There’s little less surprising nowadays than learning that David Goyer has been attached to a comic book adaptation in some capacity. After playing an integral role in kicking off the nearly ten-year-old comic book boom, the screenwriter of Blade has been the go-to guy for studios who know they want to capitalize on the superhero craze, but don’t know the first thing about the characters. Goyer is their umbilical to fandom; even when he’s not directly involved in the process, it’s a safe bet that, at some point, he was consulted.
So when a company like New Regency happens upon an onerous title like Baltimore, or the Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire, and an even more onerous plot summary like this (courtesy of Variety)…
"[T]he graphic novel tells the story of the awakening of supreme evil on Earth. Lord Henry Baltimore is bitten by a demonic vampire bat on a WWI battlefield. The plague destroys his family, and Baltimore creates a team to hunt and fight the Red King, the embodiment of all evil."
… it’s Goyer time.
While I’m sure the illustrated novel by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden is well above average, I can’t help but roll my eyes at the shopworn "supreme evil" element or snicker at the arbitrariness of a "demonic vampire bat on a WWI battlefield". Isn’t World War I fascinating enough subject – and relatively underrepresented on film – without demonic vampire bats dive bombing the trenches?
Mignola and Golden will be adapting their illustrated novel for Goyer to direct once he’s completed Magneto. Since Magneto doesn’t appear to have a start date at present, I wouldn’t expect to see Baltimore, or the Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire (good luck with that title) until 2010 at the earliest.