It’s taken years, but Robert Rodriguez is finally getting his Madman movie. The filmmaker has been lusting after Michael Allred’s comic book character for at least as long as I’ve been writing pithy news stories on the internet and now Dimension Films has made the deal to turn him into a live-action character.
But Rodriguez won’t be directing the film. He’ll produce and co-write the script with George Huang, the guy who will direct. You remember George Huang, right? It’s been a while, but Huang wrote and directed Swimming With Sharks, one of the all-time great inside Hollywood movies, featuring Kevin Spacey in a classic role as a complete asshole studio exec. Since then Huang has done some TV and a movie that went nowhere, but mostly he’s been paling around with Rodriguez at Troublemaker Studios.
Madman is about a guy who is killed in a car accident. A mad scientist resurrects him, calls him Frank Einstein, and gives him super powers. He then has weird and post-modern adventures. Allred, whose wacky pop art illustrations define Madman, will be heavily involved in the making of the movie, which is going to be shot at Troublemaker in Austin. Will it be done in that Sin City style? I would bet on it – Madman really lends itself to that cartoony semi-animation method.
Two years ago it was rumored that Johnny Depp would be playing Frank Einstein. COuld this still be the case? Stay tuned for more, true believers.