DAN DARE film, Sam Worthington to star

[davidbishop]

From this morning's Variety:

Warner Bros. takes on space 'Dare'
Worthington to star in iconic comic hero tale
By DAVE MCNARY


Worthington

WE RECOMMEND...
'Expendables' hits Comic-Con
Captive audience at Comic-Con
CBS revives Ratner's 'Chaos'
Lars Knudsen & Jay Van Hoy
Rob Dyrdek and Christopher ?Big Black? Boykin
CBS plans 'Big Brother' spinoff

RELATED ARTICLES:
Universal rolls with 'Rocks' writers
Hollywood Video chain, name up for sale
It's time to clear the blog fog
Captive audience at Comic-Con
'Expendables' hits Comic-Con
'Salt' shakes up box office
Warner Bros. is heading into space with "Dan Dare," closing a deal for the feature rights to the British property with Sam Worthington attached to star.
Basil Iwanyk ("Clash of the Titans") will produce through his Thunder Road banner.

"Dan Dare," created by Frank Hampson, first appeared as a comic in 1950 and centered on a gallant chief pilot of the Interplanet Space Fleet. Time frame was the 1990s and the complex adventures were set on planets presumed to have extraterrestrial life.

Dare, described as the British equivalent of Buck Rogers, also appeared in radio programs and a TV series, "Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future."

Rights were obtained from Dan Dare Inc. through Colin Frewin, who exec produces along with Dan Lin.

Worthington, who's been attached to "Dan Dare" for several months, recently wrapped "The Fields" for producer Michael Mann, and will next be seen in John Madden's "The Debt" opposite Helen Mirren. He also recently announced an imprint deal with Radical Publishing under which his Full Clip Prods. will create content for comicbooks and films.

WB-based Iwanyk is a producer on Ben Affleck's crime drama "The Town," due out in September., and "Clash of the Titans 2," with Worthington returning as the lead

Warner execs are Sarah Schechter, Ollie Madden and Matt Milam. Kent Cubena is overseeing for Thunder Road.

[SmallBlueThing]

An excellent week for fans of British comics heroes turning into films, then.

But- is "Basil Iwanyk" a real name?! He should team up with Gok Wan!

SBT

[Professor Bear]

He could form a team with Juan Kerr, or Juan Sheet off the tv ads.

Sounds promising.  What prompted interest, do you think: the Virgin Comics mini or the awful CGI series with the admittedly catchy Elton John theme?

[EddieHitler]

Hello

I hate to be a sourpuss but surely this comic character has a limited audience.  What age range would this film be aimed at?     

Or am I talking bollox as usual? 

[Richmond Clements]

Hello

I hate to be a sourpuss but surely this comic character has a limited audience.  What age range would this film be aimed at?     

Or am I talking bollox as usual? 

Like Iron Man, you mean..?

[Colin YNWA]

Ok that could be very exciting news. Lets hope they do Dan justice

[Trout]

I know two people called Ewan Kerr.

I'd like to see a Dan Dare film.

- Trout

[IAMTHESYSTEM]

The news is suddenlly turning good.

Whats happening when you get the Dredd Movie pretty much confirmed it's getting the go ahead and this turns up as well?

If all recessions were this great we'd have them all the time. Oh, we are aren't we..?

[Kowalsky (formerly JudgeGumpty)]

Ebay finger primed to offload my 1950s and 60s eagles!

I hope its done in that style though have Digby and Dan in the very fifties post war stylee (cant see it but heres hoping).

[Noisybast]

Bet we get Cool Leather Jacket Dare, instead of Original And Best Dare...

[maryanddavid]

I not overly excited about this. DD is one of my favourite comic stories along with Dredd and Alpha. The Man From Nowhere and Rogue Planet are some of the finest comics ever to see print.

How they will make a film that  will appeal to a mass  audience and retain enough of the original stories I dont know. None of the modern comic revivals have come close to capturing the original, with the exception of the first 20 or so by Belardinelli in 2000ad which apart from a eybrow made no attempt to be like the original at all.

I guess my point that Dan Dare is a product of it time and I think that it wont be easy to present a nice shiny new Dare without going very far away from the original.

Still at least the Worthington fella looks the part, never heard of him before.

David

[Jim_Campbell]

Bet we get Cool Leather Jacket Dare, instead of Original And Best Dare...

How about mechanically-raped-by-the-Mekon Morrison Dare?

Cheers!

Jim

[IAMTHESYSTEM]

Bet we get Cool Leather Jacket Dare, instead of Original And Best Dare...

I think it will be more like the Gerry Finlay Day/Dave Gibbons version though perhaps the Mekon might show up somewhere.

Read somewhere there's a proposal to make Mass Effect into a Movie so it might be a little like that with Sam Worthington playing a tough Spacer like Commander Shepard. 

[Richard]

Lets hope they do Dan justice.

They clearly won't though, will they? It will just be a regular action film where the hero slaughters loads of people, rather than the basically non-violent original one from the first Eagle, and the only thing they will have in common will be the name Dan Dare. In which case they might as well just invent their own character.
Then again, I liked the Garth Ennis version of Dare, which just make me a big old hypocrite.

[O Lucky Stevie!]

Lets hope they do Dan justice.

They clearly won't though, will they? It will just be a regular action film where the hero slaughters loads of people, rather than the basically non-violent original one from the first Eagle, and the only thing they will have in common will be the name Dan Dare. In which case they might as well just invent their own character.

So it'll be the Bellardinelli's ultra-violent David Bowie lookalike? Schweet!!! Who are they  casting as the pouty lipped & gogo booted Ziggy Rodan then, eh?

Then again, I liked the Garth Ennis version of Dare, which just make me a big old hypocrite.

Garth's version struck me as being the return of proper Dan Dare, although that could have been just me & my mate Tobes.