Remake & Reboot: The Witchblade Movie

“A female detective comes into possession of a mystical and powerful weapon that she uses to battle crime and evil.”

That’s the short premise of Top Cow’s long-running series Witchblade. Created by ensemble of talent including Marc Silvestri and Michael Turner, it metamorphed into the flagship title for Top Cow, supplanting its debut series Cyberforce and spawned The Darkness, Angelus and several other series, limited series and one-shots. Witchblade might be pigeon-holed by some as a bad girl comic, but it’s long outgrown that into a mature police procedural with supernatural influences – think Powers with dark fantasy. With the work of long-running current writer Ron Marz, the world of Witchblade has expanded to encompass twelve other mystical artifacts akin to the powerful Witchblade while keeping Sara Pezzini’s law enforcement background front and center.

I have to admit that there hasn’t been a proper Witchblade feature film, but the non-comics public has gotten a taste of Top Cow’s flagship female with the two season TV series on TNT from 2000-02 as well as the 2006 anime series of the same name. Back in 2009, Top Cow & Platinum Studios announced a live action film in the works with frequent Battlestar Galactica director Michael Rymer at the helm. Since then there haven’t been any further developments announced, leading people to believe the project is shelved or undergoing new direction.

So listen up, Hollywood…we’ve got a direction for you.

The Concept

Some people say you can tell a book by its cover, but for Witchblade that cover can be deceiving. No one will deny the primal alluring nature of a beautiful woman strapped with a magical weapon-turned-gauntlet, but that isn’t all there is to the story. At its heart, Witchblade is about a female police detective became the artifact’s bearer after a bloody gunfight that claimed the life of her partner. This life-saving switch brought her into the secret mystical world that taught her about the Witchblade’s previous user & murderer of her partner, and put her on the path to avenge that death and bring those evil forces to justice. Along the way she learns about other related artifacts such as the Darkness and Angelus, as well as their bearers that might not be as altruistic as her.

For this movie to work, that origin would be played up with original villains Kenneth Irons and Ian Nottingham. Although the police elements were only emphasized later on in the comics run, I’d do that early on here by giving her to-be-deceased partner a meaty role as well as her boss Captain Peyoux and her daughter Danni Baptiste, a future rival for the Witchblade. You could also cameo other characters such as mobster Jackie Estacado (aka The Darkness), as well as the Catholic Church’s ceremonial super-soldier the Magdalena.

The Director

This wouldn’t be the first major motion picture for Top Cow; they did Wanted several years back, and it’s a little-known fact that because of a convoluted rights issue, Marc Silvestri was one of the producers for the recent A-Team remake. For this ambitious film, I’d recommend they go with a trusted hand at action movies – but also one with something to prove. Director John McTiernan is best known for his back-to-back mega-hits of Predator, Die Hard and The Hunt For Red October. Since then he’s found trouble fitting in the blockbuster-sized shoes of his most famous work, doing smaller films like The Thomas Crown Affair remake, Rollerball and Basic. He’s currently working on an Iraqi war drama called The Camel Wars, but he seems primed to do an action thriller and Witchblade could be just the thing.

The Cast
 

Sara Pezzini / Witchblade – Olivia Wilde: After her star turn as the enigmatic Thirteen on TV’s House, Wilde has become the resident box-office blockbuster femme fatale with roles in last year’s TRON: Legacy as well as the forthcoming Cowboys & Aliens. She’s already got five more feature films in the can and prepping for a late 2011 and 2012 release, but she’s yet to be given a chance to carry her own film. Wilde possesses an immense amount of charisma for someone so young on film, and could be a convincing female lead for both her looks and her acting chops.

 

Kenneth Irons – Jason Isaacs: Although he’s a major villain in the Harry Potter films, he plays a second fiddle role to the overpowering Voldemort. He’s played the villain role on numerous occasions, and he could take the Irons role and make it live and breathe even in an effects-heavy environment.

 

Ian Nottingham — Orlando Bloom: Bloom has accumulated a rather dashing track record of films from Lord of the Rings to Pirates of Caribbean, so I’d love for him to go against type and play a special forces antagonist. In comics, Nottingham is written with a bit of a heart, so Bloom could still do the smoldering looks while showing a darker diversity to his abilities.

 

Captain Peyroux – Jamie Lee Curtis: Curtis was one of the first take-charge female action heroes – just think about Halloween. Although she may be best known these days for her role in those Activia commercials, Curtis has feature-level acting skills and she’d be an ideal cop boss and connection to the would-be future Witchblade and her daughter, Danni Baptiste.

 

Danni Baptiste – Dianna Agron: Although her story-arc would be saved for a future film, a few minutes of screen time for Dianna Agron as Baptiste could set up some future conflict and rivalry for her later to vie for the Witchblade and eventually assume the role of the Angelus. Agron seems like a movie-star in waiting, from her work on Glee to the overlooked I Am Number Four from earlier this year.