LATEST NEWS

Director Antoine Fuqua & Gerard Butler Feeling the 'Afterburn'

by Ethan Anderton
November 15, 2010
Source: Deadline

Previously, we reported that Training Day director Antoine Fuqua was set to direct an adaptation of the 2005 Vince Flynn novel Consent to Kill. Later, we found out that Matthew Fox, Colin Farrell or Gerard Butler were in the running to lead the spy thriller. Though we haven't heard any recent developments on that project, it looks like Fuqua and Butler may end up working together on another project as Deadline reports the two are in talks to collaborate on an adaptation of Red 5 Comic's sci-fi comic book Afterburn. The story takes place a year after a solar flare burns half the surface of a planet, and treasure hunters return to retrieve what's left of value.

For a little more explanation of the comic book's story, here's the official synopsis from Red 5 Comics:

In the near future, a massive solar flare strikes the dayside of the Earth, utterly destroying the Eastern Hemisphere. Europe, Africa, Asia, India and Russia are turned into wastelands. What life remains becomes mutated from radiation and fallout. This is the backdrop for Red 5 Comics’ upcoming adventure series, AFTERBURN.

Beneath the ash, death and tragedy, treasures both modern and ancient lay unclaimed. Enter Jake and his team of “recovery experts”. For the right price, they are willing to enter the quarantine zone to retrieve items for rich Western clients. The Mona Lisa, the Rosetta Stone, the Crown Jewels — no job is too big or small. Along the way, they must face rival treasure hunters, rogue armies, pirate gangs, and hostile mutants. But as the saying goes — amid chaos, there’s profit.

Sounds like a pretty cool concept to me. Comic writer Scott Chitwood describes the series as, "Indiana Jones meets Mad Max, but instead of ancient artifacts in cob-webbed temples in traditional pulp adventure, we open up the first issue with Jake stealing the Mona Lisa from the ruins of the Louvre. That pretty much set the tone for the whole series.” Sadly, screenwriter Matt Johnson, the scribe behind Into the Blue and Torque is wrote the script, which leaves a lot to be desired. However, A Man Apart writer Christian Gudegast is supposed to do a rewrite. That's not that much better, but maybe we'll be surprised. Interested?

Find more posts: Casting, Movie News, Opinions

3 Comments

New comments are no longer allowed on this post.