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Guy Davis'period graphic novel The Marquis is the latest Oni Press propertyto shepherded to the big screen, Comics2Film learned last week. A movieversion of the comic is currently in development with Circle of Confusion, BigBlast Entertainment and Oni Press.
A youngwriter/director out of USC named Matthew Arnold approached Oni with a pitch onthe material, which Circle's David Engel (Powers) describes as,"an Eighteenth Century vigilante movie in the aftermath of a war.
"It'sbrilliant. Matthew did a tremendous job on adapting the graphic novel into amovie," Engel told C2F.
Joe Nozemack ofOni said that the movie take is faithful to the original comics. "It's justhow to take that initial story and put it into a three-act film structureinstead of a five-issue comic structure. In the comics, a lot of them are dialogand the character's interaction with himself," Nozemack said.
"For a filmyou really need him to be interacting with other people a little bit more. But[Arnold] hasn't really changed the world that The Marquis takesplace in at all."
Davis seemedgenerally excited about the prospect of a movie version of his work.
"Overall Ithink the story of The Marquis would translate pretty good into amovie version," Davis told C2F. "Aside from the action andsword fights there's a lot of mood and suspense that I try to get across in thecomic and I think it would be a kick to see some of it on the screen."
However thecomic creator remains cautiously optimistic, with the understanding that thingsare in the very early stages and it's a long trek through development hellbefore a movie makes it to the big screen. "It's one of those things whereI pretty much just focus on my comic work and wait and see what happens with therest."
Davis has notworked with Arnold on the project yet, but Nozemack tells us the comic creatorwill definitely have some input once a script is finished.
The Oni websiteprovides this description of the work: "It was during the 18th century thatthe Ministry of Inquisition ruled over the lands of Venisalle. In the world ofThe Marquis, faith and religion are the strict laws of life and death. It isinto this world that the souls of hell have escaped to sin, murder, and be freeby taking possession of the living. During this time, a man of the Inquisitionfinds himself blessed with the ability to see into the very souls of the damnedand fight the demons withing. But as The Marquis begins his holy crusade to sendback the escapees of hell, the battle between good and evil starts to blur intoa struggle between faith and sanity."
A five-issuemini-series of The Marquis was first published by Oni Press in2001. A two-issue follow up was published last year and a one-shot is due out inMay. All told there are three large mini-series planned and three smallminis.
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