DC Comics' "Lobo" Being fast tracked...Guy Ritchie Will Direct

[Brian Damage]

Guy Ritchie will follow up his highly-anticipated "Sherlock Holmes" with "Lobo", a feature film adaptation of the popular DC Comics' series.

Don Payne ("Fantastic Four : Rise of the Silver Surfer") wrote the most recent draft of the script; Andrew Rona and Akiva Goldsman (also producing the upcoming "Fantastic Four" reboot) will produce.

Variety says, "WB is aiming for a PG-13 rating. Pic will be strong on visual effects, and Ritchie will bring the irreverent, gruff tone of past films like "Snatch" and "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels." "

The alien bounty-hunter character "Lobo" first appeared in the comic-book "Omega Men #3" and was created by Roger Slifer and Keith Giffen. Although introduced as a hardened, rarely-used noir villain in the 1980s, Lobo languished in limbo until his revival as an anti-hero biker in the early 1990s. The character enjoyed a short run as one of DC’s most popular characters throughout the 1990s. This version of Lobo was intended to be an over-the-top parody of Marvel Comics superhero Wolverine.

"I have no idea why Lobo took off," Giffen once said in an interview. Referring to the 1990s incarnation of Lobo he created, he said, "I came up with him as an indictment of the Punisher, Wolverine, hero prototype and somehow he caught on as the high violence poster boy. Go figure"

In the comics-world Lobo has clashed with Superman, encountered Batman several times, fought Aquaman, and had a run-in with The Green Lantern - though it's unlikely any of these characters will be popping up in Ritchie's film version.

"Lobo" is expected to lens early next year.

http://www.moviehole.net/200920588-ritchie-directing-lobo

[Brian Damage]

DC Comics' cult antihero franchise, Lobo, finally has a director with the recent announcement of Guy Ritchie. Now the big question: Who will play the blue-skinned, cigar-chomping bounty hunter? Watchmen's Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who is currently playing Clay in another DC Comics Silver/Goldsman production, The Losers, would like to suggest himself.

"Lobo would be very cool," Morgan told a group of reporters last week. "I don't think that I'm as big as Lobo is, but if you could, like, transplant Mickey Rourke's body onto my head, that would be just great."

Joel Silver, Akiva Goldsman and Andrew Rona are producing Lobo, and Don Payne's script is said to be ready. Originally created as a peripheral character in Keith Giffen and Roger Slifer's Green Lantern spinoff comic Omega Men, Lobo was reinvented as an antihero in the early 1990s by writer Alan Grant and artist Simon Bisley, who elevated the exaggerated biker persona to epically monstrous levels.

"[Graphic novels] are an untapped world for me," added Morgan, who made a splash this year as the Comedian in Zack Snyder's graphic-novel-based Watchmen. "Every time I kind of hear about something, I go out and get the book or I look it up on one of your guys' sites. We'll see. You're always looking for material that's kind of smart and fun, and this seems to be where it is right now. The studios are really gravitating towards it. More than I've ever seen them gravitate towards anything in a long time. Comic books are really the thing right now, and I don't see that going away for at least the next couple of years."

Considering the in that Morgan has with the production team behind Lobo, it seems the actor may have a leg up on the competition. "I do have an in," Morgan laughs. "I'll be elbowing somebody soon."