Mage Movie Details Revealed

Matt Wagner spoke to Comics 2 Film last week about his recently announced Mage movie deal.

Andrew Cosby and Ross Richie of Critical Mass Entertainment are the producers of the movie.  "They approached me actually, several years ago, they were fledgling producers and really wanted to give me a pitch on how they saw the movie running," Wagner told us.  "We're really on the same wavelength as to what the movie should be."

The trio are enthused about working with Spyglass Pictures, who recently optioned the movie.  "Spyglass had seen the property a while ago and was very excited about it.  When we finally put it fully out there, they were not only the first ones to bite but they were the ones that both Andrew and Ross seemed to think were in absolute agreement with what the movie should be."

Spyglass appreciated the concept where other potential filmmakers didn't seem to get it.  Wagner explained, "Some of the interest we'd had from people were along these lines, 'Yeah! Yeah! We love it! but can we get rid of the King Arthur stuff and does [a major character] have to die at the end?'  If it was a totally different property and movie!"

Spyglass on the other hand "seems to be more interested in making it an accurate depiction.  After seeing The Sixth Sense, they're obviously someone who's willing to pay attention to story."

Wagner's also excited to have hooked up with screenwriter John Rogers for the project, "We really feel like we caught John, on his way up, in a big way.  I think we're going to see a lot of important things from him."

We asked Wagner how that relationship began.  "He came looking for us when he heard Spyglass had it because he's such a big Mage fan," the comic creator told C2F.  "He's been a television writer and a stand-up comic and he just sold his screenplay for Jesse James which is just terrific.  I forget which studio is doing it, but they're filming his first draft which is, like, unheard of.  Once I read it I could see why everybody immediately thought he could do Mage."

Wagner continues, "[Jesse James] is very character heavy and yet there's also lots of action. He's really great about doing dialog amongst the group without being ponderous.  Character gets exposed during the action.  His quips are funny, you don't see them coming a mile away.  They're not pop topical."

Although he expects great work from Rogers, Wagner reiterated that he doesn't expect the movie to be exactly like the comic. "It's not going to be a panel-by-panel rendition.  I don't think it should be a panel-by-panel rendition.  The whole point is to catch the various high points and a lot of the visual things that people remember from it, like for instance, Kevin falling through the elevator.  It's just important to catch those scenes.  They don't necessarily have to be in exactly the same points they were in the book. that's what translation is all about."

Wagner told us that the Mage movie may take precedence over the third arc of the comics.  However he won't wait another 10 years before continuing his semi-autobiographical work.  "To me it's all allegory, it's all metaphor which is the way I look at myth and religion anyway," Wagner said of the autobiographical nature of Mage.  "But the people that populate it are drawn from my real life.  The three witches in The Hero Defined: that's my wife and her sisters.  The next volume will definitely be the Kevin and Magda show.  My son can't wait until he's in Mage.

"Mage is very strange for me.  I don't plan it out.  It happens to me.  Unlike anything else I work on I don't write out a plot, I don't do any thumbnails, I sit down with blank pages and just start going.  I know where I want it to take me, and where I want it to end issue by issue but getting there is this page by page step by step process.  I love that with Mage.  It just happens.  It just flows out of me."

Another project for Wagner is the upcoming Grendel novel.  About a month ago, Greg Rucka, who had just signed a deal to adapt his Whiteout as a movie, revealed he was writing a the novel which Wagner will illustrate.

"Its a Grendel Prime story," Wagner told C2F.  "It's just great, Greg's a great writer."

Wagner reveals that the story centers on "Susan Veraghen, the gal with the white skin in the green hair [from Grendel: War Child].  It's the story about how, she's in exile, and she searches out Grendel Prime who's also in exile and becomes his companion.  They become a team basically.  She's his Robin."

The illustrated novel is due out in April.

Added 03/29/00