Inside Dinosaurs Vs. Aliens with Grant Morrison – Coming Summer 2012

We’ve heard rumblings of the Dinosaurs Vs. Aliens project, which would be pairing acclaimed comic book writer Grant Morrison with the successful movie producer Barry Sonnenfeld (Men in Black) to create a story that’s pretty much as the title suggests, pitting Dinosaurs versus Aliens.  Today, the folks behind the project at Liquid Comics shared the details of the project, as well as idea of when to expect it, along with a TON of artwork and an exclusive statement from Grant Morrison about the project.

Liquid Comics revealed that coming this summer, Dinosaurs Vs. Aliens would be released to the world.  Starting on Free Comic Book Day on May 5th, 2012, there will be over 50,000 FREE preview editions available at participating comic shops.  That will be followed by a release of a premium hardcover released by Dynamite Entertainment in June priced at $19.99.  Additionally, Liquid is going digital with Dinosaurs Vs. Aliens, releasing an interactive app that will allow readers to read the story and other interactive extras.

The story for Dinosaurs Vs. Aliens was created by Barry Sonnenfeld who directed the insanely successful comic book adaptation of Men In Black (including the upcoming Men in Black 3, which hits theaters this summer).  Sonnenfeld teamed up with Morrison to adapt the story to graphic novel and the film screenplay, which Sonnenfeld will direct.  On the art side of things, Morrison teams up with Mukesh Singh, who’s previously worked with Morrison on the book 18 Days.

Below is a gallery of a TON of artwork from Dinosaurs Vs. Aliens, which includes concept sketches, fully rendered pages and even some pages from the story.  But first, we hear from Grant Morrison who provided us with this exclusive insight into the project:

When Sharad Devarajan calls with another extremely good idea, it’s wise to pay attention; would I – he asked – be interested in working with Barry Sonnenfeld to develop his original treatment “DvA” (Dinosaurs vs. Aliens) as a comic book series and a screenplay?

It sounded like a great idea. The opportunity to collaborate with one of the world’s most intelligent and iconoclastic popular storytellers was foremost in my mind, of course – as was the chance to corral Barry and drone at him for hours about how brilliant “Wild Wild West” was and always will be. And oh! “Addams Family 2” especially “2 “! And so on. Fortunately, when I read Barry’s treatment prior to our first meeting, it sparked into life some story thoughts I’ve been trying to articulate for a long time and triggered a wave of images, ideas and possibilities that gave us so much more to talk about than who can stare the hardest – Will Smith or Tommy Lee Jones? From that original energized back-and-forth on dinosaurs, metaphors and politics – overlooking the primordial Pacific – grew this immense story of warring cultures, epic deeds and, we hope, unforgettable characters.

A screenplay and a comic series are very different things, of course, and I had no desire to shortchange either form by writing one interchangeable script. The graphic novel, “Dinosaurs vs. Aliens” is a different kind of labor of love that relies on the skills I’ve learned at my day job as a comic book writer. It tells its own version of a mythic tale as brought to mind-bendingly plausible life by the incandescent genius that is Mukesh Singh. After his glorious artwork graced our previous collaboration on Liquid Comics, “18 Days,” I was eager to get together with Mukesh, on another project and Sharad was there to make it happen. Mukesh inspires me to create my very best work and I hope this is no exception. For DvA, he combines a natural historian’s eye with the widescreen bravura and kinetic editing of Hollywood that speaks to the project’s genesis. At the same time, this is a book that forces readers to slow down and become immersed in those landscapes. This is a book that greatly rewards lingering on the subtle expressions, gestures and actions that tell the deeper story in a way that only a reader can do.

In both formats – as a screenplay with Barry’s patient, insightful support and constant encouragement to be bold and creative, or as a graphic novel with Mukesh soaring sublime – I’ve had immense and blissful fun with every stage of this project and enjoyed the sheer luxury of working with incredibly imaginative and intelligent people. And some pretty smart dinosaurs too, as you’ll see.

In a year or two when the whole world’s talking about this whole immense dinosaurs versus aliens thing you’ll be digging this out and boasting how you saw it here first. Listen closely. Is that thunder? Or voices? Or the opening chords for the end of worlds?

The monsters are coming.

-Grant Morrison