Working Title developing Astro City live action feature film

[GL's Light]

From Deadline Hollywood:

Working Title Films partners Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner have made a deal to turn Kurt Busiek's graphic novel series Astro City into a live action feature. The deal gives the prolific comic book writer Busiek his first chance to write the script. Launched in 1995, the series has a Sin City anthology vibe, set in a world crammed with superheros and super-villains. Stories are told from the vantage point of those heroes and villains, as well as the humans who get caught between them. Heroes range from Samaritan, The Hanged Man, The Apollo Eleven--a group of astronauts mutated during a moon landing--to Winged Beauty, a feisty feminist who always saves women first. The series has won multiple Eisner and Harvey Awards for Busiek, who created the series with artists Brent Anderson and Alex Ross.

Aside from his own comic creations, Busiek has written for Marvel Comics staples like Iron Man, The Avengers and Spider-Man, and for DC Comics on Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and others. He continues writing new installments of Astro City, but is also working with Alex Ross on a revival of Jack Kirby's concepts, and Busiek is launching his own urban fantasy series The Witchlands. The deal, brokered by Mosaic's Nick Harris, is worth seven-figures if the film gets made. Bevan and Fellner will produce, with Ben Barenholtz, Busiek and Jonathan Alpers exec producing. The latter trio took a crack at a movie version in 2003, but unlike the many flight-capable Astro City characters, it never got off the ground.

Astro City is a creator-owned comic book that's been published by Wildstorm, a DC imprint, since 2004. It's a superb comic book and could make for an excellent film. Here's hoping it gets made and that they do it justice.

 

[Hunter Rider]

The concept is pretty cool, I get the feeling there is a lot in it so hopefully they select just a part to make the film from as opposed to trying to cram everything in.

When looking the comic up I found this piece of art, who is this guy?

 

[GL's Light]

^^^
That's Supersonic.

 

[Heretic]

OH. MY. GOD.

During it's first few years Astro City was THE VERY BEST superhero comic on the market. Every single superhero fan should own the first few trade paperbacks or just give up the hobby. What an incredible city full of awesome characters.

I would have preferred a weekly tv series with each week focusing on a different character...but this will work.

I am officially very, VERY excited about a superhero film again!!

 

[Karelia]

I just ordered the first three volumes of this, I've been looking for something like this for awhile. I did some research on this after seeing the article SHH posted on the main page and it seems very interesting. The Confessor/Jack In The Box seem like really cool characters. Can anyone tell me the tone of the GN's? Are they all different? It seems like each graphic novel is based on a different character, am I right about this?

Anyways, I'm really excited about reading these, I can't believe I just now heard of "Astro City"

Edit- Is this really a DC movie? I thought it was IMAGE, or is that a part of DC like Vertigo is? Sorry for all the questions.

 

[GL's Light]

Edit- Is this really a DC movie? I thought it was IMAGE, or is that a part of DC like Vertigo is? Sorry for all the questions.

Astro City is a creator-owned comic that started out at Image, but has been published by Wildstorm, a DC imprint, since 2004. DC doesn't control the film rights, but it's a movie project based on a comic published by a DC imprint, in the same way that Kick-Ass is a movie based on a creator-owned comic published by a Marvel imprint.

 

[Karelia]

Astro City is a creator-owned comic that started out at Image, but has been published by Wildstorm, a DC imprint, since 2004. DC doesn't control the film rights, but it's a movie project based on a comic published by a DC imprint, in the same way that Kick-Ass is a movie based on a creator-owned comic published by a Marvel imprint.

Ah, okay. Thanks for clearing that up, GL'S Light. Much appreciated.

 

[TheWatcher]

I'm so glad to hear this! Astro City was AWESOME!

 

[Webhead2006]

could any one tell me a bit more about astro city. i dont know anything about it?

 

[Longshot777]

Is this like another Watchmen???

 

[Karelia]

I'll post an over-view of "Astro City"

The metro area of Astro City is a mecca for super-powered beings, largely because Air Ace, the first public super-hero and a decorated veteran, established residency there shortly after World War I. The series has established a large cast of characters, from small cameo roles of a few panels to full center stage attention spanning several issues.

The series is an anthology that focuses on different characters living within Astro City, using a wide range of viewpoints. Some issues are told from the viewpoint of heroes, some from the more typical vantage point of average people, others from villains and shady criminals. Stories also vary greatly in length, from one issue to sixteen in the case of the current story arc, Dark Age, whose main viewpoint remains that of Charles and Royal Williams, two brothers in their early adult years living in Astro City. As another interesting twist, this story is set in the 1970s, when some super-heroes were declining in popularity, due to general mistrust of authority figures, along with the more violent, gritty tactics that some super-heroes were practicing. Hence the notion of a "Dark Age."

The essential hook of Astro City is that it explores how people — both ordinary people and the heroes and villains themselves — react to living in their world. For example, in the first story, Samaritan reflects on his life during a typical day in which he spends almost all of his waking hours flying around the world to help people, and never has any time to enjoy the sheer physical sensation of flight. Other stories involve a date between two high-profile heroes, the initiation of a "kid sidekick" hero, the efforts of a reformed supervillain to find a life outside of prison, a superhero being driven away from Earth by his "love's" attempts to expose him, and the life of an innocent bystander in the days after having been held hostage by a super-villain.

While the focus has been on the heroes of Astro City itself, the series does mention, and at times occasionally shows, heroes from other cities such as Boston's Silversmith, Chicago's The Untouchable and New York City's Skyscraper.

I hope this helps.

 

[Gabe99]

From Bleeding Cool:
Kurt Busiek’s Astro City Movie – Midnight Movies, Coen Bros. and Opening Titles of Angel

Here’s how he became involved:

It was in 2002 or maybe even earlier that a young screenwriter named Jonathan Alpers contacted me about turning Astro City into a movie. I told him what I’d told everyone else who’d called: I wasn’t interested… He kept calling, talking me into the idea, getting me to see how Astro City might work as a movie after all. And he introduced me to legendary producer Ben Barenholtz—who, among other things, produced the Coen brothers film Miller’s Crossing, distributed Eraserhead and Return of the Secaucus Seven, brought John Woo’s The Killer to the US and even appeared in Night of the Living Dead (as “Cowboy Hat Zombie Hit by Sledge”). And Ben did the rest of the convincing.

But years passed and the project, while always being developed, was yet to be given a greenlight. Let’s skip along to last year:

In the wake of Watchmen underperforming and studios suddenly getting skittish about superhero movies (right up until an Iron Man or Spider-Man movie changed their minds again), I was thinking maybe I’d been right the first time and was perfectly content to go back to the idea that Astro City is a comic book, and that’s what it should stay. And that’s when Ben, on the advice of the Coens, showed Astro City to Working Title Films, and they liked it a lot.

A deal was made. Busiek is cautious in revealing too much about the terms of that deal – he notes that “the contracts I’ve signed seem to value confidentiality a lot” – but he’s not shy in coming forward with some teases about what happens next:

The next step is to work out what the story will be and how best to realize Astro City up on the big screen. And that falls to me, at least to begin with—I’m starting work on the initial treatment, and as I type this, am scheduled to have my first serious creative meetings on the matter next week.

That’s this week now. Best of luck, Kurt.

 

[Artistsean]

I LOVE Astro City, I cannot wait for this movie.
It will be so cool.
I hope to see Samaratin, Jack in the Box, Confessor, Alter Boy, the Honor Guard, and the rest