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David Fincher Developing Animated Version of The Goon

by Alex Billington
July 3, 2008
Source: Official Website

The last time Fight Club's David Fincher supported a movie called The Fall, it ended up being an amazing discovery. Now Fincher is a on roll scooping up various properties for big screen adaptation, the latest of which is a cult comic called The Goon. Previously Fincher announced in March that Heavy Metal would be headed to the big screen as an animated feature film being created by Blur Studios. Now we learn that Fincher and Blur Studios will be working together again to create the animated adaptation of The Goon. Considering there isn't much out there from Blur yet, let's hope they're as good as Pixar, because otherwise this and Heavy Metal sound like exciting projects that could turn out incredible.

The Goon is a comic book series created by Eric Powell in 1999. The story is about the adventures of the Goon, a muscle-bound brawler who claims to be the primary enforcer for the feared mobster Labrazio. The Goon (and his sidekick Franky) often get tied up in other machinations, often in relation to the evil zombie gangs under the command of the Nameless Zombie Priest. The series has a distinctly paranormal slant, with the average story concerning ghosts, ghouls, skunk-apes, extra-dimensional aliens, and mad scientists. AICN's Quint calls the comic "a depression-era Hellboy with an even more twisted sense of humor."

This announcement was made on the official website for The Goon yesterday. No distributor has been attached yet, but the project is being developed by Dark Horse Entertainment, an indie studio that hasn't had too many big features yet besides the likes of Hellboy and 30 Days of Night. Although I'm not at all familiar with this comic series, and I don't think too many people are, it does sound pretty frickin' cool. I'm actually convinced enough to go check it out and maybe pick up and read through a few issues. I guess that's what happens when you throw around David Fincher's name. For now I'm just anxious to see some real footage from this and Heavy Metal before saying much else. Thoughts?

Filed under Indies, Movie News, Opinions

From around the web:

Colin (brother of Mike) Hunt

Simply because you're not familiar with The Goon does not mean that there aren't plenty of folks out there who are familiar with it. And there are. It's a fantastic comic book, but I have my doubts about turning it into animation. We'll see.
http://www.firstshowing.net Alex Billington

Oh I know Colin, it's just a cult comic, so I didn't know how many were out there or if they read this site... Glad you dig the comic! As you said, let's just hope it turns out great as an animated movie...
Gary Norton, London

I found more out about Blur studios after seeing a 10 minute animated short called Rockfish. A superb spin on the art of deep sea fishing. They are no way near as big as Pixar (but who is) and the shorter format stories and different types of animation styles will perfectly suit the Heavy Metal format. It will also blow the very poor quality animation of the original movie out of the water. Finchers involvement means they have the budget to make a decent movie-and the added news that "The Goon" has a green light is great. Have a look for Blur Studios and you will see exactly what I mean- they are very creative!
Goudos

The animation is only half the film. Yes, its important, but what makes the Pixar films work better than other animated films is Pixar creates characters and story, not just flash. The overall narrative of Finding Nemo didn't have to be an animated movie about fish. So with that in mind, Fincher attached to the Goon is a great deal. It migh not be as flashy of animation, but it might have character and that's what counts. By the way, the animation for the original Heavy Metal is dated, but its what, almost 30 years old now, so give it some slack. In 30 years Wall-E is going to look like a Woodie the Woodpecker cartoon.
http://www.team-dignitas.org MrDogbert

I hope he just starts work on rama over this.
Jonathan

Sweet knife to the eye! My heart just skipped a beat. I just hope they do the comic justice. I discovered the Goon a year or two ago and soon had to get my hands on every issue and trade I could get. It's one of the few comics I could get my girlfriend to actually sit down and read (A true testament to the Goon's appeal, let me tell you!). The artwork, storytelling and humor of the Goon all come together to form something very unique and fresh. Several of the comics are crazy stand-alone type stories that don't affect the overall plot, but after reading a few issues, the mythology of the Goon comes into focus - and it's surprisingly involving and pretty durn interesting! The moods that Eric Powell (The Goon's creator/artist/writer) sets to page range from tragic to terrifying and make you genuinely feel for the characters involved. If you haven't read this comic, I highly recommend it!
Nick

This is great news. Goon is one of the best comics to come around in a long time. I wouldn't call it a cult comic at this stage. Maybe back in 2001 or earlier. Eric Powell has won awards for his work and I believe it's a very popular book. As far as comics go that don't start with X or Bat. To clarify some points in this article. Dark Horse is hardly an indie comic company. They handle many of the major licensed properties, Star Wars, Aliens, Buffy, and Firefly. And as far as feature films, they have published the comics that lead to 300, The Mask, Sin City, and Hellboy. They did not publish 30 Days of Night. Other properties, such as Madman have been in development hell for YEARS. And one last point, just because you haven't heard of Blur doesn't mean they haven't been working for MANY years doing some really top notch videogame cinematics, such as this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cWnuxLbc34 I've heard that they have been trying to get into long form animation, and this sounds like a great step.
Curtis

never heard of the comic but it sounds interesting enough lets hope blur studios can pull it off.
http://handfulofwires.blogspot.com DCompose

I love The Goon.
Ajax

Sweet! The Goon is an awesome comic book, and I can't wait for the movie.
cam

blur is one of the premiere game cinematics companies with much outstanding work, they have also done a couple of short films that could easily match if not better pixars shorts. Fincher and Blur sound like a great team. cant wait!