If you thought that the comic book/Hollywood marriage was on its way out, or if you were holding your breath for the day the divorce came, you may want to reconsider and take a few more breaths otherwise, you aren’t going to make it. Now that we’re almost through adapting the big name comics and even digging through some of the minor characters, the time has come to start thinking about those shiny new stories hitting the shelves.
Sam Sarkar’s “Caliber” is one hot commodity. The premise: Arthurian legend transported to the Wild West. Hum, King Arthur as a gunslinger? I guess I could go with that. According to the official website for the comic
The Arthurian legend as retold in the American Old West, with all of its great symbolism, magic and spirit of adventure. The Knights of the Round Table are all gunslingers bound by a code of honor to protect the weak and defend the innocent until they are undone from within by their own moral corruption. In this tale, Caliber itself is a tattooed six-gun, given to Arthur by the Indians and imbued with supernatural power. The secret of the gun is that it is never loaded with bullets, but when a man with Justice on his side is holding it, it can fire. When it does, it fires Thunder itself and never misses.
Admitedly, this sounds like it could be fun. Not sure I can let go of my traditional vision of Arthur and his knights but I’m willing to give it a break at least until I check out the comic.
The real reason to even care about the comic to begin with is the announcement that the great John Woo is going to be directing a film based on the comic. Oh dear. John Woo and the wild west? I guess it could be cool but I pine for the long gone days of Hard-Boiled.
I’m waiting for the day when it’s announced that Michael Haneke is making a comic book adaptation. At the rate we’re going, it’s probably not too far down the road.
