Sam Raimi Will Take Wyatt Earp Into The Future

When you think Sam Raimi, likely the last thing you think of is Westerns. Even though he did The Quick and the Dead, everyone’s seemed more than happy to pretend it didn’t happen. Since, the man’s been pretty firmly entrenched in the fantasy genre and has shown no sign of being interested in getting out of it. So Raimi and Wyatt Earp might seem like a strange fit, if it wasn’t Wyatt Earp, Blade Runner style.

THR says Raimi is set to direct Earp: Saints for Sinners, a movie based on an adaptation of a graphic novel. In it, the infamous, old West lawman is re-imagined and plopped down in the future where he does pretty much the same thing he always did except in a post-apocalyptic society where Las Vegas is the last boomtown.

Now I’m going to take a wildly unpopular stance. We’ve been giving graphic novels far too much credit. Whenever someone announces they’re adapting a graphic novel the nerd community oohs and aahs as if this is some justification of a beloved, infinitely creative artform which has too long been ignored. But you know what? Most of the comics being snatched up for adaptation aren’t really that creative. This thing definitely isn’t creative, at least as a concept. It’s the same format every other comic uses. They all seem to boil down to taking some existing concept and setting it in the future or repopulating it with zombies or something equally well, completely anti-creative. Yet everyone gives them credit for being edgy and creative when, the truth is, this really seems about as stagnant as everything already being made in Hollywood. Even the title’s kind of horrible, it sounds like the title of a direct-to-DVD sequel to Legion.

Maybe this Earp: Saints for Sinnersis incredibly well written, but I refuse to pat them on the back for giving Wyatt Earp lasers instead of revolvers. It’s really not that much more creative than your average Hollywood remake. Let’s hope Sam Raimi’s more creative when making it than they were when coming up with it.

I suppose I shouldn’t complain. It’s not like Raimi had anything more creative to do. His other potential next project based on World of Warcraft and, since it’s a video game, we all know how that would have turned out: horribly. At least that’s my stance until someone makes one that doesn’t suck. So give me Wyatt Earp in the default comic setting, why not. At least it’ll spare us from sitting through yet another failed video game movie and judging from photos I’ve seen of the comic, it contains a lot of naked strippers. Naked strippers is good, isn’t it? I guess not every filmmaker can be as creative as Christopher Nolan. The last time Sam Raimi tried to be original, no one bothered to buy a ticket.