Some HEAVY METAL indeed
Back in March of last year news came through the grapevine that David Fincher was going to team up with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman to produce an animated feature based on 70s fantasy/erotica magazine Heavy Metal. At the time there was a fair amount of speculation as to which directors would be invited along to helm each of the films segments, with some hints that big names might be interested in contributing for what would be a relatively short gig. According to an interview with Eastman published over at Film School Rejects, they have secured some of the names he must have been hinting it. We now know the line-up will include the likes of James Cameron, Zack Snyder and Gore Verbinski, in addition to Fincher himself with more to come. Extremely heavy metal indeed. Heavy Metal was around well before my time, so I mainly know of it through its reputation, but a magazine which offered graphic sex and violence, a comic book adaptation of Paradise Lost and interviews with Roger Corman and Federico Fellini is clearly a force to be reckoned with. Add the visionary talents of people such as Cameron and Fincher to the equation and it looks like we might have something quite iconic just around the bend. The fact that Eastman is involved is also a big plus, at least from this film fans point of view. There are only two real worries at this stage. Firstly, the production difficulties that the project has encountered in the past and how difficult it might be to co-ordinate everyones segments together. Indeed, Paramount turned it down last year because they feared it would hinder Finchers focus while he made The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and all these guys are usually busy men. The other potential problem is the nature of the material itself. According to Eastman, Heavy Metal was the wake-up call which led him and countless others to the realisation that comics could do adult, science fiction, edgy. In 2009, however, comic books and their movie adaptations do little else. Is Heavy Metal going to arrive on the scene when saturation with dark comics begins to set in? Or are audiences still hungry for more?