CrossGen evidently does not think that the road between comic books and films is a one-way street. Two of Tinseltown's top creators, who are involved in bringing CrossGen comics to the silver screen, are also writing six-issue mini-series for CrossGen's Code 6 imprint. Chuck Russell (The Mask, Eraser, and The Scorpion King), who is writing and directing the Castle Rock/Dreamworks production of The Way of the Rat, is also writing the six-issue sci-fi epic Metal Storm for Code Six. Veteran comic scribe Chuck Dixon will edit Russell's Metal Storm series as well as Bob Gale's action thriller Illustrated Warriors, which will also appear as a six-issue comic series.
Bob Gale, recently chosen to adapt the CrossGen title Meridian as a computer-animated feature film, is a veteran screenwriter who was nominated for an Oscar for his work on the Back To The Future films and also wrote the highly underrated film Trespass. Getting Hollywood figures of the stature of Russell and Gale to write comics is definitely a feather in CrossGen's cap, and perhaps indicates that the comic book medium has gained a measure of respectability. Of course there remains the very solid possibility that Russell and Gale's Code Six projects may well make the return trip down that two-way street from Tampa to Tinseltown and provide the material for future film projects, but first they will appear as comics. Look for solicitation information about Metal Storm and Illustrated Warriors in the fairly near future, since both titles are scheduled to debut in 2003.
