Sunday, April 24, 2011

Headshot by Matz & Colin Wilson heading to the screen with Stallone


Above: Characters from Bullet To The Head, as drawn by Colin Wilson and their actor counterparts: Sylvester Stallone & Thomas Jane.

Australian based NZ cartoonist Colin Wilson will soon see one of his comics come to life on the silver screen as Headshot, starring Sylvester Stallone.

Above: Colin Wilson artwork from Bullet To The Head. Copyright Dynamite Entertainment 2011.

Originally published in France as Du Plomb Dans La Tete, this crime noir has been recently translated to english by Dynamite Entertainment as Bullet to the Head. In February Wilson announced that Stallone was attached to the film adaptation via his blog, and since then the project appears be picking up stream, with principle photography due to start filming in Louisiana in July under the direction of legendary tough guy film-maker Walter Hill (The Warriors, Last Man Standing).

Above: Colin Wilson artwork from Bullet To The Head. Copyright Dynamite Entertainment 2011.

Colin shared more information recently with his fellow NZ cartoonists via the BRD Yahoo Group: "Yep, after a two year tortuous journey through developer hell, it looks like this one might actually go ahead. Stallone was linked to Headshot back in February, and the latest news I have is that Walter Hill is now onboard to direct. Although I haven't seen any of the films Hill has directed in the last few years, I couldn't be happier as The Long Riders was one of my favourite westerns back in the day. 48 Hours and The Warriors weren't too bad either..."

Above: The cover of the french edition of Du Plomb Dans La Tete. Copyright Casterman 2011.

"None of the various comic sites I visit these days seem to have picked up that Headshot is based on Du Plomb Dans La Tete, a three book series Matz and I did for Casterman in France a few years ago. I guess we didn't make it easy, as an English translation was published earlier this year by Dynamite in the States as a six-issue mini-series - oddly titled Bullet To The Head (close to the French title, but Matz and I always preferred Headshot) - but the IMDb page for Headshot does credit Matz as the writer of the original graphic novels (using has real name). Co-writer of the excellent The Messenger (2009) Alessandro Camon is currently writing the screenplay, so I'm looking forward to seeing where this one goes."
Above: Colin Wilson artwork from Bullet To The Head. Copyright Dynamite Entertainment 2011.

I would say the fact the film has already locked down a director and start date for shooting is very positive news; and in the last week Stallone personally let slip to Ain't It Cool News that Thomas Jane (The Punisher and HBO's Hung) will be joining the cast. If all goes well we can hope to see this in cinemas sometime in 2012. Until then, make sure you check out Colin's excellent artwork in the Bullet To The Head collection available now before the movie hits!

-AK!
Above: The cover of the english translation: Bullet To The Head. Copyright Dynamite Entertainment 2011.

No comments:

Post a Comment