done the job and are friendly with Warner Bros, we'll be able to get something they can sell much more quickly than if it was me up there jumping about."
"The idea was to get some other people in to get a different take on it a more Hollywood take," explained Morrison. "The writers are working on their pitch right now just trying to square it off with the director, and it all seems to be moving ahead."
