I look at the covers for Freedom Formula and just see the Valiant / Image / Chromium era of comics come back to life. I look through the pages and see the reason I’ve barely stepped foot in a comic book store in the past five years. I see Bryan Singer’s name attached to direct a feature adaptation and just shrug. With all the other great, creatively inspiring movies coming down in the next twelve months, I can’t even be arsed to care about the post-Superman trajectory of Singer’s career.
Wikipedia describes the plot like so:
In a future where corporations rule the city states, extreme high speed
racing exosuits called Vicious Cycles (VXs) race for entertainment on
the track driven by captive members of a bloodline genetically bred
solely for speed. Zee, the son of an escaped driver, returns to the
city manipulated by his father to fulfill his fate as a savior for the
enslaved racers. Despite realizing this, Zee joins the illegal street
race known as the Freedom Formula- a path that will rush him to a fate
with an exacting price. FREEDOM FORMULA questions what freedom and
redemption truly mean.
Why isnt this anime? It’s The Fast and the Furious, with robots and better DNA.
The comic has been a potential Singer property since last summer, and New Regency has recently hired Mike Finch to write. “Mike Finch came up with an incredible take that goes deeper into the
mythology of the source material,” according to Barry Levine at Radical, publisher of the comic.
Deeper into the story of mech-racing? Oh, boy. If you need more reason to be interested, the movie will be distributed by Fox.
I’m sure there are people who love this book. If I’m totally wrong in being disinterested, feel free to tell me so.