Mark Canton, the producer who brought the comics ‘Men in Black’ and Frank Miller’s ‘300’ to the big screen has just signed on to adapt yet another lesser-known comic for film. Yesterday, Coming Soon announced that Canton’s Platinum Studios has acquired the rights to the comic series ‘Atlantis Rising’, created by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg (‘Cowboys and Aliens’).
‘Atlantis Rising’ was originally published as a five-issue miniseries. It was almost brought to the screen by Dreamworks before Platinum Studios re-acquired the rights. Now Canton and Rosenberg are set to bring the series to theaters and they already have franchise plans in mind. When discussing the potential of ‘Atlantis Rising’, Canton said:
‘Atlantis Rising’ has the franchise potential of ‘Men in Black,’ which I green lit for Scott while at Sony’s Columbia Tristar Motion Picture Companies. I’m looking forward to bringing it to the screen with Platinum as a dynamic, state of the art action thriller.
And while Canton describes ‘Atlantis Rising’ as an “action thriller”, Rosenberg is quick to add that there’s more to his story than just action. Rosenberg says that:
‘Atlantis Rising’ is a provocative sci-fi thriller that at its core brings up the question: whose planet is this?
Will Canton and Rosenberg have another hit on their hands with ‘Atlantis Rising’ or are they jumping the gun by claiming it’ll be a franchise before the first film is even made? The duo did make ‘Men in Black’ together and that went pretty well, what with the third film coming out later this year. So I guess only time will tell.
Of course, if ‘Atlantis Rising’ becomes a hit and the undersea adventures become the next Hollywood fad, it might mean that we’ll get that ‘Aquaman’ movie that some DC Comics fans have been asking for.
