files/pictures/picture-35.jpgPlatinum Studios and Blue Star Pictures have signed a deal with directors Danny and Oxide Pang to direct the upcoming feature film, THE DARKNESS, based on the popular comicbook published by Top Cow Prods. Inc. Platinum Studios will finance 50% of the production. Platinum, Blue Star and the Pang Brothers are jointly looking for a writer.
THE DARKNESS is also being produced as a videogame for the next generation systems and is one of the only comicbook adaptations currently announced for the new Xbox 360. Published by Majesco Ent., the videogame is being developed by Starbreeze, creators of THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK: ESCAPE FROM BUTCHER BAY. The game is scheduled to be released early 2007.
Danny and Oxide Pang, twin brothers best known for horror flick, THE EYE, recently finished another Blue Star feature, THE MESSENGERS, starring Dylan McDermott, John Corbett and Penelope Ann Miller, for Mandate Pictures and Sony/Columbia.
In THE DARKNESS, mafia hitman Jackie Estacado discovers he is the heir to a formidable mystical force called the Darkness and he is the only one who can stop a supernatural power bent on enslaving humanity.
"The Pang brothers' unique horror style suits this project very well," said Platinum Studios chairman, Scott Mitchell Rosenberg. "This is an opportunity to develop one of Platinum's many horror-genre properties with two of the best horror-directors available."
The film is set up at Miramax with a progress to production clause through January 2006.
THE DARKNESS, created by Marc Silvestri, Garth Ennis and David Wohl, is one of today's hottest comicbook properties, with print sales topping $25 million. Its huge popularity has even prompted inter-company crossovers, teaming up and fighting against such icons as Marvel's Hulk, DC's Batman and, most recently, Superman.
"When we first approached Danny and Oxide with the idea, we found out they were already fans of the book," says Blue Star partner William Sherak. "The ideas they started coming up with were exactly in line with what we and Platinum had already discussed. We knew right then they were the only ones who could do this."
Rosenberg will produce for Platinum, with director of development Aaron Severson and director of production Jay Burns as co-producers. Top Cow founder and THE DARKNESS creator Marc Silvestri will serve as exec producer and Top Cow president Matt Hawkins as co-producer. Rhiannon Meier will oversee development for Blue Star Pictures. Platinum's Rich Marincic will also be working on the project.
Blue Star Pictures is a full service production company with a first-look deal at Revolution Studios and Sony Pictures Ent. Under the banner, Sherak and his partner Jason Shuman produced 2003’s DARKNESS FALLS, as well as the 2004 romantic comedy LITTLE BLACK BOOK with Brittany Murphy and Holly Hunter. This year, the company produced its first television movie, the Emmy-nominated DAWN ANNA, starring Debra Winger, which aired on the Lifetime Network.
Platinum Studios (
www.platinumstudios.com ) is an entertainment company that controls the world’s largest independent library of comicbook characters, which it adapts and produces for film, television and all other media. Platinum Studio’s library contains more than 2,500 characters and a full range of genres and styles that have appeared in hundreds of millions of comics worldwide. Platinum Studios has acquired the exclusive rights to develop Top Cow’s extensive library of comicbook characters as well as Europe’s largest creator-owned comicbook syndicate, Hexagon Comics, for film and television.
Top Cow (
www.topcow.com ) was founded in Dec. 1992 and publishes its line of comicbooks in 21 languages in more than 55 different countries.
