15 Films You Didn't Realise Were Based On Comic Books
3. Red
RED is a three-part comic created by Warren Ellis, who's known for co-creating The Authority and Transmetropolitan. It's a very straight-forward story of a retired hitman who's forced to go on the run after his cover is blown.
It was so well-received, Hollywood wanted to adapt it to the big screen. But how do you adapt a comic that is only sixty-six pages long? And the answer is; by stuffing it with a cabaret of wacky characters. This was clearly the right decision as it allowed us to see Helen Mirren as a badass assassin and John Malkovich at his most John Malkovich.
Another problem the studio faced was how gory the story was. The comic depicts brutal scenes including eye-gouging and skulls being impaled by arrows, which would guarantee an R-rating if incorporated into the movie. To avoid such a fate, the director toned down the violence and made the action scenes and fight sequences more goofy and comedic.