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'Chronicle' Director Josh Trank to Direct Adaptation of 'The Red Star'

by Ethan Anderton
March 20, 2012
Source: Deadline

After the success of Chronicle at the box office in February, director Josh Trank has likely been fielding all sorts of offers. So far we've heard about his potential to helm a reboot of the Fantastic Four comic adapation as well as the Spider-Man spin-off Venom that would follow the shamefully used villain from Spider-Man 3. Now we can add another to his list of future projects as Deadline reports Warner Bros. has set Trank to develop an adaptation of the graphic novel The Red Star with an eye towards directing the script written by Jason Rothenberg, a relative newcomer who worked on the forthcoming adaptation of The Twilight Zone.

Here's the official synopsis of Christian Gossett's graphic novel:

Over the course of several generations, the once mighty empire known as the United Republics of The Red Star slaughtered millions of it's own people by the order of a single man. The man was their leader, Imbohl, a mighty sorcerer whose insanity turned his people's Utopian dreams into a nightmarish scheme driven by the desire to create his own immortality. Haunted by the ghosts of their nation's tragic past, the Heroes of the Red Star discover the true nature of their nation's struggle, abandon their duties as soldiers of the Red Fleet, and embark upon a quest to liberate their people from Imbohl's dark legacy.

Sounds a bit better than the typical comic book offers Trank has been fielding. Just because a director does something original with a story about super powered teens doesn't mean I want him just taking on other superhero adaptations. This sounds like it has the potential to be something original amongst the sea of comic book adaptations that are starting to take on lesser known heroes from comic books across the board. As of now, this is the only project that has led to an official deal at a studio which also has a writer working on the project. We'll do our best to keep you updated as this project develops.

Filed under Development, Movie News

From around the web:

Dfuze931

Sounds interesting. Bright future for this guy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ5hK-D8kRQ Crapola

I got the first few issues of Red Star, I remember it being one of the first comics to mix in celshaded 3d models with real drawings, so visually it was pretty interesting. The world is sort of steampunk too, but the characters dress in quite WW2 sort of outfits, it could look pretty amazing. From what I remember of the story it was fairly bleak. It could look a lot like some of the dream scenes in Sucker Punch, but with a script sorto.
http://twitter.com/stalkbrandon Brandon V. Fletcher

wasnt there a video game based on this some yrs ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ5hK-D8kRQ Crapola

I think there was yep. Here's a video that never made the game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg_SouuvNaE
Christopher Batty

Chronicle sucked. A cheap knock off of Akira.
VladTaltos

This sounds amazing! I read most of the RED STAR-comics a few years ago, and it's definitely one of the most interesting works of the last 10 years, concerning both story and artwork. The universe it's set in is a kind of retro-50s/soviet propaganda style/gritty atmosphere/technology-meets-sorcery-mixup ... sounds weird? Yeah, it is - but in a really cool, engaging way. There are a lot striking images, like a mile-long 'skyfurnace' (think of a flying aircraft carrier driven & controlled by magical rituals), burning in the sky over a bleak, war torn landscape ... Well, it's totally different to the boring superhero crap (which sadly dominates most of the movie adaptions right now) and it's worth to check it out! Frankly, i don't know if Trank's the right guy to adapt this, but it could be something really great - if you've got the visuals right, keep the story as it is and don't try to dumb it down ... I'll keep my eye on this!