Butler's Script Sale of the Week...
January 21st, 2001
Not a terribly exciting week for script sales, I'm afraid. William Broyles getting over a mil for a blind script deal was big news, but as the script isn't even written yet it hardly qualifies as a "script" sale. SPAWN coming back in a scary version is cool news - if they can do it - but I'm going to have to go with Lightstorm Entertainment's acquistion of THE COFFIN, another comic book series, as The Script Sale Of The Week.
THE COFFIN is a sci-fi comic series by Phil Hester and Mike Huddleston. While I've never read the book, this project is my pick because of two other people involved - James Cameron and Guillermo del Toro. Cameron of course needs no introduction, but del Toro may. He's the director behind MIMIC (1997) and the upcoming BLADE 2 (2001) and what he does really well is scary-sci-fi-horror. Besides BLADE 2, technically a comic-book adaptation, del Toro also has HELLBOY (2002) coming up. So I'd say he's a good man for the job.
But here's my gripe with del Toro. Going by MIMIC and snippets of his first film CRONOS (1993) the man is undoubtedly a master of shooting really cool scary stuff, but I'm not so sure of his storytelling abilities. MIMIC, especially, just felt like something was missing. A prime example of style over substance.
Which brings us to master storyteller James Cameron and why we should have such high expectations for this project. Cameron knows how to tell a good story. You may think TITANIC(1997) was overpraised (I do and I'm still sore about LA CONFIDENTIAL [1997] losing the oscar), but it was one hell of a good story well told, just as all of Cameron's flicks are. With Cameron looking over del Toro's and the writers' shoulders this one has a shot at greatness.
THE COFFIN concerns a scientist who constructs a suit that holds the soul once the body dies. The scientist gets into the suit as he dies. He then becomes a really cool scary bodyless monster as he runs around looking for his daughter.
So lets hope del Toro and Cameron make a really cool looking flick with a GREAT story. Together, they just might do it.
- Edward Butler
THE COFFIN is a sci-fi comic series by Phil Hester and Mike Huddleston. While I've never read the book, this project is my pick because of two other people involved - James Cameron and Guillermo del Toro. Cameron of course needs no introduction, but del Toro may. He's the director behind MIMIC (1997) and the upcoming BLADE 2 (2001) and what he does really well is scary-sci-fi-horror. Besides BLADE 2, technically a comic-book adaptation, del Toro also has HELLBOY (2002) coming up. So I'd say he's a good man for the job.
But here's my gripe with del Toro. Going by MIMIC and snippets of his first film CRONOS (1993) the man is undoubtedly a master of shooting really cool scary stuff, but I'm not so sure of his storytelling abilities. MIMIC, especially, just felt like something was missing. A prime example of style over substance.
Which brings us to master storyteller James Cameron and why we should have such high expectations for this project. Cameron knows how to tell a good story. You may think TITANIC(1997) was overpraised (I do and I'm still sore about LA CONFIDENTIAL [1997] losing the oscar), but it was one hell of a good story well told, just as all of Cameron's flicks are. With Cameron looking over del Toro's and the writers' shoulders this one has a shot at greatness.
THE COFFIN concerns a scientist who constructs a suit that holds the soul once the body dies. The scientist gets into the suit as he dies. He then becomes a really cool scary bodyless monster as he runs around looking for his daughter.
So lets hope del Toro and Cameron make a really cool looking flick with a GREAT story. Together, they just might do it.
- Edward Butler
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