So apparently Brad Peyton’s kiddie flicks (Journey 2, Kitty Galore) have earned enough dough to allow him to move into more serious, adultish properties in Hollywood. In all sincerity- good for that guy. The property he has either shown interest in or accepted an offer for is Lobo at Warner Brothers, which was originally a pre-Sherlock Guy Ritchie interest at the studio. At that point it was a film about Lobo touching down on earth to track down four intergalactic assholes, and then partnering with a hot chick for some reason. Actually, come to think of it, Lobo was basically what Thor became. Huh.
In any event, Peyton is rewriting the flick as well as directing it, though I’d expect the rating to still be aimed at PG-13, considering the director’s background (and the fact that selling this at an R-rating would be suicide). So who knows how the hell he’ll make a story about a silly, space-hog riding bounty hunter work. The character (having killed the rest of his species with a high school science project) has a similar “last man” thing going on with Superman, though I doubt he’ll be crossing over anytime soon.
My only real frame of reference with Lobo is from the Superman Animated Series, in which he was a fun, tongue-in-cheek side character that injected a little humor and comic-style immaturity into an otherwise serious-faced show. Brad Garret voiced the character in a way that nicely foiled Tim Daly as Superman, and was memorable enough that anyone else is just going to sound weird.
I dunno- if WB was doing this more, I think I might actually prefer this approach to Marvel’s. Instead of one big, more consistently bland identity, we could have a ton of one-shots and vision-driven franchises throwing all kinds of cool shit at the walls. I’d toss out crossovers in a minute (at least for most of the DCU) if it meant singular films/franchises with more unique character. Alas, WB hasn’t greenlit enough properties for that philosophy to gain any traction, and that wouldn’t be suited for the MCU anyway (don’t worry, I’m excited as shit to see The Avengers too- I just wished its prequels were better).
This sounds like an arrangement that may actually go somewhere (the Ritchie project wasn’t fated to happen), so we’ll keep you up to date.
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Source | Deadline