John Woo adds Caliber adaptation to his queue

Some genres seem made for certain directors. Terrence Malick and westerns. Alfred Hitchcock and thrillers. Weirdly, though, the genre that's probably most suited to John Woo is something he's never worked on: comic book adaptations. His worlds of improbable physics and superhuman feats of daring seem like a no-brainer transition for the genre. Even given his at-times-shakey work since coming to America, few will claim the man can't direct action.

So it's nice to hear, then, that Woo himself is finally getting with the times and looking  at comic books for work. Variety reports that Woo is directing an adaptation of the upcoming comic Caliber, which stars King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table as cowboys in the Pacific Northwest. How this comes to pass is unknown, but in all likelihood it's both ridiculous and almost completely irrelevant. While it's most likely a year or so before he starts work on the project, this may offer him a way to get back into the good graces of the American film community after a string of largely disappointing features in the past decade.

This won't be the absolute first time Woo's worked with comics, since he produced the series Seven Brothers a few years ago. And as noted above, it may be a bit before Woo gets things moving. Not only has the book for Caliber just been announced, but Woo is also in the midst of finishing up part two of his largest project ever, the Red Cliff epic. He had announced at Cannes plans to work on 1949, a Chinese period piece, and that may also take precedence.  While this announcement may not give immediate gratification, it's nice to know that Caliber is on the way, as dubious as its premise may be.

Related links:

John Woo on IMDb
News: John Woo confirmed to direct 1949
News: Cannes announces 2008 Lineup

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