1/31/2012

Martial arts superhero comic, 'The Weapon', headed to the big screen


Finally, a superhero movie I can get excited for that doesn't involve my beloved X-men. Platinum Studios has announced their plan to develop a film based on The Weapon, the awesome comic book created by one of my favorite scribes, Fred Van Lante. Let's hope this turns out better than the last adaptation of one of his comics, the awful Cowboys & Aliens.

The Weapon follows martial arts enthusiast Tommy Zhou, who discovers the means to create solid objects out of light. Using some of the old Chinese legends he was told by his grandfather, he creates a superhero persona for himself as well as his own origin story. But what Tommy doesn't know is that those old stories were true, making him the target of a millennia old cult of assassins known as the Lin Kuie. 

Platinum has clear designs on making this a potential franchise, and will probably try to market it to a broad international audience given the character's Chinese heritage. As much as superhero movies have become so commonplace, there remains a pretty severe lack of ethnic properties being adapted, so it'll be interesting to see how this plays out. Fingers crossed there isn't a "white washing" that takes place.