A little background
It's official - Hollywood has started digging down to the bottom of bargain bins to get their grubby hands on fresh comic-books to fling at the silver screen.
And they've uncovered a gem in Dylan Dog, which they've decided to call Dead Of Night so we don't get it confused with their upcoming biopic in which Bob is reimagined as a Neapolitan Mastiff.
The story of occult private detective Dylan Dog and his grapples with gruesome creatures on the streets of London has the kind of working class hero humour mixed with wild surrealist imagery that made Hellboy so much fun to read.
TMNT movie director Kevin Monroe will be wrangling the zombies and ghouls to introduce Dylan to audiences.
We reckon Dylan could be the next Hellboy, if handled corrently. But there's also the terrifying chance this whole project could go a little bit Constantine.
Which will it be? Read on and decide...
Meet Dylan
Superman Returns’ Brandon Routh is playing Dylan, in a story that sees him relocated from London to New Orleans.
We catch up with him after he’s tried to put the life of horror behind him – but it’s not that easy.
He’s forced back into his nightmare investigations after he is approached by a woman who claims to have seen her father brutally murdered by a mysterious creature.
With his street smarts, his gun, and a set of paranormal weapons, Dylan attempts to restore order both above and belowground.
While some changes have been made, there’s no denying that Routh is dressed for the part. And the movie should be full of supernatural goodness.
“We've got werewolves, zombies and vampires - and a few sub-categories of those," Munroe tells Shock ‘Till You Drop, clearly aiming to make this into a franchise.
"With this one we don't have anything quite as broad as, say, Hellboy II where you go to the Troll Market with different creatures, but here it's a little bit more classic for the first movie and in the second film you go a bit deeper.”
[Pic source: Shock ‘Till You Drop ]
Never Read The Comics? Never Mind
“What I was attracted to was that it's an origin story without every showing him being recruited into this whole world. When we meet Dylan at the beginning of this movie, he's at the lowest point of his life,” says Munroe.
He's already left that life he had in the comic books. And the whole movie is about him getting back up on the horse. So, as an audience member you're introduced to all of these things.
You get to see how much of a badass he is, not because he's stepping through to prove it but because he's done it before in another life. It's a next step for him."
[Pic source: IESB.net ]
Undead, but still (side)kicking
Sam Huntington – who last shared the screen with Routh in Superman Returns – is Marcus, Dylan’s sidekick Marcus.
“Brandon was definitely part of that decision to hire Huntington," studio spokesman/stuntman(!) Dan Forcey tells website Think McFly Think.
"Brandon and Sam were at first under consideration independent of each other, just because we thought they were both great actors.
We were actually worried about casting them because we didn't want to invite comparisons to Superman Returns. Then Kevin found out from Brandon that they had remained friends after the film and agreed to allow them to read together.
Almost instantly, he realized they naturally had the exact kind of dynamic that Dylan and Marcus have in the script and decided he needed them both."
While he looks pretty normal, Marcus is a zombie who helps – but as you might see from the next pic, also occasionally hinders the man’s work.
There’s no direct version of Marcus in the comics, but he’s mostly likely a spin on Groucho, Dylan's Groucho Marx impersonator sidekick who became stuck with the famed comedian’s personality.
We doubt Marcus tells quite as many jokes, though…
[Pic source: Movieweb ]
Trouble Brewing?
Confrontation is never far from the moody, brooding Dylan, and it definitely looks like he and Marcus have a fractious partnership. "It's a thriller with a little action, a little buddy comedy and a splash of noir,” explains Forcey.
"Dylan is a very complex character. He has a brand of 'optimistic melancholy' that makes him a fascinating figure in cinema, I think.
We’re interested in him because he is complex and real. Despite the craziness he encounters in every issue, at the core of every story is this flawed character named Dylan.
But unlike a John Constantine, who revels in his flaws or outright ignores them, Dylan is quite aware and tries to rise above them with an optimism and sense of humour that is infectious."
[Pic source: CHUD ]
Vamp Villain
Taye Diggs is one of the main villains of the piece, playing Vargas, the head of a vampire clan.
Battling him, alongside werewolves played by Peter Stomare and wrestler Kurt Angle won’t be an easy job for the hero.
"What has set Dylan Dog apart, and has for long contributed to his success, isn't pure action in a world populated by absurd monsters - the most exciting journey is an emotional one.
Dylan Dog is not a superhero, nor is he supernatural. He is a man who finds himself in extraordinary circumstances,” Kevin Munroe told Screen Daily.
We’re hopeful about this one. Fingers crossed it turns out decently – if it doesn't, we'll always have Hellboy III to look forward to…
[Pic source: Sci Fi ]
