Greetings!

Oh, Mondays. We have to go back to work, again, sigh. On the bright side though, it’s list time again, yay! As I was walking around in the local Best Buy this weekend, I happened upon the Mark Stephen Johnson comic book film collection. That’s right, someone at Fox has collected the movies GHOST RIDER and DAREDEVIL, and expects people to pay for this crap-tacular collection! While I would like to poop in a bag and try to sell it to Fox studios (it’s pretty much what they did), I must try to focus my into into more constructive channels. So, today I will list 10 comics that I think would make a great movie, in hopes one these get made instead of SUCK RIDER 2. I am so excited about this list, I’m even going to tell you who I think would be my choice to direct and star in my would-be films (I am going to assume that in my would-be movies that the comic book writer would write their own movie). This is going to be a bit long so you only get the first five today, and the second five I will give you on Wednesday.

1) THE WALKING DEAD: Everyone loves a good zombie movie. The hallmark of a great zombie flick is a good survivor story (see 28 DAYS LATER), which is what THE WALKING DEAD is all about, following a group of survivors as they cope with the zombie filled world around them. Imagine Christoper Nolan (THE DARK KNIGHT, MEMENTO) directing with Thomas Jane and Mary Louise Parker headlining the cast as Rick and Lori.

2) HARD BOILED: Frank Miller written comics usually turn into pretty good movies, just look at 300 and SIN CITY. HARD BOILED is about Carl Seltz, an insurance investigator, discovers he is also a homicidal cyborg tax collector who happens to be the last hope of an enslaved robot race. Doesn’t that sound like fun? Tony Scott (MAN ON FIRE, TOP GUN, SPY GAME) would direct the hell out of this. Clive Owen is a little bit pretty, but he could get the character of Carl down pat.

3) STRANGERS IN PARADISE: Before I tell you anything else about the story, let me say this: there is a character in this story who is described as “a blond, busty, bisexual aerobics instructor”. Not sold yet? How about a love parallelogram between an ex-prostitute (Katchoo), the former leader of a street gang (Yousaka), the aforementioned aerobics instructor (Casey), and a Methodist (Francine)? Darren Aronofski (THE FOUNTAIN, REQUIEM FOR A DREAM) is as good as anyone at portraying the broken hearted, so he gets to direct. As for a cast, I’m going with Michelle Williams as Katchoo, James Kyson Lee as Yousaka, Sienna Miller as Casey and Leelee Sobieski (with a dye job) as Francine.

4) WE3: The pitch for this one is easy. ROBO-COP meets HOMEWARD BOUND. Fun for the whole family. I would have Alex Proyas (DARK CITY, THE CROW) direct, and cast any furry animals I wanted.

5) NEXTWAVE: Imagine if the Avengers sucked, and fought with one another a lot. It would be funny right? Such a comic is NEXTWAVE. I think this comic would actually be very well served as an animated feature (Ala THE INCREDIBLES). However, if this was going to be a live action movie, I would have Joss Whedon (SERENITY) direct, as he does an excellent job of balancing humor and action. For my cast I would have Rutina Wesley as Photon, Evan Rachel Wood as Boom Boom, Adam Baldwin as The Captain, Timothy Olyphant as The Machine Man, and Diane Kruger as Bloodstone.

That’s the first five! Come back on Wednesday for the second half of the list. Thanks for stopping in, see you next time.