Metal Men Becomes the Latest Comic Book Movie
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Warner Brothers, Comic/Superhero/Geek
Of all the comic books I've read (and believe me, there have been quite a few), Metal Men, which concerns the exploits of a robotic team of super heroes, was probably one of the last ones I expected to see on the big screen. It was reported here on Cinematical about a year ago that producer of the X-Men films Lauren Shuler Donner was interested in the property, and now The Hollywood Reporter has an update on the project. The film is being set up at Warner Bros., with Shuler Donner and Jack Leslie producing, and Eric Champnella writing the screenplay. Comic book writer Geoff Johns helped develop the idea and will serve as executive producer, and Gregory Noveck will supervise for DC Comics.Metal Men first appeared in 1962 in the 37th issue of DC's classic anthology series Showcase before graduating to a book of their own. Built by Dr. Will Magnus -- whose pipe smoking habit always reminds me of Fred MacMurray in My Three Sons -- The Metal Men consist of six robots who exhibit the characteristics of the metals from which they take their names. If you look at the picture above, starting at the twelve o'clock position and proceeding clockwise, we have Gold, Mercury, Iron, Platinum (a.k.a. Tina), Tin and Lead. Recurring concepts included Tina's infatuation with Doc Magnus, as well as the idea that since they are robots, the characters can be killed then rebuilt. As I recall, these guys died more often than X-Men's Jean Grey, if you can believe it. I don't believe there is a current incarnation of the comic book (if I'm wrong, please correct me in the comments section), but Gold and Platinum recently appeared -- and died yet again -- in an issue of Justice League of America. When Shuler Donner discussed the project last year she described it as "much more like Men in Black. It's miles away from X-Men. It's lighter and it's fun. A lot of CGI."
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-04-2007 @ 12:13PM
Rich said...
With so many good comic book characters/teams/stories out there, why do they keep dredging up the bottom of the barrel?
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4-04-2007 @ 1:43PM
spinninnzen said...
BOTTOM OF THE BARREL USUALLY MEANS MORE FLEXIBILITY WITH ALTERING OR EXPLORING THE CANON OF SAID CHARACTERS. OTHER THEN THAT I CAN ONLY THINK THAT MAYBE THEY WANT TO MAKE IT CAMPY A LA MYSTERY MEN AND TRY TO SPIN A QUICK BUCK OFF OF THE COMIC BOOK TO MOVIE BANDWAGON.
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4-04-2007 @ 2:52PM
steve said...
I used to LOVE the Metal Men. I read all their comics as a boy, probably still have 'em all. I can really see how this one would lend itself to a cinematical treatment. The characters were well-developed (for a bunch of robots) and they could do some amazing stuff.
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4-04-2007 @ 11:19PM
Eddie Hargreaves said...
The Metal Men are appearing in the current story arc of the Superman/Batman comic.
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4-06-2007 @ 1:32AM
Mike said...
I haven't seen were being on top of the barrel has restricted Hollywood from running roughshot over canon. In 99% of comic adaptations most of the canon is tossed. The only thing they generally keep is the character names.
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