Exclusive: Kevin Eastman on the Status of a New Heavy Metal Movie
Jonathan Barkan
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In 1981, the world was blessed with the animated horror/fantasy/sci-fi/comedy film Heavy Metal, which was directed by Gerald Potterton. Based on the magazine of the same name, the film was an anthology where each short was centered, in some way, around a mysterious and deadly green orb known as the Loc-Nar. Featuring beautiful and quirky animations that were mixed with adult themes and visuals, the film was essentially a cartoon for adults. Plus, it featured a kickass soundtrack that is still tons of fun to put on.
Fast forward nearly 20 years and Heavy Metal 2000 came out. A feature-length animated film rather than an anthology, it followed Julie and her quest to save her sister from the evil Tyler. Unfortunately, while its predecessor received solid reviews, Heavy Metal 2000 was almost universally panned.
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Talks of a third entry have been happening for years. Back in the late 2000’s, Kevin Eastman, the publisher of “Heavy Metal” magazine, teamed up with David Fincher (Seven, Zodiac) and Tim Miller (Deadpool) were going to produce one. I spoke with Eastman earlier today and he elaborated on that time, saying, “…we spent about a year developing a Heavy Metal film that had seven sequences. Fincher was going to direct one, Miller was going to direct one, Guillermo del Toro was going to direct one, Zack Snyder was actually going to direct one that I wrote.” Unfortunately, the project never came to fruition for a very simple reason: money. “We had this wonderful team looking to do Heavy Metal, the franchise, to do it justice. We just couldn’t raise the money.”
From there, Eastman met up with Robert Rodriguez (Planet Terror, From Dusk Till Dawn), who optioned the film rights. “We spent about two years developing it as an opportunity. But again, we just couldn’t raise the money under the new regime, which was Jeff Krelitz, myself, and the new main owner of the company.”
But while things may sound dour when looking at the past, Eastman offers a lot of hope for the future. “Interestingly enough, we’ve had a LOT of conversations within the last six, seven months about some real opportunities that I think…I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag but you can expect some very good news on that front in the very near future, which is incredibly exciting!” Eastman gushed.
We ended our interview with him saying, “We have some incredible opportunities with the brand Heavy Metal and we look forward to sharing some really good news with all you Heavy Metal fans really soon.”
While nothing is confirmed, it’s still elating to hear that a third Heavy Metal film is still a project that holds interest and that wants to be made. As someone who grew up with Heavy Metal, I would be thrilled to see another film come out. Besides, any movie that can offer me a badass metal compilation as a soundtrack is one that I want to see come to pass!
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