Ed Burns : Like a Virgin… In comics !

[ENGLISH] Edward Burns is more famous for his dramas than his love for the comics medium. Last July, at the San Diego Comicon, while promoting his upcoming thriller, « One Missed Call », Ed « came out » and announced a comic book series to be released at Virgin Comics. Comic Box was there…

Edward Burns est plus connu pour ses films dramatiques que pour son amour des comics. Lors du dernier Comicon de San Diego, alors qu’il faisait la promotion de son prochain film, « One Missed Call » (réalisé par le français Eric Valette), il a fait son « coming out comics » et annoncé un projet à paraître chez Virgin Comics. Comic Box était là…

Edward Burns isn’t your typical « geeky » director. He’s more known for his dramas and romantic comedies such as Brothers McMullen, She’s the One or the recent Purple Violets. He was in San Diego to promote a thriller he’s starring in, « One Missed Call ». But, he had another announcement in his pocket that day. Lise Benkemoun from the Comic Box staff had her mic there :

« I like genre movies. I starred in One Missed Call because it’s the kind of movies I wouldn’t pick as a director. There are two things I’m doing now. One… Based on my relationship with the japanese company who holds the rights from this title [One Missed Call, which is a remake of a Takeshi Miike movie], I’m gonna do another one of their titles called Rainy Dogs, a gangster film that I transposed in 1902, New York. We’re gonna shoot that this winter, with me directing. I’m playing a small part in it. The interesting thing is this is a gangter movie with two scene that have an horror approach. So I thought about what to show, and what not to show. The business has changed so dramatically these past five years. My style of filmmaking is dying… Theatrically, it’s over. A year ago, I thought I was going to take my characters, the world that I’m passionate about and apply them to bigger films. So I had an idea for a small gangster movie that i wanted to do, set in 1920s, in the prohibition. I looked at it and thought I would cost about 80 million dollars. After I saw Sin City, I thought maybe it was the right thing to do. And after I saw 300, I was SURE it was the right thing to do. You can completely recreate 1920s New York in CGI, green screen, with actors. I took a meeting with Virgin Comics. Presented my project. And they said : « What if we take your gangters and give them slightly hyper skills. » Like Ang Lee’s « Hidden Dragon, Crouching Tiger ». We did that. Sat down. And the result is called the « Dock Walloper » and it’ll become first a comic book mini-series at Virgin Comics before we make the movie. Jimmy Palmiotti is writing from my script. This will be my next movie after Rainy Dogs. »

DOCK WALLOPER starts this november in the US. From Virgin Comics.