Double Oscar winner Hilary Swank (Million Dollar Baby, Boys Don't Cry) has long wanted to diversify her roles and no matter how many horror flops she leads in-between her successful dramatic work (The Reaping, The Resident), she keeps coming back and fighting for more. She wants a genre franchise damnit and she won't be happy until she has one! Maybe, this will be it.... Out at Comic Con, Radical Pictures have announced that Swank will star and produce a big screen adaptation of the Shrapnel futuristic graphic novel, which they hope to turn into an action/sci-fi property with elements of a classical western! Written by Nick Sagan and M . Zachary Sherman, and created by Sagan and Mark Long - the movie version of the comic series will focus on the events from the first volume entitled Shrapnel: Aristeia Rising. Toby Wagstaff (Diamonds in the Rough) wrote the script whose action is set in the year 2250, when humanity has expanded its dominance of the solar system and most colonized planets began to be controlled brutality by the Solar Alliance, which imposes stringent rules and harsh people. While engaged in an armed conflict which lasts already for 5 years, Venus has retained its independence and is considered the last bastion of democracy, its inhabitants battling strong army led by Samantha Vijaya (Swank), a former member of the elite military group with which war Venusians, who was exiled on the planet and which encourages the outbreak of a revolt against the oppressive regime of the oppressed. Several big name directors are said to be circling the project which has yet does not have a studio home. Swank will produce alongside The Mummy's Sean Levine and Radical President Barry Levine who said;
"Hilary came to Radical excited to find a project with a strong female protagonist that could show off her abilities to do action films... With Hilary being an actor's actor, 'Shrapnel' will give a whole new definition to that type of role."
So Swank may get that action franchise she craves (is she still annoyed nobody thought she was due another Oscar for Amelia??) but she's never really been a box office draw and has always fared better with her dramatic work. Will people care enough about her to see her kick-ass and take names? Any fans of the comic out there want to enlighten us over how good it is? (Article co-written by Matt Holmes)