Rob Liefeld's name always will be associated with Deadpool. Especially now, as the Merc with the Mouth expands to be a global sensation (thanks to two massively successful blockbuster features), Deadpool is becoming more and more of a household name -- and Liefeld's name is growing alongside it. But Wade Wilson isn't Liefeld's only creation from the comic-book realm, and another one -- Prophet -- is going to make a big-screen splash thanks to a production deal with Studio 8 that will introduce the character to movie theaters.
Described by some as the anti-Captain America, John Prophet is a World War II soldier who is put on ice and ordered to emerge in a distant future to complete a mission. Only, Prophet wakes up from his cryogenic sleep too soon, and spends his time adjusting to a world he doesn't understand, seeking to complete a mission that he can not find. During Comic-Con, Rob Liefeld stopped by the CinemaBlend video suite to talk Deadpool 2 and Prophet, and he told us the type of Prophet movie that he's hoping to help create:
When I went in, they said, 'We want the '90s version of Prophet. We want the over-the-top kind of berserker rage, very R-rated and violent action-oriented.' ... And you know, Sean, the thing that I respond to with that is, when we grew up, all of the Schwarzenegger movies are R-rated. [Paul] Verhoeven only made R-rated movies. Even Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone. All of the action movies that we saw growing up were very... I mean, c'mon. First Blood! These are great movies.
They are, and it's a genre that goes unexplored in this day and age, unless it's being spoofed or sent up in comedies. Shane Black might be bringing that '80s action tone back in The Predator. And if Robert Liefeld and his creative team have their way, then Prophet will go a long way to bringing this style back to theaters.
But will it have any similarities to the two Deadpool movies? Rob Liefeld opened up and said:
With Prophet, the thing that it will share with Deadpool will be the R-rated [approach]. We have talked -- because what Marvel does great, and what Ryan [Reynolds] and Deadpool do great is that they get the light-hearted [humor], they don't let the jokes pass them by. Arnold had one-liners all of the time. Bruce Willis had one-liners. Comedy and violence go spectacularly well together.
Some of the humor will come from the fact that Prophet is awakened after a long time in slumber. They haven't determined if it will be a 30-year gap, or as much as an 80-year gap that he will have been out of commission. But there will be a fish-out-of-water component to the movie that Rob Liefeld is excited to explore. He talked to us about how much technology will have evolved, with the character playing catch up on a modern society. Imagine going to sleep in the 1950s, and waking up to try and figure out what an iPhone is. Could make for an entertaining subplot.
Prophet is very much in the early stages. We will continue to track its progress as it makes its way to theaters.
