Mark Millar teases Sam Raimi and Guy Ritchie as possible directors for NEMESIS
Back in early December Kick-Ass creator, Mark Millar, revealed the details of his upcoming Marvel comic book series Nemesis, which pretty much explores the possibility of a person with the same status of someone like Bruce Wayne or Tony Stark only he uses his status and money to carry out evil deeds, like the Joker. Along with getting the DC legal team's panties in a twist, the pitch and Batman-esque artwork generated massive interest in the comics and their inevitable feature adaptations.
In the past couple of days, Millar has been busy putting out rumor fires with one hand while simultaneously dumping gasoline on the flames with the other. Below are quotes Millar has posted on his own Message Boards that put both Sam Raimi and Guy Ritchie in the cross hairs as possible directors.
Here's what he said yesterday squashing the Sam Raimi rumor:
Can I just stomp this rumour before it gets any further? This week CAA was approached by an A-list director to buy Nemesis before it goes to auction in March. Then Sam announces he’s not involved in the Spider-Man franchise any more, pursuing other projects. A lot of movie sites got in touch last night asking if the two stories are linked, but I just want to make it clear that Sam is not the guy who contacted my agent. I actually think he’s one of the three best living directors and would be honoured to have him on anything I do, but he’s not the guy who got in touch and the truth is that I’m not taking this out until March as originally planned. I want to have the whole thing finished before anybody reads it as Steve and I think we’re onto something pretty special here. Civil War and Old Man Logan were massive hits, but the interest in this from the moment we even said the title has just been unprecedented. We want to make sure this goes to the right guy, though Raimi would actually be an amazing choice and it would be a hilarious middle-finger to all the suits he just walked away from.
I hadn't really heard the rumor in the first place, but it'd be easy to start after Raimi's somewhat free time since having Spider-Man 4 scrapped.
Though Marvel will be publishing the book, Millar and artist Steve McNiven will retain the rights to Nemesis and can sell the movie option when and to whom they please. But Millar maintains that they won't be discussing deals until March, which coincides with the comic-book's release. When the book undoubtedly sell out multiple print runs, it's easy to presume the price tag will go up.
Ok, back to Raimi. Now today, he wrote:
RAIMI DIRECTING NEMESIS MIGHT NOT BE CRAZY AFTER ALL! Things move fast in Hollywoodland. I just woke up to some VERY unexpected emails…
Sneaky sneaky you clever hype generating man. But he did elaborate:
Nobody has seen the scripts yet. The interest in based on Wanted doing 350 mill, insane buzz around town on Kick-Ass and that CBR interview where the Nemesis high concept was explained and visual released. It’s pretty crazy, but a lot of people are trying to get this before it goes elsewhere. Have another thing coming with Leinil after Summer and someone made an offer for this without even knowing what it is. Crazy times.
Millar then teases that he was going to discuss the project with Guy Ritchie, a friend and frequent collaborator of his Kick-Ass director, Matthew Vaughan;
I was actually going to talk to Guy about it in the next couple of weeks, but wondered if a brilliant cop versus brilliant supervillain might be too much like Sherlock Holmes. I’m seeing Matthew this week and will see what he reckons.
Millar has the world on a string at the moment. He knows he's got something special and is squeezing every drop of hype he can get out of it before it hits shelves. Case in point: Just like he did for the teen lead in Kick-Ass, Millar is auctioning off the name of the main character in Nemesis for charity. So like Dave Lizewski, you too can achieve instant and eternal comic-book and future film infamy, and all for a good cause.
Who do you think should direct the NEMESIS movie?
Thanks to Bleeding Cool's Rich Johnston for the details via our friends at /Film.