Film Adaptation of "King of Killers" Coming From "Underworld" Creator

[Cicada 5]

Underworld co-creator and star, Kevin Grevioux, is developing a film adaption of the upcoming graphic novel, King Of Killers.

Grevioux, who starred in Underworld as the werewolf Raze and also created Blue Marvel for Marvel Comics, will write the screenplay and direct the story which focuses on a hitman who has no choice but to enlist in a $10 million competition for the world's elite assassins in Tokyo, in order to save his daughter's life.

Underworld Star Developing Film Adaptation of King Of Killers

Underworld co-creator and star Kevin Grevioux is developing a film adaption of the upcoming assassins' war graphic novel King Of Killers.

www.cbr.com

 

[BrawlMan]

I'm kind of neutral or indifferent, because I do not like any of the underworld films. The third film can be fun at times. Most of them are so boring and forgettable.

 

[happyninja42]

I'm kind of neutral or indifferent, because I do not like any of the underworld films. The third film can be fun at times. Most of them are so boring and forgettable.

I'm kind of mixed feelings about the underworld franchise. On one hand, I enjoyed it a lot, because it was one of the few times in pop media, that the werewolves, were portrayed as a culture, and potentially as protagonists. It felt VERY much like World of Darkness, in that both factions had pros/cons. Prior to Underworld, if a werewolf was in a movie, it was either the badguy entirely, or it was a curse the protagonist was inflicted with, eventually curing them of it by the end. And it wasn't a literal nation of them either. It would be like a few werewolves at most.

But underworld, from the first film, made you question if the werewolves were actually the badguys, that the protagonist had been raised to believe. This was expanded on later, and fleshed out to be more of a Romeo/Juliet, warring families in a dumb conflict because of asshole leaders with grudges, kind of vibe. My favorite film was the prequel Rise of the Lycans, where they were straight up the protagonists. It was still cheesy B grade action, but it was WEREWOLF B Grade action damnit!! xD The other movies, I stopped watching after I think the 2nd one? They were focused too much on the vampires (a group I have almost zero interest in personally), so I didn't bother tracking any further.

I know nothing about the source material of this thread though, so I don't really have any investment in KoK.

 

[BrawlMan]

I'm kind of mixed feelings about the underworld franchise. On one hand, I enjoyed it a lot, because it was one of the few times in pop media, that the werewolves, were portrayed as a culture, and potentially as protagonists. It felt VERY much like World of Darkness, in that both factions had pros/cons. Prior to Underworld, if a werewolf was in a movie, it was either the badguy entirely, or it was a curse the protagonist was inflicted with, eventually curing them of it by the end. And it wasn't a literal nation of them either. It would be like a few werewolves at most.

But underworld, from the first film, made you question if the werewolves were actually the badguys, that the protagonist had been raised to believe. This was expanded on later, and fleshed out to be more of a Romeo/Juliet, warring families in a dumb conflict because of asshole leaders with grudges, kind of vibe. My favorite film was the prequel Rise of the Lycans, where they were straight up the protagonists. It was still cheesy B grade action, but it was WEREWOLF B Grade action damnit!! xD The other movies, I stopped watching after I think the 2nd one? They were focused too much on the vampires (a group I have almost zero interest in personally), so I didn't bother tracking any further.

I know nothing about the source material of this thread though, so I don't really have any investment in KoK.

I know about the twist and remember it from the first film, but everything in between and afterwards is boring. I did like rise of the liychens, which is the third film, cuz it's so entertaining. But everything afterward was how I felt about the Resident Evil films. Why do they keep making these? That was going through my mind.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Why?

Underworld sucks, and the premise for King of Killers just sounds like a forgettable anime.

 

[Thaluikhain]

It felt VERY much like World of Darkness, in that both factions had pros/cons.

To the extent that there was talk of legal action from whoever owned WoD at the time, though it didn't go very far. Of course, Underwold kept putting out more stuff, of declining quality and inconsistent continuity, but WoD didn't invent that. The makers of Underwold didn't go bankrupt 3 times and then get run by Nazis, AFAIK, they just all married and divorced each other.

Anyhoo, now that you mention it, yeah, the first film (and the prequel) having a nation/clan of werewolves who weren't particularly evil was a bit unusual. If that's your reason for liking the films, don't bother with the later ones, they drop that element. The second "modern" one has almost none of those werewolves, the third one has them all be evil, and the fourth has them all be the antagonists but not defined enough to say whether or not they are evil.

There is people running round shooting things and Kate Beckinsale in a cool wig which she upgrades to a slightly different version for the end of the final film.

When watching those films, the beginning of the first is quiet good, when it's all dark and they are being gothic which each other and there's vampires and werewolves fighting...but then she goes back home and there's dialogue and the quality plummets. Still decent, and the later films are also decent (if less so), but hardly particularly good.

 

[happyninja42]

To the extent that there was talk of legal action from whoever owned WoD at the time, though it didn't go very far. Of course, Underwold kept putting out more stuff, of declining quality and inconsistent continuity, but WoD didn't invent that. The makers of Underwold didn't go bankrupt 3 times and then get run by Nazis, AFAIK, they just all married and divorced each other.

Anyhoo, now that you mention it, yeah, the first film (and the prequel) having a nation/clan of werewolves who weren't particularly evil was a bit unusual. If that's your reason for liking the films, don't bother with the later ones, they drop that element. The second "modern" one has almost none of those werewolves, the third one has them all be evil, and the fourth has them all be the antagonists but not defined enough to say whether or not they are evil.

There is people running round shooting things and Kate Beckinsale in a cool wig which she upgrades to a slightly different version for the end of the final film.

When watching those films, the beginning of the first is quiet good, when it's all dark and they are being gothic which each other and there's vampires and werewolves fighting...but then she goes back home and there's dialogue and the quality plummets. Still decent, and the later films are also decent (if less so), but hardly particularly good.

Yes I am familiar with the lawsuit when that first Underworld film came out. And I have no plans on watching any of the others, as I saw enough clips here and there to know that they went full hog on the vampire side of stuff, because Kate, and that's never been a draw for me. I'd say my interest in the first film, when it released was like 75% WoD stuff that I was curious about, and 25% Kate in spandex body suit. The fact that the opening shot of that entire franchise is Kate's ass as she squats on a roof, pretty much sums up what they were banking on people coming to see it for. Luckily, they got Michael Sheen to play the lead wolf, so his acting chops were enough to elevate them away from just being big dogs, especially in the followup RotL film.

But yeah I won't watch any others in that franchise, it's focus is not what I'm interested in.

 

[Gordon_4]

Why?

Underworld sucks, and the premise for King of Killers just sounds like a forgettable anime.

My first thought was the casts of John Wick doing Mean Guns

 

[Agema]

My first thought was the casts of John Wick doing Mean Guns

Is Mean Guns about a bunch of schoolgirls squabbling over their social pecking order, except also armed to the teeth?

 

[Gordon_4]

Is Mean Guns about a bunch of schoolgirls squabbling over their social pecking order, except also armed to the teeth?

No, it was a crappy 90s action movie with Ice-T, Christopher Lambert and Mario Van Peebles. Bunch of crooks in a new prison, given a load of guns and told last three men standing will split $10 million.

 

[Agema]

No, it was a crappy 90s action movie with Ice-T, Christopher Lambert and Mario Van Peebles. Bunch of crooks in a new prison, given a load of guns and told last three men standing will split $10 million.

I feel strangely disappointed.

* * *

Given the movies he ended up doing, it's amazing to think that Christopher Lambert was once considered one of the most promising actors of his generation.