HOME TRAILERS RELEASE DATES PODCASTS REVIEWS POSTERS INTERVIEWS BOB $TENCIL NEWS FEEDS ABOUT APPS

LATEST NEWS

Samuel Bayer Interested in Directing Garth Ennis' The Boys

by Alex Billington
March 2, 2010
Source: SlashFilm

With so many indie and lesser known comics being adapted (The Losers, Kick-Ass, Scott Pilgrim), they are paving the way for even more good indie comics to head to the big screen. One of them I thought we'd never see was an adaptation of Garth Ennis' The Boys, a very vulgar and adult comic about a CIA squad, known informally as "the boys", whose job it is to keep watch over superheroes and eliminate them if necessary. In an interview with A Nightmare on Elm Street remake director Samuel Bayer, SlashFilm learned that he wants to direct a graphic novel adaption, which they've just discovered is The Boys in development at Sony.

The adaptation was first announced back in 2008 with Neal Moritz (Green Hornet, Battle: LA) producing and writers Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay (Aeon Flux, The Tuxedo, Clash of the Titans) working on the script. Originally, Bayer told SlashFilm in an interview that "there's a comic book they want to make into a film [that] I'm very attracted to," but he wouldn't reveal the title. It was ShockTillYouDrop that got him to reveal that it was The Boys that he's interested in, but isn't officially signed on to yet. "There's one comic book I really dig that I want to go after that's badass. I'd like to get it, it's called The Boys." Hopefully he gets it.

Bayer explains: "It's about a group of mercenaries and they're job is to kick the shit out of superheroes who get out of line. It doesn't get any better than that. In the world of The Boys, superheroes are scumbags. My youngest brother is a comic book historian and he introduced me to a lot of graphic novels like The Dark Knight. There are some great books I don't think people have tapped into yet." I've heard it's very vulgar and contains lots of violence and sexuality, as they just go around wreaking havoc everywhere. But it looks like Samuel Bayer might be the one to finally bring The Boys to the big screen. I guess we'll know soon enough.

The Boys is published by Wildstorm, an imprint of DC Comics, and currently has five graphic novels, with a sixth one due out in May. Anyone read these graphic novels? Good for a gritty adaptation or not?

Explore tags: Hype, Movie News, Opinions

nelson

it is very violent if you have read preacher it is that violent maybe even more so
harm

more violent than preacher? This I gotta see!
Cody

Im loving that studios are starting to shoot out good superviolent gory films..Im tired of seein dust pop out of a guy when he gets shot. Id give the credit to 300 and the latest Rambo for showing studios they need to grow some balls and give us some actual action flicks.
scott

the comic 'the Boys' is amazing. it is dark, gritty and BADASS. They straight up draw the main character to look like Simon Pegg, they have a view of the super-hero community, that i think if they were real might be pretty damn true and the stories are wonderful. I have often wanted to see this brought to the big screen. here's to hoping it makes it
Jessie

The Boys is good, but Preacher is a much better storyline that should be put on HBO as a series. Also, not to be too picky but The Boys is put out by Dynamite press. I think it started with Wildstorm but when they started to rip on DC characters in the storylines, for some reason DC didn't like that. Who woulda thunk?
Colt

I'd love to see this, "The Boys" Comic series is amazing
Choker

personally I'd prefer a series as opposed to a movie, my main problem is that they will have to take so many issues and just try to smoosh them all together in a running time as opposed to a series where you could have it set over a number of episodes, plus the boys reads like it could be "the wire or the sopranos" or any general HBO style show, this whole trend of comic films i hope ends once people see how good the walking dead works as a show and how much better it fits to tell the story.