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Mark Hamill to Direct a Movie? We'll Find Out More at Cannes

by Alex Billington
April 19, 2010
Source: The Wrap

Looks like everyone wants to direct their own comic book movie nowadays. The Wrap reports that Mark Hamill, better known as Luke frickin' Skywalker, excitedly revealed at an event in LA last weekend that he may finally direct a movie that's been a passion project of his for years. Unfortunately, his partners told him that he couldn't fully announce it yet because "they wanted to wait until the Cannes Film Festival." But with the little hints he did give, The Wrap seems to think it may be a feature version of his own comic book series The Black Pearl, because he did mention that it is based on a comic he wrote that's set in the real world.

Hamill also states that "at first glance it's a drama, but it has dark humor." The Black Pearl (not related to Captain Jack's pirate ship) is about a troubled man named Luther Drake who becomes a costumed vigilante "hero" by accident and media pressure. Hamill said in an old interview that the comic is "a crime thriller, fairly raw in terms of violence... about tabloid journalism and sensationalism and all the things that thrillers come from." That definitely seems like it's an interesting story, but after Kick-Ass and Defendor, how many more of these regular-joe-turns-costumed-vigilante movies can we handle before they begin to lose appeal?

The only other bit of info that Hamill revealed at the time is that the budget is around $7 million because that's right where "you don’t have to do pre-sales and you can maintain much more creative control" over a project. I guess Hamill really, really wanted to direct this himself and wouldn't increase the budget because it would require another director. The reason he's getting more offers is because "my two co-writers wrote a David O. Russell film for Paramount." He's probably referring to The Fighter, but that has a whole handful of writers mentioned on IMDb, although I'm pretty sure he's talking about Paul Attanasio and Lewis Colick.

I'm sure there'll be a formal announcement at Cannes, if everything goes as panned. Hamill did previously direct the mockumentary Comic Book: The Movie so he's got a bit of experience, but it'll be quite interesting to see if Skywalker can handle the camera as well as the lightsaber. Until we hear more next month, it's time to open up the floor to discussion. Anyone familiar with the comics? Does this have any potential?

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