We’ve known for a few months that Mark Wahlberg and his producing pal Stephen Levinson wanted to turn the comic ‘Alien Bounty Hunter‘ into a blockbuster franchise and now we’ve uncovered few more details about the project which might interest you. The comic has been released through Vault Comics and was penned by Adrian F. Wassel and David M. Booher. The work itself is based on a story by Levinson and F.J. DeSanto who had envisioned a comic to film conversion from the get go. Art was handled by Nick Robles who has done a phenomenal job at bringing this science fiction setting to life.
The star of the book is bounty hunter Ben Madsen, and his job is to hunt aliens. Shocking, I know. While the plot follows the title, there is a bit more going on under the surface as Wahlberg states:
“Alien Bounty Hunter is one of those names where you think the title explains it all. You think you know what you’re getting, but once you strap in, you’ll realize ABH is so much more than you expected.”
Wahlberg might be a new kid on the block when it comes to the world of comics but these days he is no stranger to big budget cinema, and any film he stars in ends up hanging tough at the box office, making money hand over fist.
Levinson went on to add:
“We wanted to establish a grounded story in which the characters and their lives continued past the page. No matter how crazy our world or characters became, we wanted it to feel real and authentic to our story.”
The visuals look great, and that alone will help set the tone for a film that will almost require a ‘Blade Runner’ style of futuristic noir to match the preview art you can see here. In fact, we’ll see Madsen stumble upon a secret alien city which is hidden on Earth that is vital to the story as Booher mentions:
“Our goal from the start was to create an authentic world with real characters. Our hero Ben Madsen has some serious real-world problems. Even Lustrum, our completely alien city hidden on Earth, is divided into ‘Wards’ that take cues from familiar places like Shanghai and Brazil and the streets of Calcutta. No matter how crazy things get for Ben (and they get insane!), readers will always feel grounded in the roots of his character and the story.”
We’ve got some more artwork and sketches from the book which you can see right here:
Are you looking forward to checking out ‘Alien Bounty Hunter’? Do the vague details on the plot, and early looks from the comic seem like something made to show up on the big screen? Share your thoughts below!
The first issue of ‘Alien Bounty Hunter’ is set to land in comic shops this July!
Source: io9
Stuart Conover is an author, blogger, and all around geek. When not busy being a father and husband he tries to spend as much time as possible immersed in comic books, science fiction, and horror! Would you like to know more? Follow him on Twitter!
