You'd think after spending a frickin' eternity (OK, six years) playing Spider-Man, Tobey Maguire would be ready to get far, far away from comic books. But now the webslinger-turned-producer is teaming up with Ryan Kavanagh to produce Afterburn, a brand-new graphic novel from brand-new company Red 5 Comics.
The premise actually sounds pretty cool; as The Hollywood Reporter put it, half the earth has been destroyed by a solar flare, leavin most of the population either dead or mutated. A group of treasure hunters recover artifacts like the Mona Lisa-- for a hefty price, of course. So, y'know, like National Treasure, with a bit of Tomb Raider thrown in for good measure.
I'm still totally wary of the glut of comic book movies that will be coming our way-- seriously, is anything based on actual books anymore?-- but this idea sounds pretty cool. Tobey Maguire can probably do whatever he wants now that the Spider-Man checks are cashed, and he's totally welcome to flex his producing muscle. Personally, I'd rather see him go back to smaller movies like Wonder Boys and The Ice Storm-- remember how interesting he was when we hadn't seen him fly across buildings? But if he plans on never working as an actor again, I guess we can settle for adapting comic books that at least sound like they have potential.
