'Prophet' Movie, From 'Deadpool' Creator Rob Liefeld, In The Works At Studio 8
After the success of Deadpool and Deadpool 2, expect Hollywood to look for more and more Rob Liefeld characters to bring to the big screen. The latest: Prophet, a character created by Liefeld in 1992. Prophet began as an extreme riff on Captain America, but recent takes on the character have been more of a surreal sci-fi saga. Studio 8 now hopes to launch a franchise around the character.
Who is Prophet? Per Wikipedia:
John Prophet, a poor and homeless man living in the World War II era, volunteered to participate in the medical experiments of Dr. Horatio Wells, a time-traveling scientist from the future who used DNA-enhancing methods to transform Prophet into a supersoldier. He was engineered to serve the evil Phillip Omen and programmed with murderous instincts. Wells had a change of heart though and changed Prophet's programming from evil to a strong belief in God. Wells planned for Prophet to be placed into stasis for many years and then re-emerge in the future to help Wells's people fight the evil Disciples. Eventually found by Youngblood, Prophet awakens disoriented, in a world he does not recognize.
That certainly sounds a lot like Captain America, but Prophet hails from Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld, so it was a bit more extreme (or xtreme if you want to be really cool) when it first debuted in 1992. THR reports that Studio is adapting Liefeld's comic into a feature film, with hopes of it launching a franchise a la Deadpool. Liefeld, Adrian Askarieh, and Brooklyn Weaver will produce.
The comic was relaunched in 2012, changing the story from a Captain America riff into something weirder. The rebooted saga set the story ten thousand years in the future, and revealed there are a plethora of Prophet clones located all over the universe. That sounds neat! But Liefeld says the movie is going to start with the character's '90s origins. "It makes sense that it's a destination that we can arrive at if we are successful," Liefeld says, adding: "We're taking the best of Prophet to create the best cinematic version of Prophet that we can...He's very pure in his motives to help out his family and ends up becoming something completely different."
Liefeld has apparently been shopping Prophet around, but Studio 8 was the first studio he felt understood how to handle the character. "They did their homework, and not only did they do homework, they are true fans," the Deadpool creator said.
In addition to Deadpool and it's sequel, future Liefeld-related films include an X-Force movie, and a whole superhero cinematic universe being developed for Netflix. That Netflix deal will adapt Liefeld's Extreme Universe comic book characters to the streaming platform.