Elephantmen: more details on film emerge

By John Freeman on April 14, 2010

Elephantmen Issue 24 Following up on our previous story about Comicraft/Active Images Elephantmen, more details have been released about the planned film of the comic created by top British creator and former Marvel UK Group Editor Richard Starkings.

Comicraft has now officially announced Elephantmen has been by Zucker Productions for major motion picture development and the treatment for the movie is being drafted by Richard Starkings, creator and writer of the book.

“I’m very pleased to be working with producer Janet Zucker and everyone at Zucker Productions, says Richard. “Janet has a wonderful instinct for story and totally understands the more subtle tones of the Elephantmen series.”

“Richard has created a world of implausible ideas and impossible characters, a world where transgenic animals and human beings come together in a dark, yet hopeful universe,” says Janet Zucker. “Jerry [Zucker, director of Ghost] and I can’t wait to bring the stories of Hip, Horn and Sahara to life on screen in a way that will simply take your breath away

Starkings reveals he was approached by a number of companies and directors interested in optioning the project, but until recently he brushed them away, preferring to concentrate on putting out a good book.

“On the road to the creation of Elephantmen, I talked to everyone else in the business and listened to their advice. It’s taken a very long time to build the series — I created these characters 15 years ago — and I’m very grateful for our loyal readers and the incredible professional support that the book has received.” says Starkings. “I didn’t set out with a movie in mind, but I am grateful that this opportunity has come along and allows me to continue to write something that is very dear to me.”

Elephantmen — a brilliant commentary on racism, miscegenation, global warming, stem cell research and warfare — is an Eisner Award winning series first published in 2002 under Starkings’ Active Images imprint. In 2006, Image Comics, a leading US comic book and graphic novel publisher founded in 1992 by a collective of best-selling artists, approached Starkings to bring the book under their umbrella.

Featuring art by the likes of Ladrönn, Moritat and Boo Cook, the story of the Elephantmen takes place in Los Angeles in the not too distant future — in a world where human/animal hybrids were created to fight a war between Africa and China. Scarred by their experiences in war and seeking to somehow find their own humanity, the Elephantmen are now scattered throughout the world amongst the humans they were created to kill.

• Elephantmen #25 (DEC090405), a 32-page full colour comic book for $3.50, will be available in specialist comic stores in the UK from 21st April. Collections of the ongoing series include Elephantmen 01: No Surrender, Elephantmen 02: Wounded Animals and Elephantmen 03: Dangerous Liasons, and others.

• Hip Flask Official web site

• Elephantmen Official Site

• Elephantmen Blog

• Active Images

• Comicraft

• ComicBookFonts.com

About the Author
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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.