Chopper Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It's always cool to see the indie comic publishers getting movie deals -- especially a crazy, multi-film one. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Arcana Studios and Legacy Filmworks are teaming up for no less than five adaptations.

The first up is Paradox, based on the three issue series by Christos Gage, who also penned the film's screenplay alongside his wife, Ruth Fletcher Gage. It will be directed by Stargate: Atlantis helmer Brenton Spencer, and star Kevin Sorbo. Sorbo will play a cop of a parallel Earth (is there any other kind?) ruled by magic, who finds himself investigating a series of murders committed by the unknown force of science. You might snicker at the premise, but one of the characters is Winston Churchill, who gets to be a 130-year-old sorcerer. You can check out a preview here.

They've also lined up Martin Shapiro's Chopper, which follows a headless, ghostly biker named Jeremiah Payne. As the Angel of Death, he patrols the streets and exterminates sinners. You can check out a preview, but read fast, they're actually planning to start shooting next month. My favorite of the lot is Jay Busbee's Sundown, which sees a journalist and a small-town Arizona sheriff hunting down vampires. Cowboy hats and the supernatural is an automatic win for me.

The other films have yet to be determined -- Arcana has some gloriously pulpy stories in its library, so the possibilities are rather endless. Got any favorites you'd like to see, or recommend to your fellow readers?

Today's odds and ends:

• In an interview with an Australian newspaper, Chopper himself (Who, now that he's given up on the crime thing, is touring the country as part of an autobiographical, comedic stage show. No lie.) announced that a sequel to Andrew Dominik's 2000 movie about him is in the planing stages, albeit without the too-famous-to-get-fat-again Eric Bana.

• Edward Zwick's star-filled The Blood Diamond began shooting in South Africa this week. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou, and Jennifer Connelly, the film is a story about diamonds, family, and, since Leo's in it, some sort of romance (though probably not with Hounsou). Warner Brothers hopes to have it in theaters by late December, just in time for an Oscar run.

• In one of the oddest movie moments of all time, rumor has it that Philip Seymour Hoffman is being chased to play Roger Ebert in an in-development Russ Meyer biopic. If this works out, I think it's safe to say that it will be the only time an Oscar nominee plays a real-life film critic on screen. It's almost too meta to comprehend. [Edit: check the comments for Ebert's own debunking of the rumor.]
  

• Latino Review has the scoop on the casting of John Singleton's previously-discussed Tom Clancy adaptation, Without Remorse. According to their exclusive, Singleton has found his "young and athletic actor who can grow with the picture" in Joaquin Phoenix, who is in final negotiations to star as CIA operative Mr. Kelly. Huh. Joaquin Phoenix? In an action series? [via Dark Horizons]