KevinMunroe Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Admit it -- when you read about the latest comic book being optioned, you're either thinking "Crap, I haven't read that one" or "When is that one about the undead Mexican wrestler going to get its day onscreen?" If it was ever the latter, you're in luck today. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Dark Horse graphic novel El Zombo Fantasma has been optioned by Death Ray Films (also the brains behind War Monkeys) and Maya Entertainment. Kevin Munroe, co-creator of the book, will adapt and direct the film.

The story centers on El Zombo, a Mexican wrestler and all around bad boy. Murdered one fateful night, El Zombo is given a chance at redemption. If he can protect the life of Belisa Montoya, a troubled Los Angeles teenager, he won't go to hell. Thinking to get out of hell and catch up with his murderer, El Zombo agrees. Of course, Belisa isn't what she seems to be, and their fates are intertwined. You don't just get sent back from purgatory to protect random teenagers, you know.

There's a 16-page preview of it on Dark Horse's site -- it's a lot of fun, and comparisons to Hellboy are apt. Death Ray and Maya are hoping to launch a similar film franchise with El Zombo. It has some familiar Internet talent behind it too -- two of the producers are none other than Kellvin Chavez of Latino Review and Robert Sanchez of IESB.net. Slowly and surely, Internet fandom is conquering Hollywood.

It was last August when I first heard the phrase "WAR MONKEYS," and I've been waiting for fresh news ever since. Yes, seriously. Now it comes, courtesy of Shock, and the news is this: War Monkeys will be directed by Kevin Munroe, which thrills me not because I necessarily loved Munroe's last movie (TMNT), but because a production company doesn't sign a director unless the movie is actually being made. Which means that WAR MONKEYS is being made. That's awesome.

Munroe told Shock that Cleve Nettles' script is sort of like "Quentin Tarantino's Gremlins," which is a description that makes my salivary glands kick in. But wait, there's more! It's also "an older, meaner brother of [an] Amblin [production]. It's real horror with real scary elements. You've got real monsters here with the monkeys. But the characters are a modern day Abbott and Costello. In the same vein of Shaun of the Dead but scarier."

And in case you thought the title was a joke of some kind ... it's not. The movie is about two guys trapped underground with a gang of furious, military-trained rhesus monkeys who are mega-smart and weapon-trained. I wish this movie could come out tomorrow.