Sony has hired Justin Marks to write a script based on the videogame Shadow of the Colossus, which I’m sure will be great because videogame movies are always great.

“Colossus,” which bowed exclusively on the PlayStation 2 in 2005, revolves around a man named Wander who must travel across a cursed wasteland and defeat 16 creatures, known as the colossi, in order to restore the life of a girl.

“Colossus” is the latest high-profile project for Marks, who is writing the redo of “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo” at Disney, with McG attached to direct. He recently landed “Suicide Squad,” based on the DC Comics book, at Warner Bros., for which he’s also written “Green Arrow: Escape From Supermax,” also based on the DC character, and “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.”  He’s also adapted “Hack/Slash” for Relativity, based on the Devil’s Due comicbook, and the ’80s TV toon “Voltron: Defender of the Universe,” for Mark Gordon Prods. [Variety]

This Justin Marks guy must have the best publicist in the world.  So far the only movie he’s written that’s been released was Street Fighter, and we know how that went ($8 million domestic gross, 4% on rottentomatoes).  I understand a bad director (and Chris Klein pretending he’s David Caruso) can ruin a good script, but I can’t imagine “he walks through the raindrops” looked any better on paper.  Yet he now has SEVEN SCRIPTS in development.  I’d love to assume that this guy’s getting hired based on talent, but the people hiring him are the same people who think a movie about a guy named “Wander” who fights giants is a good idea.  It wouldn’t suprise me that he just shows up to meetings wearing a beret and fake mustache, and the execs immediately turn to each other and go, “Whoa, this guy seems legit.”
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In this new clip from Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, corrupt beer truck workers try to tangle with Chun Li, but they get the surprise of their lives when they find out… she’s attached to wires!  See?  They can make anything boring nowadays. That now makes two Street Fighter movies and not one scene with Ron Perlman in Blanka makeup. NOT INTERESTED.

Disney’s remake of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, to be directed by McG, recently hired Justin Marks to re-write the script.  Justin Marks, of course, is the hottest writer in Hollywood who no one’s heard of.  So far he’s written the Street Fighter Movie, a script for a He-Man movie, a script for a Voltron movie, a script for a Green Arrow movie, and got hired earlier this year to adapt Hack/Slash – a comic book about a FEMALE ASSASSIN with EXPOSED PANTIES, whose title sounds like Nick Nolte’s to-do list.

Anyway, as /Film says, “Marks is well known in Hollywood as a screenwriter who gets the geek niche,” and continues to get work based on that perception.  So really, the best thing for his career right now would be if none his movies ever came out.

Today I have the good fortune of bringing you the news we’ve all been waiting for: the Voltron movie is back on.

Relativity Media is in negotiations to back the property, though on a more moderate budget, utilizing the type of cost-effective technology employed in films including "300."

He-Man scribe Justin Marks penned the screenplay which is being described as “a post-apocalyptic tale set in New York City and Mexico” which follows “five ragtag survivors of an alien attack [who] band together and end up piloting the five lion-shaped robots that combine and form the massive sword-wielding Voltron that helps battle Earth’s invaders.” Marks is also working on the Green Arrow prison break film SuperMax and a new Street Fighter spin-off. LatinoReview called the script “a fucking masterpiece” and CinemaBlend called it “a well put together, well intentioned, incredibly faithful Voltron script using modern sensibilities.” [/Film]

It’s a relief to hear that the adaptation will be faithful to the original.  I mean, at its heart, this is a simple story about alien-fighting cat-shaped robots who combine into a gigantic samurai.  Taking creative liberties with a story like that would just be fucking absurd.

Rogue pictures is planning another lame-sounding comic book movie called Hack/Slash.

Comicbook, created by Tim Seeley and Stefano Caselli, revolves around Cassie Hack, a young woman who travels the country and takes on homicidal maniacs and serial killers along the way.  The actioner will be heavy on comedy and horror. [Variety]

The film will be directed by Todd Lincoln and scripted by Justin Marks, who’s on a roll lately. Though none of his movies have been made yet, he’s also been hired to write Voltron: Defenders of the Universe, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Supermax (a Green Arrow movie), and Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li.

I’m sure this guy’s a real talent and all those movies sound like really great ideas. My only concern is that he stays true to the Green Arrow character and his quiver of boxing-glove, glue-trap, and net arrows.  It’d be a shame if he tried to modernize him, and we ended up with something silly, like an eye-poke arrow, or an arrow with a boot on it.  I mean, where’s the drama, man?

Though I think a rap-metal arrow is something to consider.  You could fire it into a crowd and the bodies would hit the floor.