It’s now 16 years since the face-off between two high profile Wyatt Earp movies; 1994 saw the hugely enjoyable “Tombstone” soundly defeat Lawrence Kasdan’s ponderous (although not without its merits) “Wyatt Earp” both critically and commercially. So clearly, it’s time for Hollywood to go back to the well. Comic company Radical Studios are about to publish a series called “Earp: Saint for Sinners,” which moves the famous lawman to a post-apocalyptic Las Vegas, and unsurprisingly, the film rights have already been snapped up.
Dreamworks have picked up the rights for the series, setting its co-creator Matt Cirulnick (“Paid in Full”) to write a screenplay, and attaching Sam Raimi to direct. Since departing from the “Spider-Man” franchise, Raimi has been circling several major tentpoles, including video game adaptation “World of Warcraft,” and most recently “Oz The Great and Powerful” at Disney. However, few of these Radical Comics properties seem to have materialized (other projects include noir comic “Last Days of American Crime,” which has Sam Worthington set to star, and “Legends,” which Ron Howard and Brian Grazer are producing), so we’re not going to hold our breath.
To be honest, it sounds like old ground all over, really. Raimi’s pulp western “The Quick and the Dead” is a film we have a big soft spot for, but it seems like he’s covered this territory before, and the post-apocalyptic genre is only slightly less tired than vampires and zombies at this point. Maybe the comic has a fresh take on it, but we’ve seen nothing to suggest that so far. But like we said, if it ever happens, it’s likely a way off yet. [Deadline]