Comic Book Casting: THE COURIERS Movie

After breaking into comics with his Image series Channel Zero, in 2003 Brian Wood expanded his horizons and partnered with artist Rob G on the story of two gun-heavy couriers that mixed Hong Kong action films with NYC street smarts and anti-establishment culture. Through three graphic novels (and a prequel illustrated by Brett Weldele), The Couriers became an indie success and brought Brian Wood with it. And now with the re-release of these stories in a comprehensive complete edition from Image, we thought what better time to think about a movie.

And it’s not like Hollywood hasn’t. But I’m tired of waiting — would Johnny Funwrecker have waited?

The Concept:

Now seems like a better time than ever to do action movies, if done right. Successes like Taken and more off-beat fare like The Raid: Redemption show there’s a market for it; writer/director/producer Luc Besson has practically made a career out of it, shepherding movies like Taken along with District 13 and others. For this I’d take a page from that French/Hong Kong action cinema style and create a Couriers movie as a fast-paced stylized piece of film-making. Instead of relying on A-list actors I’d go for some relative unknowns with talent that outstrips their popularity, and make something that would probably get buzz online, be released in a few theaters, but burn up the Netflix, Redbox and other box offices.

The original Couriers volume holds up well storytelling wise (with a few caveats), so essentially its a great first draft of a movie script. I’d redo some scenes to focus on the abilities of live-action over static comic images, but Rob G’s panels already have an impressive amount of movement for a comic.

The Director:

To direct this medley action film I’d pick frequent former Luc Besson protege, Pierre Morel. Morel directed the first Taken film, and also the excellent martial arts/parkour film District 13. With this kind of track record, you can see that he’s great at action but also doing more personal moments when needed.

The Cast:

Moustafa – Adam Deacon: For this lead role I hovered around casting more popular actors, but none of them seem to fit the story except UK actor Adam Deacon. I found out about him from the 2011 film Anuvahood, and have since backtracked his roles in previous movies and can see talent bursting at the seams for this star… but sadly no one outside of the UK has noticed that (yet). Playing the gun-toting Moustafa could be an ideal role for Deacon to break out in, and for Couriers to take advantage of all the talent he has.

Special – Britt Robertson: Again I opted for talent over sheer popularity, and cast Avalon High actress Britt Robertson as Special, the gun-crazy and yet still girlie part of the group. Robertson’s still bogged down into the typecasting as a TV actress, but she’s got alot of passion in what I’ve seen her in and I’d like to see her roughed up to play the role of Special.

The Girl – Wenwen Han: In The Couriers, the role of the Girl is rather of a one-note song — but that note of innocence and talent needs to be played strong. For this, I’d pick Karate Kid remake actress Wenwen Han. Although she’s a bit older than she looks, that works well for this small but pivotal role.

The General – Jet Li: Ahh, the General. One of my favorite comic book baddies. For this I’d cast a real star like Jet Li, someone who seems to have more fun when playing the villain than playing the hero. I’d probably increase his role in the movie to take advantage of Li doing it, but it’d still make him a much older but still dangerous Chinese Army general.

Jennie 2.0 – Mary Elizabeth Winstead: Although she only appeared in a one-panel cameo, Channel Zero‘s Jennie 2.0 could be a great role here to give the movie depth but also tease the potential of a backdoor Channel Zero spinoff. Winstead would be great for this, as seen her work on Scott Pilgriim vs. The World to the more tragic Smashed. Winstead-as-Jennie would be a great surprise, and maybe the role could be filled out a little bit since they have her.