'Rising Stars' in Development as a Feature Film

[Jan]

http://deadline.com/2016/06/rising-stars-j-michael-straczynski-mgm-top-cow-comics-superhero-1201772516/

EXCLUSIVE: MGM has optioned Rising Stars, the Top Cow comic series created by J. Michael Straczynski. He is set to write the script, and Alex Gartner and Richard Suckle will produce for Atlas Entertainment.

Rising Stars follows a special group of people all linked to one extraordinary event, and how they change the world we know into something we only imagined. It offers a new world of superheroes, as 113 children who were in utero when a meteor hit their Illinois hometown were left with special powers. Some of them are being murdered, and when that happens, their powers switch to the remaining “specials,” some of whom want nothing to do with this superhero business. Straczynski will also serve as a producer along with Atlas, though his Studio JMS banner.

[Ubik]

Cool beans. I liked Rising Stars a lot.

[Looney]

YES!

Speculation: This could be the big one people. I only hope it is made before people lose interest in Superhero movies.

[phazedout]

While I'm happy it is a movie I have to admit the first thought which flashed across my purely selfish) head was "we aren't getting a mini series?"

I've read the rising stars sequence more tan once and the massive, 400 plus page hardback colelction is pride of place in my graphic novels. I was hoping for 12 to 13 hours of tv...
That bieng said, the core essential nature of the store does lend itself to being trimmed down and I look forward to seeing what we get

[Looney]

And OBTW, I guess my collection of those comics just went up in value.

[Jan]

For those who remember that MGM had optioned 'Rising Stars' back while JMS was still writing the series, JMS had this to say:



As I recall (and I may be mistaken), there was an issue with Top Cow over rewrites of the script which caused the delay of several of the later issues of the maxi-series.

Jan

[Looney]

I AM SO EXCITED ! ! ! I REALLY hope this gets made quickly and does not go into "Development Hell". JMS' quote gives me great hope.

[Jan]

A couple of comments from JMS:

Thanks to all for the good words. Plan is, if this first one does well, to make it a trilogy of films then spin out some of the main characters into their own films, giving MGM an extended comics universe of its own.

I'm on the film as producer, along with the others. No desire to direct it.

Jan

[phazedout]

Oh I want to wear, in light of the uncredibly awfully tragic news, this gave me hope and made me sile.

Somewhat mollified Phaze

btw you might have noticed I mostly sign my posts with Phaze. I generally use Alan if I'm making political, social or really serious commentery. Phaze is the fun loving, cheeful alter Ego. Alan deals with the sad realities of the universe.

[Ubik]

Definitely good news, and it's a comic worthy of a film. My only concern is that audiences are getting a bit burnt out on superhero films. That said, the Marvel films are still making good money, but they do have a very high profile 'brand'.

Rising Stars also shares some casual similarities to Watchmen, but not enough that the two will be compared, or should be compared in any meaningful fashion.

[Looney]

I went to see what might be on IMDB about the status of the project. Here is what I found.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5814606/?ref_=fn_al_tt_7

So I think it is worth mentioning that it says "Animation" and doesn't mention JMS - not that either of these notes means much. I don't know if this page was established for JMS' RISING STARS or for an animated project called RISING STARS or if JMS' RISING STARS might be animated. I know you can't really trust what is posted on IMDB to be 100% accurate, especially this early in the process, but there is something there about something. So this page has been established for JMS' RISING STARS or there is another project In Developement called RISING STARS. And now we have more to discuss.

[Dan Dassow]

I went to see what might be on IMDB about the status of the project. Here is what I found.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5814606/?ref_=fn_al_tt_7

So I think it is worth mentioning that it says "Animation" and doesn't mention JMS - not that either of these notes means much. I don't know if this page was established for JMS' RISING STARS or for an animated project called RISING STARS or if JMS' RISING STARS might be animated. I know you can't really trust what is posted on IMDB to be 100% accurate, especially this early in the process, but there is something there about something. So this page has been established for JMS' RISING STARS or there is another project In Developement called RISING STARS. And now we have more to discuss.

IMDb does not provide a lot of information for film under development. As Jan can attest, IMDb Pro shows jms as the screenwriter.

SUMMARY
A group of children discover that they all were born with super powers.

Writer: J. Michael Straczynski (Screenplay)

[Jan]

Yeah, it's definitely showing JMS attached. I asked the question and put a screenshot up for JMS on Twitter.

ETA: Don't know how long it'll take to show but it should be fixed soon.

[Delenn_of_Mir]

Did you ask him if it was going to be animated, or was that a mistake?

Animation isn't always a bad thing. There are some really great anime's out there. My fave is The Girl Who Leaped Through Time. Really excellent!

[Jan]

Did you ask him if it was going to be animated, or was that a mistake?

I didn't ask since I figured if it had been that would have been part of the announcement.

It's been changed to "Sci-Fi" now. It's also been changed from 'optioned' to 'script' for the status.

Jan