In 2010, Robert Schwentke directed “RED”, an action film notably worn by Bruce Willis. But did you know that the feature film is based on a DC Comics comic book?
RED : The Expendables poor?
While on his side, Sylvester Stallone brings together a team of super veterans in Expendables , a team which also includes Bruce Willis, Robert Schwentke decided to do the same with RED. In 2010, the filmmaker, who notably staged the Divergent 2 and 3, RIPD Phantom Brigade and the recent Snake Eyes, also brings together a brilliant cast including Bruce Willis, but also John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Brian Cox, Morgan Freeman and Mary-Louise Parker.
The story tells the fate of Frank (Bruce Willis) who no longer supports his state of inactivity. At the same time, it’s not easy to drop out when you’ve been a CIA agent. Obviously, his old life will catch up with him when his former boss tries to eliminate him and his former colleagues. RED was relatively well received by spectators and brought in over $ 199 million in box office revenue (for a budget of 58 million). A score that prompted Lionsgate to produce a sequel in 2013.
The BOOK comic book that inspired the film
What we don’t necessarily know is that RED is adapted from an eponymous comic written by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner in 2003. This relatively unknown series, distributed by Homage Comics, a firm owned by DC Comics, was first published in three episodes which will then be combined into a single book of about sixty pages. In this one, the protagonist is not called Frank Moses but Paul Moses.
Other than this minor difference, the comic and the film have much the same story. Paul Moses is also being sued by his former employers. Paul is a simple man. His days are often the same: without a wife or children, he spends his time calling Sally, an agent overseeing his retirement. His past acts haunt him through nightmares, which sometimes prevent him from sleeping.
RED remains a minor work by Warren Ellis, great American comic book writer. With albums like The Authority, Fell Where Desolation Jones, he is the author of emblematic works. However, RED is not one of them. Real guilty nanar, the comic owes its release in France to the adaptation of Robert Schwentke. To accompany the release of the film, Cully Hamner completed the basic work with two new unpublished chapters prequel to the original story entitled: Red: Eyes Only. Warren Ellis blessed the project but declined to participate. In addition, four other prequels were imagined on the characters created for the purposes of the film, namely Joe, Marvin, Victoria and Frank. Eyes Only and these four prequels are to be found in a limited edition entitled Better RED Than Dead.
