During an interview with MTV, President of Top Cow Comics Matt Hawkins said that the film is still ago and that there will be changes.
We sat down with a couple of guys, [co-producer] Platinum Studios and Marc Silvestri and I, and we banged out a three-page document that says here’s the basic story idea we want to do,” said Hawkins. “It’s sort of a balancing act—it’s very different from the book, but thematically, it’s very much the same.
We always say you don’t want to stay ridiculously faithful to the comic, but at the same time, if you make it so radically different, what’s the point?
‘Witchblade’ isn’t the first Top Cow film adaptation. ‘Wanted’ with Angelina Jolie was also a film that departed from the comic book series.
Hawkins explained:
You look into the feelings, the tones and how the character acts, the thing that is the same in ‘Wanted’ is the character arc of Wesley,” said Hawkins of the main character in the “Wanted” movie and comic book series. “If you actually look at his journey, it’s the same arc—the circumstances are slightly different and the other characters are slightly different, but it’s the same character arc—so that’s what we’ve been diligently working on with ‘Witchblade,’ too.
When you do a female-lead film that’s successful, they always turn it around and they say it was the effects,” he explained. “People in Hollywood… When you talk to people about something like ‘Underworld,’ it’s always the werewolf/vampire thing and it’s not Kate Beckinsale. … It’s not that they always think a female lead film is going to fail, but… I don’t know. It’s just one of those things.
Talking about the projects seemingly endless state of development hell:
Yeah, if we don’t have it in process next year, we’re going to run into trouble—but trouble is irrelevant. You can always just start over,” he said. “It’s certainly not a property we’re going to give up on, we’re on issue 140 in the comics. … But I’d rather there not be a ‘Witchblade’ movie or television show if it’s going to be some piece of crap. If we’re going to do it, it’s got to be good.
Witchblade remains the most successful Top Cow title and definitely one of the most successful for their publisher, Image Comics.
