Mark Millar has this habit of talking rather loudly about things as though they’re fact far before they have ever actually become a sure thing. But just in case this happens to be one of those times that what he has to say is right on the money, it behooves me to pass along the news. So.
Regarding NEMESIS, a comic centered around the conceit of “what if Batman was The Joker:” Shot straight from a wedding in Manchester last week to the City of Angels and plunged straight into some studio biz on the Nemesis movie. Mighty Joe Carnahan is directing (from a script by he and his brother Matthew), but this much you already know. Fox wanted us to get in the same room for the first time and really hash this out, which was exciting. Joe has a really brilliant take on this and Matt and he are going to take things from here so I’m really happy. Absolutely no casting has been done formally although you can google the MTV interview from last January where he and Sir Liam Neeson are chatting about it.
Regarding THE SECRET SERVICE, which deals with a London rioter who is trained to be a superspy: Matthew Vaughn and I conceived The Secret Service a year or two back and plan to make into a movie once he’s wrapped the First Class sequel next year. Our inner-geeks are buzzing about the idea of seeing Mark H play himself on the Lucas stage if that’s where we end up filming (Hamill appears as a cameo character in the first issue of THE SECRET SERVICE), but this lunch was nothing official and just a thank you for Mark letting us kill him off. It’ll be eighteen months at least before we get into a Secret Service movie since X-Men 2 is such a huge commitment for Matthew.
So there you have it. Millar makes such divisive and decisive decisions in his comics that its hard for the internet to not become his rumor mill, but I live in the hope that it will pay off one day.