MattBrady
03-15-2007, 11:30 AM
<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/TopShelf/The_Surrogates1_Cover.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/TopShelf/The_Surrogates1_Cover_t.jpg" width="175" height="272" border="0" align="right"></a>For Top Shelf, it was a risk that paid off.
According to <i>Variety</i> (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117961181.html?categoryid=13&cs=1), film rights to the publisher’s <b>The Surrogates</b> have been picked up by Disney, and the studio already has attached Michael Ferris and John Brancato as screenwriters and Jonathan Mostow as a director.
<b>The Surrogates</b> was created and written by Robert Venditti, and illustrated by Brett Weldele.
Originally published as a five-issue miniseries, <b>The Surrogates</b> was Top Shelf’s first “in-house” effort, that is, written by Venditti, who works for the publisher, as well as its first monthly comic.
From our original interview with Venditti (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?threadid=33471):
<i>“The main inspiration for the story came from observing what was going on around me,” Venditti told Newsarama. “Seeing how our lives are becoming more virtual - whether through chat rooms, telecommuting, online shopping, etc. -- was certainly an impetus, but so was the increasing emphasis our culture places on physical appearance. I decided a futuristic setting would be the best way for me to explore some possible outcomes of these trends, so I went with a sci-fi story.”
The seed for Vendetti’s observations was planted when he read Indra Sinha’s The Cybergypsies : A True Tale of Lust, War, & Betrayal on the Electronic Frontier, a true story of internet addiction (among other things) which he read while in graduate school at the University of Central Florida. “I was amazed by how much the characters sacrificed just to maintain their online personas,” Venditti said. “Around the same time, a friend introduced me to comics, and when I decided to try my hand at writing them, The Cybergypsies came back to me. I began wondering what it would be like if, instead of relying on the Internet, people could create virtual selves and then send them out into the real world. It occurred to me that the concept might make a good serialized story. It was always intended to be a comic, but as my first attempt I wrote it mainly as an exercise as opposed to something I thought would get published.”</i>
From <i>Variety</i>:
<blockquote>Mandeville's David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman will produce, along with Max Handelman and Elizabeth Banks.
"This is a Philip K. Dick-like futuristic universe, but people who live a second life already on the Internet can relate to some of the themes here," said Brancato, who with Ferris is adapting the Robert Ludlum novel "Sigma Protocol" for Strike Entertainment.
Subject matter is edgy for Disney, and Oren Aviv is eyeing Touchstone as a home for it.
"This is a grounded sci-fi premise, but there are big effects, and it's clear from '300' that people want to see different kinds of things, and this falls into that category," Hoberman said.
Project was hatched by husband-wife team of Handelman and Banks; the latter is an actress most recently seen in "Invincible" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin." They found "Surrogates" and enlisted Lieberman, with whom they attended college.
Mostow will develop the project while he continues to write "Sub-Mariner," an adaptation of the Marvel Comics character for Universal.</blockquote>
According to <i>Variety</i> (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117961181.html?categoryid=13&cs=1), film rights to the publisher’s <b>The Surrogates</b> have been picked up by Disney, and the studio already has attached Michael Ferris and John Brancato as screenwriters and Jonathan Mostow as a director.
<b>The Surrogates</b> was created and written by Robert Venditti, and illustrated by Brett Weldele.
Originally published as a five-issue miniseries, <b>The Surrogates</b> was Top Shelf’s first “in-house” effort, that is, written by Venditti, who works for the publisher, as well as its first monthly comic.
From our original interview with Venditti (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?threadid=33471):
<i>“The main inspiration for the story came from observing what was going on around me,” Venditti told Newsarama. “Seeing how our lives are becoming more virtual - whether through chat rooms, telecommuting, online shopping, etc. -- was certainly an impetus, but so was the increasing emphasis our culture places on physical appearance. I decided a futuristic setting would be the best way for me to explore some possible outcomes of these trends, so I went with a sci-fi story.”
The seed for Vendetti’s observations was planted when he read Indra Sinha’s The Cybergypsies : A True Tale of Lust, War, & Betrayal on the Electronic Frontier, a true story of internet addiction (among other things) which he read while in graduate school at the University of Central Florida. “I was amazed by how much the characters sacrificed just to maintain their online personas,” Venditti said. “Around the same time, a friend introduced me to comics, and when I decided to try my hand at writing them, The Cybergypsies came back to me. I began wondering what it would be like if, instead of relying on the Internet, people could create virtual selves and then send them out into the real world. It occurred to me that the concept might make a good serialized story. It was always intended to be a comic, but as my first attempt I wrote it mainly as an exercise as opposed to something I thought would get published.”</i>
From <i>Variety</i>:
<blockquote>Mandeville's David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman will produce, along with Max Handelman and Elizabeth Banks.
"This is a Philip K. Dick-like futuristic universe, but people who live a second life already on the Internet can relate to some of the themes here," said Brancato, who with Ferris is adapting the Robert Ludlum novel "Sigma Protocol" for Strike Entertainment.
Subject matter is edgy for Disney, and Oren Aviv is eyeing Touchstone as a home for it.
"This is a grounded sci-fi premise, but there are big effects, and it's clear from '300' that people want to see different kinds of things, and this falls into that category," Hoberman said.
Project was hatched by husband-wife team of Handelman and Banks; the latter is an actress most recently seen in "Invincible" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin." They found "Surrogates" and enlisted Lieberman, with whom they attended college.
Mostow will develop the project while he continues to write "Sub-Mariner," an adaptation of the Marvel Comics character for Universal.</blockquote>