youngblood

Last year, ‘Deadpool’ came out of nowhere, with its well-deserved R-rating for graphic violence, sex and foul language only to go on to be one of the year’s biggest hits at the box office.  And one person who is reaping the benefits is Deadpool’s creator Rob Liefeld.  Deadpool was introduced during Liefeld’s run on the Marvel comic book ‘The New Mutants’ and continued to appear after the book became ‘X-Force’.

Rob Liefeld
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At the height of his success at Marvel, however, Liefeld left to co-found Image Comics where he unleashed a slew of creator-owned titles including “Bloodstrike, Brigade, Lethal, Re‐Gex, Cybrid, Bloodwulf, Battlestone, Kaboom, and Nitro‐Gen.”  His creations were lumped together under the banner of the “Extreme Universe.”  Now after the success of ‘Deadpool’, it appears that Liefeld’s original creations are headed for the big screen in what he and his partners hope will lead to a shared cinematic universe.

Liefeld is partnering with Graham King and Fundamental Films.  Akiva Goldsman is helping to develop these projects and will head up a “writers room,” a similar process to the one Goldsman employed for Paramount for their Hasbro properties.  Liefeld, King, Goldsman plus Brooklyn Weaver will serve as producers, while Greg Lessans (President of Weed Road) and GK Films’ Denis O’Sullivan will serve as executive producers.

Liefeld announced in a statement:

“Over the past nearly 25 years, since launching Image Comics, I’ve been lucky enough to see the power of these stories and characters as they’ve resonated with several generations of comic book fans. To now be able to work with Akiva Goldsman and Graham King, who are powerhouses in their own right, to bring these compelling characters and conflicts to life on the big screen is nothing short of a dream come true!”

King added:

“Rob has an uncanny ability to create unique stories with unforgettable characters and EXTREME UNIVERSE is no exception. These stories are fantastic and I couldn’t imagine better partners on this project than Mark and his team at Fundamental Films.”

Oddly, there was no mention of Liefeld’s most famous Image creation, ‘Youngblood’, which has proven to be the most enduring of his projects.  Maybe it was just an oversight as it would most likely have a better chance than… Cybrid or Nitro-Gen (whatever those are).

Liefeld’s titles have been relaunched several times and have gone through long stretches of not being published at all.  It remains to be seen if these fairly obscure concepts can succeed against proven powerhouses from Marvel and DC.

Are you interested in seeing these creations on the big screen?