The run up to Comic-Con international saw many comics-to-film deals being announced. At the top of the list was an independent production of "GearHead", the new comic created by writer Dennis Hopeless and artist Kevin Mellon, and published by Arcana.
Comics2Film spoke with Hopeless at Comic-Con about the success of his new comic, which announced an indie film production deal just before the show.
The elevator pitch:
"'GearHead' is essentially a female 'Mad Max' driving around in a post-apocalyptic desert, beating superheroes with a wrench," Hopeless told us.
Of course, reading through the first three issues of the comic, one discovers deftly realized characters immersed in a much richer world than that is described by that simple premise.
"GearHead" takes place in a world that has super heroes and super villains. A cataclysmic war between the super powers leaves the United States fractured and devastated.
"The Superheroes won, as superheroes do, and they used that military victory to seize political power," explains Hopeless. "Now the Superheroes run these super cities. Inside the cities there's no crime, no drugs, no smoking, no internal combustion engines. Everything is clean and green and happy."
Those who don't wish to live in a tightly controlled utopia are left to the wastelands between the cities, where the defeated super villains roam.
"Our main character, Shelby, she likes to drive fast cars that burn a lot of fuel so, she races cars and fixes cars in the outskirts," said Hopeless.
Last year, as Hopeless and Mellon were preparing to pitch their concept around, early artwork landed in front of Arcana Comics founder Sean O'Reilly. O'Reilly snatched it up immediately.
However, don't think for a minute that this was a lucky hit by first-time comic creators. Hopeless and Mellon have been honing their craft for years.
"Kevin and I had done a couple of projects before this that didn't get published," Hopeless said. "He told me he didn't care what we did next, as long as it was an action story, and he wanted a female lead."
The first issue was published in January. Prior to that, O'Reilly showed the book around to his Hollywood contacts. One of those contacts was writer-director Cory Kinney who got excited about the project. Darius Films picked up the rights for the director. At least that's the short version. Here's how the process looked from Hopeless' perspective.
"The way that it works: you get an email that blows your mind. You get really excited about it. Then you have eight to twelve weeks of absolutely nothing. No response. No one says anything. It gets to the point where you've completely forgotten about it, or assume that everything has gone to shit.
"Then you get another email that blows your mind. That's the process of the past eight or nine months."
As an independent movie, the budget for the film likely won't be of Michael Bay proportions, which means some elements may have to be retooled. For example, the presence or appearance of the super heroes may be altered. Still Hopeless seems satisfied that the movie is in good hands and that he and Mellon are involved.
"The process has been going on since November. Cory sent us a beat sheet of what he was thinking, a breakdown of each scene in paragraph form of what he was thinking about doing with the movie. We've been emailing back and forth," Hopeless said. "He's asking me about character stuff and changes he might want to make and places he wants to go beyond what we did."
Hopeless is also well aware that many comics are put into development as movies that never get made, but feels things look favorable with Darius Films.
"This is the size of studio that doesn't really take on a project unless they're really interested in doing it. Not some Hollywood thing where they buy up a bunch of options and maybe they do them. At this point, they optioned it because they want to make the movie," Hopeless said. "My understanding is, it's full steam ahead, but it is early in the process."
We asked the writer who he'd cast in lead role of the hard-hitting, fast-driving Shelby if he could land any actress in the world.
"It's hard because when I think Shelby I think of Kevin's drawing of Shelby, and a good friend of mine whose voice I stole for Shelby. So it's difficult for me to see anybody else in the part," the writer admitted, before musing, "There are a lot of actresses who'd be really good at it. It needs to be someone who looks like she could hit you in the mouth with a wrench, but still looks good without makeup on."
The fourth and final issue of the first "GearHead" mini-series arrived in comic shops this week. If you haven't read the book, Comics2Film gives it our highest recommendation. Movies aside, Hopeless and Mellon plan to continue Shelby's adventures in future mini-series if the market demands it.
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