Waterman Entertainment announced on Tuesday that they have acquired the film rights to the Marvel comic book series ‘Strikeforce:Morituri’ and plans to begin production of the movie version in December of this year. Peter B. Gillis, who created the comic book, will be adapting the script alongside Conner Cochran with Jeff Beard serving as producer. This will be the first film Waterman Entertainment has actually developed.
The ‘Strikeforce: Morituri’ comic book series ran from 1986 to 1990 with 36 issues total. For those of you unfamiliar with the series, the story takes place on a future version of Earth where a race of savage aliens called the Horde invades and nearly conquers the planet. In order to defend against the Horde, a scientist develops the Morituri process – a means to genetically alter and enhance a human’s physical attributes while also giving them unique superhuman powers. The drawback was that anyone who went through this process was guaranteed to die within a year. The comic book series focused on the bravery of its main characters as they fought against the Horde while knowing their time on the planet was short. The name of the title comes from the Latin phrase “Morituri te salutamus” meaning, “We who are about to die salute you!”
According to Variety.com, executive VP Tucker Waterman was quoted saying, “The premise of ‘Strikeforce’ is one that hasn’t been explored in film before and we believe will resonate with today’s film and comicbook fans. In the spirit of Comic-Con and with the help of the distinguished Peter Gillis, we’re eager to bring this story to life.”
The basis of ‘Strikeforce:Morituri’ makes me think of ‘Falling Skies’ meets ‘X-men’ but it does give a person something to ponder: Would you volunteer to fight alongside the resistance and be genetically transformed knowing that you would die in 1 year whether you succeeded or not? And although this acquisition may be exciting to the fans of ‘Strikeforce’, with all the superhero movies that are being released, do you think there’s room for one more?
