comickal: afterburning

[iainpj]

So. Back over in my original review of Afterburn, I said: ... Peculiar geography aside, this is the sort of story that feels very much as though it should have been a movie in the first place -- not because it would have been better visually (I suspect it would have been nearly impossible to make, given the extensive CGI needed to represent the flooded planet), but because you can make this sort of film move fast enough that people don't have time to think about it. It's also the sort of story that's probably going to grab people better if if it's more dynamic and kinetic...

Cue dramatic music! And ...

Tobey Maguire in for 'Afterburn':
Tobey Maguire and Neal Moritz are teaming up for "Afterburn," an adaptation of a comic book published by newbie company Red 5 Comics. Rights to the film are being picked up by Ryan Kavanaugh's Relativity Media.

Maguire would produce through his Maguire Entertainment banner and Moritz through his Original Films shingle.

The book, whose first issue hit stands in January, is a sci-fi adventure set against the backdrop of a postapocalyptic Earth, whose Eastern Hemisphere was destroyed by a massive solar flare, leaving what life remains mutated from radiation and fallout. The story revolves around a group of treasure hunters who for the right price extract such objects as the Mona Lisa, the Rosetta Stone and the Crown Jewels while facing rival hunters, mutants and pirates along the way.

Red 5 Comics was created by Paul Ens, former director of Lucasfilm's StarWars.com and Lucas Online, and Scott Chitwood, co-founder of TheForce.net and contributor to ComingSoon.net and SuperHeroHype.com. The company, based in Calgary, Alberta, began publishing its first books in the fall.

Chitwood and Ens wrote "Afterburn," which is drawn by Wayne Nichols.

Issue 2, one might point out, came out just last week. I declined to purchase. It didn't seem like it was going anywhere I really wanted to go. Maybe it'll play better in the trade as an intact whole.