The man who won’t go away, Brett Ratner has a reason to smile these days. When better directors are looking around for projects, Ratner gets gigs even in his sleep. According to Variety, he’s about to tackle 2 new projects, one directing job and the other producing.
Reliance Big Entertainment has bought the rights to the graphic novel YOUNGBLOOD for Ratner. How nice of them to do that! Don’t they know he’s just going to mess it up like he did X-Men 3?! Some folks are just so naive.
Created by Rob Liefeld in 1992, the story is about a team of superheroes sanctioned and overseen by U.S. government… The members of the team include Shaft, a former FBI agent and archer whose bow uses magnets to propel its arrow instead of a string, Badrock, a teenager transformed into a living block of stone, Vogue, a Russian fashion model with purple-and-chalk-white skin; and Chapel, a government assassin.
In 1998, Liefeld hired Alan Moore (Watchmen) to relaunch and revamp YOUNGBLOOD. And of course, Moore’s contribution and his grim, dark, deathly writing style is considered as the one that saved this comic book from extinction in its first years after being ridiculed by critics everywhere. No word yet on whether or not Moore is going to boycott this movie too.
Keep in mind that this is not the 80s lame-o movie Youngblood starring Patrick Swayze and Rob Lowe. Some movies are better left forgotten.
Ratner’s also going to be producing another movie adaptation based on a French graphic novel FLY WIRES which will be renamed INFINITY. First order of business has been done by hiring John Collee (Master and Commander) to pen the script and Sylvain White (Stomp the Yard) to direct. Now that is an odd couple… but maybe that’s the trend these days.. to pair up directors whose resume include movies that may not be critically acclaimed but are favorites to many young people today and then combine the force with awesome writers to come up with Oscar worthy themes for the story.
Last I heard, Brett Ratner was going to direct Beverly Hills Cop 4. This is exactly why the world is blessed with aspirin for those of us who get headaches from the thought of Ratner and Eddie Murphy actually collaborating in this lifetime.
