Home Entertainment The Lobo movie is happening again. Yay! Brad Peyton is set to direct. Boo!

The Lobo movie is happening again. Yay! Brad Peyton is set to direct. Boo!

3 min read
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Listen up, ya fraggin’ bastiches! It looks like the “Main Man” is once again looking to attempt the transition from the comics page to the cinema screen. As a long time Lobo fan, this certainly puts a smile on my face. Unfortunately though, Warner Bros has wiped it right off again by picking Journey 2: The Mysterious Island director Brad Peyton as the man in charge of this attempt.

For those of you not aware, Lobo is the white skinned, foul-mouthed, alien bounty hunter that gained huge amounts of popularity in the 90’s with his eponymously named comic book from DC Comics. As the sole surviving member of the Czarnian race (he massacred his entire planet as part of a high school science project) Lobo was an almost indestructible anti-hero and the galaxy’s most feared bounty hunter, riding his space-hog motorcycle through the cosmos, bringing in fugitives and getting drunk along the way. He’s crossed paths with and fought to a standstill a number of DC’s top characters, including Superman and Batman, mainly because of his tendencies to… well, not really give a crap about anybody or anything besides getting himself paid.

He’s had a number of memorably violent and totally ludicrous adventures, including taking out Santa Claus (who knew Ol’ Kris Kringle was such a badass with a knife?) on behalf of some toy companies and even being killed and then subsequently banned from both Heaven and Hell (gaining him immortality) after causing too much trouble.

And with all that violent and absurd material to choose from, I don’t think that the guys over at WB could have made a worse choice than Brad Peyton. Despite it making the type of stupid amounts of money normally reserved for an ex-Beatles divorce settlement, his Journey 2 was an unimaginative, toothless, bore of a film that was slated by most critics, myself included.

Lobo is going to need somebody that can balance the excessive violence, satirical tone and just general craziness without it turning into a complete farce, and judging by his past record, Peyton is not the man to do it.

He is of course not that first director that’s been tapped to bring Lobo to the screen, as Snatch director and ex Mr. Madonna, Guy Ritchie was also working on a film back in 2009. The script that he and Don Payne drafted had Lobo coming to Earth and teaming up with a small town girl to track down four escaped alien fugitives. Despite Ritchie having the directorial chops to pull it off, the script was severely lacking the oomph that had made the character so popular originally. Eventually though, Richie decided to abandon the project, and it’s been in hiatus until now.

One of the biggest challenges facing Peyton, would of course be in realizing Lobo’s very unique look. It will more than likely involve heavy makeup work as well as a couple of CGI magic tricks. But even all of that won’t be enough if they don’t have the right actor to work with. As luck would have it, an actor who (almost) perfectly fits the mould has already shown interest.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen, The Losers) spoke to SuperHeroHype back when Ritchie was still attached to the project:

“[T]hey’re making Lobo right now. That would be cool. Lobo would be very cool. I don’t think that I’m as big as Lobo is, but if you could, like, transplant Mickey Rourke’s body on my head, that would be just great.”

“You’re always looking for material that’s kind of smart and fun and this seems to be where it is right now. The studios are really gravitating towards it, more than I’ve ever seen them gravitate towards anything in a long time. Comic books are really the thing right now and I don’t see that going away for at least the next couple of years.”

I could really see Morgan taking on the role, but Peyton? Feetal’s Gizz!

Last Updated: April 23, 2012

4 Comments

  1. James Francis

    April 23, 2012 at 15:27

    With the studios’ fetish for making PG13 movies? I doubt this will be any good when and if it reaches screens.

    Reply

  2. Justin Hess

    April 23, 2012 at 16:10

    Nope, Lobo’s couldn’t give a toss, anti-hero bent would make for an extremely difficult sell. 

    But this article means I’m probably going down to Readers to pick up trades or back issues of that first Lobo run that was published by Battleaxe here in SA. With Mort Fatala and the Motley Crue. That was a damned entertaining read and probably a sight better than this movie would ever be

    Reply

  3. Kervyn Cloete

    April 23, 2012 at 23:55

    Yeah, I just can’t see mainstream Hollywood having the testicular fortitude to see Lobo done properly, and with Peyton at the helm, I expect nothing but limp wristed drivel all around.

    Reply

  4. Brad

    April 24, 2012 at 20:27

    Space dolphins , cigars and entrails! Would have loved to have seen a proper hard R version. Will still watch it though.

    Reply

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