"Night Watch" Director tagged for two comics adaptations

That's right... Timur Bekmambeton, russian writer/director of Nochnoy Dozor (that's Night Watch to you, gringo!) the movie that's taken the Russian (and now american arthouse) film world by storm, will be directing not one, but two-count 'em TWO- comics adaptations: Mark Millar's Wanted and Archangel Studios' The Red Star.

okay, first of all Night Watch is the first installment of a trilogy based on the best-selling sci-fi novels by Sergei Lukyanenko. Set in contemporary Moscow, the story revolves around the conflict and balance maintained between the forces of light and darkness. In ancient times, a truce was struck, but now, things are (as they say) amiss. it's apparently really, really good (sorry... came out same week as V for Vendetta. and only in select theatres... so i missed it). probably the most highly-touted foreign film since Trainspotting or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, this film shows the director has the chops to direct films based on:

Wanted. written by Mark Millar (Ultimates, Chosen, The Authority) with striking art by the inimitable J.G. Jones (Marvel Boy). the graphic novel's premise is simple: Wesley is a white collar whipping boy (drawn by Jones to look every BIT like Eminem!) who knows his girl is sleeping with his best friend but is too much of a wuss to do anything about it. Until he finds out his long lost dad has died, passing on his legacy as the world's greatest assassin and membership in the dimension-hopping supervillain massive, The Fraternity. before long, Wes becomes The Killer, as he has inherited his pop's super-badassness (not to mention his super-hot Halle Barry lookalike sidekick/boytoy: The Fox!) and an endless arsenal of weapons. and that really is just scratching the surface (did i mention the Fraternity has long since systematically killed ALL the superheroes and taken over the world? oh... well they did.). Even if they can't get Em and Halle to star (please! please!), this will still be the jiz-oint!!!

The Red Star is a Cold-War inspired fantasy/scifi epic that immediately struck me as a natural for the fantasy videogame genre that's popular now, with its blend of revisionist political allegory, epic war drama, and gripping love story. the art (you can wake up now, i'm talking about the art!) on the comic, a blend of hand-drawn and CG, balances the fantastic technological and mystical elements with the very human drama of its characters flawlessly. in the hands of a skillful (not to mention Russian) director, this actually looks promising as a live action movie as well. Plus, it'll be produced by series co-creator Christian Gosset, so there shouldn't be any compromise of the series' great characters!

anyways, these films are far from done, so who knows... i've definitely got my fingers crossed!

holla!
samax.
www.samaxAmen.com