Brian Michael Bendis Dishes on Cinemax Adapting Marvel’s ‘Scarlet’
Jessica Jones co-creator Brian Michael Bendis apparently jumped the gun to reveal that Cinemax had an eye toward adapting Marvel Icon imprint Scarlet (especially given he claimed HBO at the time). That said, with the cat out of the bag, the revered comic artist teases that Scarlet would very-likely follow some of her reality-bending roots into the live-action adaptation.
The fourth-wall breaking comic series follows Portland resident Scarlet Rue as she “rebels against a corrupt society and ends up starting a new American revolution in the process,” though Bendis misspoke at the ATX festival to name HBO as its home, rather than subsidiary Cinemax. Still, a subsequent conversation with HitFix reveals that Scarlet would very likely keep her brand of interaction with the audience:
Are you even allowed to tell me anything about the TV version of Scarlet? Like, how structurally similar it will be?
Brian Michael Bendis: At the moment, it looks like it’s going to be very similar.
Even her direct address to the audience?
Brian Michael Bendis: It looks like it. That’s what they liked, and that’s what they bought: the dangerous of it, and the not compromising of it. It was a very excellent day over there at HBO/Cinemax when they bought it. I felt like I graduated television college, because they make amazing television. The person who said yes to Veep said yes to us, which made me feel very good about myself for five seconds. Which my self-loathing doesn’t usually allow me to feel. Even I could not say that that wasn’t a fun day.
Bendis co-created the 2010 series with artist Alex Maleev, but will Cinemax grant an official order to yet another comic adaptation? Will the fourth-wall breaks work in live-action?