28 January 2006 – Barely a year after opening shop, Toronto’s Speakeasy Comics has been approached by HBO to serialize TV’s No. 1 Mafia clan, and has Johnny Depp knocking at its door by BARRETT HOOPER for the THE GLOBE AND MAIL.
Speakeasy has already cozied up to actors Rosario Dawson and Johnny Depp, director John Woo, and the guy who made Catwoman (although Fortier asks that you not judge the director based on that bit of star-driven, studio-controlled kitty litter). The plan calls for Speakeasy to publish four new comics, starting in May, that will then be made into feature films.
Occult Crimes Taskforce will publish in May, along with Caliber, a reimagining of the Arthurian legend as a western, with King Arthur as the town sheriff, Lancelot as a gunslinger and Guinevere as a saloonkeeper. It’s based on an idea brought to Speakeasy by Depp and his producing partner. Depp will produce and possibly star in the movie version; Woo, who directed Face/Off and Mission: Impossible 2, will direct. “We got lucky and attached some good people to it,” says Fortier. “John Woo was supposed to make another western, but the funding fell through so he jumped on board pretty quick.”
