On one level, we think it’s cool a lot of screenwriters are finding new ways of sneaking original ideas into Hollywood. It’s hard to distinguish your script from hundreds of other, possibly similar ones sitting on a producer’s desk. On another level, there’s something insidious about catering to the possibly-illiterate whims of most Hollywood producers by saying your property is based on a comic book, even if it’s a comic you created. As a result, some comics seem specifically created just to allow a movie version to get a green light, with movie-ready concepts and ideas obtained from an afternoon watching Showtime Extreme.
“The Unknowns,” which Brett Ratner’s Rat Entertainment has just acquired, sounds like it fits that description. From Femme Fatales Comics (?), the story concerns an average woman who finds out she was once the leader of a mysterious strikeforce before her memory was erased, and she has to track down who wiped her slate clean and why. “Mission: Impossible” meets “The Long Kiss Goodnight”? “X-Men” meets “The Bourne Identity”?
So many artists and writers slave away in the comic world, waiting for their original, independent press creation to inspire such a deal, when what they really need to do is hook up with models, producers and TV writers. “The Unknowns” is the brainchild of Mark Altman (the writer/producer of “House of the Dead”) and Steve Kriozere (“NCIS”) with additional “help” from model Monica Olsen, the template for the lead character who has no prior writing experience and was probably promised a role in the movie. Knowing Brett Ratner’s extracurricular habits (we could tell you some stories), it’s not hard to envision this entire deal being hashed out during one extravagant, drug-fueled plane ride with Ratner loudly declaring, “I’ll direct this next after ‘Beverly Hills Cop IV'” to no one in particular.
