Top Shelf Comix: "The Surrogates"

Comic book characters have always been played by hollywood heavyweights. However, for a while, with the exception of one or two, there were no comic book super hero movies being made.

Then in 1989 Warner Brothers released Batman, directed by Tim Burton and an all star cast. Michael Keaton, plays Batman / Bruce Wayne, Jack Nicholson plays the Joker / Jack Napier, and the lovely Kim Basinger plays Vicki Vale, Waynes love interest. This movie was a box office success, making tons of money for the studio, thus launching the return of comic books into major motion pictures.

What followed was a succession of other comic book themed movies. Some more successful than others but still successful enough for Hollywood to continue making them. Movies like Spiderman, the X-men, the Fantasic Four and others would follow. In fact so successful was the retun of comic books to the movies that Hollywood even began to re-do some of the successful movies and again make tons of cash, case in point: Superman Returns and Batman Begins.
Then came the sequels, Spiderman Two, (and its prequel Spiderman III), X-men Two, and the Fantastic Four Two.

But the trend in comic book movies is just begining, for now, the comic book publisher Top Shelf Comix, has announced that Super Star Bruce Willis will star in the film version of its comic book "The Surrogates," there 2005-06 five-issue sci-fi mini-series written by Robert Venditti with drawings by Brett Weldele.

The premise for "The Surrogates" movie is as follows; it is the year 2054 a time where technology has advanced so far that android substitutes, or surrogates, can actually live life for the humans that they substitute as. In 2054 humans simply stay at home and receive data feeds from their androids. In other words, the androids actually perform the day to day tasks that humans used to perform - like going to work, etc.

As the movie unfolds, a terrorist decides that it is better if society returned to the good old days when people lived their own lives. Bruce Willis will play a detective that is trying to stop the terrorist. The movie, which is licensed to Disney/Touchstone whom have hired director Jonathan Mostow and the screenwriting team of Michael Ferris and John Brancato, of "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" fame, is scheduled to start filming in February, and shot on location in Boston Massachusetts.