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By Dave Gonzales on
September 09, 2009
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UPDATE: Your hopes might be crushed, DC Comics fans. Word has come down the line that this Supermax is NOT the Justin Marks Green Arrow movie re-drafted. It's a totally different screenplay that happens to share the same title. This one is just a supernatural prison break movie...
...which makes me oh-so-sad, because the Green Arrow Supermax was badass. More could probably be made of writer Christopher Allen Nelson's background in special effects, but only to provide context for this supernatural prison movie.
The good news rolled into this update is that the Marks Supermax still exists somewhere (probably in the hands of Warner Bros, who has a long-standing deal with DC Comics - which they own), we'll just probably never hear of it referred to as "Supermax" again.
Original story appears below.
If this is what I think it is, all praise be to Sony/Columbia for taking the reigns of this one. News comes from Bloody Disgusting and I really hope it doesn't end up being a rumor:
Sony's Columbia Pictures has acquired the original spec horror action script Supermax from actor/writers Christopher Allen Nelson (Kill Bill Vol. 2, The Dead Girl, The Tripper, Criminal Minds) and Mitch Rouse (Strangers With Candy, Employee of the Month, Reno 911).
This is the first time I've heard of Supermax as a "horror action script" and not "the Green Arrow script." There's been lots of talk about Green heroes these days, so I'll break it down for you - Supermax, at least the Justin Marks-written version of the script we reviewed HERE, is a DC comics movie starring The Green Arrow.
The plot synopsis of the current draft has been boiled down to remove this reference:
"Supermax" takes place in a Maximum Security Prison for the Super-Natural as a skilled guard must join forces with a lethal inmate after a riot ensues in order to fight his way through various monsters and mad-men in order to survive.
The version we heard of doesn't make mention of any skilled guard, and the "lethal inmate" could still be someone other than The Green Arrow. However, what made Supermax so cool as a spec script was its origin story peppered throughout a unique adventure where the wrongly accused Oliver Queen (Green Arrow's identity) is put in a prison for supervillains (think Arkham Asylum mixed with Alcatraz) and forced to break out before jailhouse assassins from the DC rogues gallery can kill him.
I hope the script that was just bought for six figures from Nelson and Rouse is at least similar, as DC needs to start unifying its super-person universe to keep up with Marvel when The Avengers hits.
The obvious warning light is that the news in no way mentions The Green Arrow, so the character might have been dropped from whatever version of the script just got sold. It sounds like a similar idea, just not with a recognizable character in the lead role.
Here's my problem with that: Heroes. That TV series that was good for a single season before meandering off into mediocre-ville? Heroes is what happens when you take the X-Men out of the Marvel Universe. I can't help but think that Supermax could potentially be what happens when you take DC villains like Lex Luthor, The Joker, Flornic Man, Split and Blockbuster out of the DC Universe. Similar powers, significantly lamer backstories.
But, the flick could probably work without Green Arrow. It's not like audiences need a semi-recognizable name before being able to recognize what kind of movie they are in for. Superhero and supernatural-powers films are so omnipresent these days, the appearance of DC characters might be moot.
If all things go according to plan, we'll be hearing more about Supermax before the year is out, since Columbia is prepping it to shoot in early 2010.
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Tags: Sony Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Supermax, News |
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