The co-creator of Homage Comics' Red discusses the movie adaptation and Bruce Willis landing the lead role!
For the uninitiated, Red is a 3-issue limited comic book series created by writer Warren Ellis and artist Cully Hamner. Published in 2003 and 2004, the series told the story of Paul Moses, a retired CIA Agent targeted for assassination by the very agency he used to work for. When Moses realizes his life is forfeit, he goes "red" and decides to strike back.
Red was optioned by Summit Entertainment in 2008 and the screewriting duo of Erich and Jon Hoeber (Whiteout) adapted the comic for the screen. Robert Schwentke (The Time Traveler's Wife) will direct an all-star cast, with Bruce Willis playing the lead role of Paul Moses.
In a recent interview with Newsarama, Hamner said that the casting was a pleasant surprise:
"You know? It's news to me! I find out about these things probably about the same time everybody else does. Someone will send me an article, or I'll see something on the 'net. Very seldom do I find something out before anyone else does.
"What do we have so far? Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, Mary Louise Parker, John C. Reilly, Julian McMahon, Richard Dreyfuss, Bryan Cox and Ernest Borgnine.
"Is there anybody in this entire cast that's not a major award winner? I think all of them have either won or been nominated for an Oscar or a Golden Globe, if I'm not mistaken."
As for Willis playing the lead, Hamner said:
"Well, Bruce Willis is a good choice to play, well, the character in our book is Paul Moses. I'm not sure he'll have exactly the same name in the movie, but I could be wrong about that. But he's a good choice.
"But yeah, the book that we did has really only got four major characters in it. It's a tight little book. Paul Moses, in the book, is a pretty lonely guy. But this has a bigger cast than the book ever did."
While changing the name of his main character may seem like a big deal to some, Hamner said that he's okay with whatever changes are necessary to see Red on the big screen:
"I am totally cool with it. I understand the fact that, when you translate a comic to a movie, there are going to be some things that are either not going to make the translation or are going to add to it and become more than what you did. And with a comic like this that was three issues long -- I mean, we're talking 66 pages -- it has to be fleshed out a little bit. So I'm totally cool with that. I am looking forward to seeing it.
"To get this caliber of actor on board, I imagine the script is pretty good. So it's going to be real interesting to see. I'm pretty excited about it. It's going to be cool."
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