Taika Waititi to direct an adaptation of The Incal

[Fyraltari]

So, this dropped a few days ago.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DkxB75CNvA



The Incal is a comic book created by the cooperation of two legends of European comic books, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Jean "Mœbius" Giraud, after their attempt at a Dune movie failed to materialize. It's a metaphysical (like, it's full of references to tarot and alchemy) space opera epic that follows a private eye called John Difool ("The fool", very subtle), living in an oppressive space empire, who ends up tasked with protecting a mysterious artefact called the Light Incal and saving the universe. All that good stuff. But in the process, John ends up going through a number of mystical/magical experiences each more surreal than the next and ends up discovering the secret of life. I think. The whole thing feels a bit like what I imagine taking LSD is like.

Its huge scope and off-the-wall imagery made such an impact that basically all of your favorite sci-fi's design choices (in comics and movies, at least) has at least one or two roots in it.

The Incal is quite possibly the greatest science-fiction comic book ever committed to paper, and Jodorowsky seems to approve the project so I am quite a bit optimistic about this. Still, I don't know much about Waititi's cinematography (I've only seen Jojo Rabbit, which I liked) so I can only hope he's up to the challenge. Especially since the comparisons to Villeneuve's Dune are sure to come. No release date was announced, but such a project is sure to take a lot of time, so I would guess it won't come out before three or four years, but who knows.

Gotta say, I'm really enjoying all those new big-budget sci-fi projects we are getting these days.

[Mechalich]

Distressingly, this seems like the kind of project that might never actually happen. There's no big studio attached to this, and to make any sort of real effort to turn The Incal into a feature film you need something in the range of $150 million minimum (Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, in many ways a similar IP, cost 180 million). Taika Waititi is a popular and in demand director with friends at Disney (he directed multiple episodes of The Mandalorian in addition to his Marvel work), but he's not Christopher Nolan, probably the only director working today who could easily convince a studio to drop this kind of cash for a high concept science fiction project.

On the other hand there's a lot of stuff attached to The Incal since it's part of the greater 'Metabarons' universe which means that if you got it right and made a really great movie you could launch a franchise. It seems like a project for a streaming service, probably either Netflix or Amazon (Disney and HBO have sci-fi franchises already). Netflix in particular already hosts a lot of high concept European science fiction so it feels like the proper home for this project.

[Tyndmyr]

Still, I don't know much about Waititi's cinematography (I've only seen Jojo Rabbit, which I liked) so I can only hope he's up to the challenge.

He's probably the best choice for this. He's also recently done, for instance, Thor: Ragnarok, which had a certain amount of epic scale, albeit not in quite the same way.

Yeah, he's got a certain degree of humor in most of his stuff, but for the big epics, I think that helps keep them from getting overly ponderous. If we look back at say, Star Wars, there's a certain balance between light heartenedness and serious moments. It could work.

[Fyraltari]

Distressingly, this seems like the kind of project that might never actually happen. There's no big studio attached to this, and to make any sort of real effort to turn The Incal into a feature film you need something in the range of $150 million minimum (Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, in many ways a similar IP, cost 180 million). Taika Waititi is a popular and in demand director with friends at Disney (he directed multiple episodes of The Mandalorian in addition to his Marvel work), but he's not Christopher Nolan, probably the only director working today who could easily convince a studio to drop this kind of cash for a high concept science fiction project.

On the other hand there's a lot of stuff attached to The Incal since it's part of the greater 'Metabarons' universe which means that if you got it right and made a really great movie you could launch a franchise. It seems like a project for a streaming service, probably either Netflix or Amazon (Disney and HBO have sci-fi franchises already). Netflix in particular already hosts a lot of high concept European science fiction so it feels like the proper home for this project.
Hmm, that's a good point. Humanoids doesn't have the infrastructure to make a movie like this nor the dough to finance one. I hope they get a partner soon enough.

He's probably the best choice for this. He's also recently done, for instance, Thor: Ragnarok, which had a certain amount of epic scale, albeit not in quite the same way.

Yeah, he's got a certain degree of humor in most of his stuff, but for the big epics, I think that helps keep them from getting overly ponderous. If we look back at say, Star Wars, there's a certain balance between light heartenedness and serious moments. It could work.
Oh, The Incal has a fair share of funny, what with, for example, Kill Dog-Head's entire character.