Posted by Placenta Jones at dpsnet.detpub.k12.mi.us on November 30, 1999 at 15:24:37:
Hey guys,
Found this at anotheruniverse.com's Trailer Park column. Matt seems kinda shaky about Kevin's involvement with the flick. I don't know...maybe it's just me.
Mage creator Matt Wagner said last weekend in a panel at the Mid-Ohio-Con that he expects the Mage movie to get a new home this week.
"We were at Miramax for a long while and we kind of felt we were getting [jerked] around by them," Wagner said. "Kevin (Smith) was going to be involved, and they were getting sort of flighty.
"The thought was that the producers and I didn't want to wait. Now, we're supposed to get new contracts -- when I get back from here, actually. We're signing with Spyglass Entertainment, who did The Sixth Sense, and I feel real good about that. They make good movies."
Wagner said he wasn't sure if Smith will be involved. "It has to do with scheduling and if he has time do to it," Wagner said. "Spyglass doesn't want to sit on this for a year; they want to get it into motion now. And that means they want a screenplay now, and is Kevin available? "Kevin would be a great addition and he would bring a fun element. I know I don't want to write it. I'm too close to it. Kevin wants to do it almost panel-by-panel. I realize it has to be adapted. It can't be panel-by-panel. It has to be interpreted for film."
Wagner said he is comfortable with the producers' take on the story of Kevin Matchstick, as well as Wagner's role in the movie. "I will definitely be an advisor. I will probably have the role of associate producer, which will give me an excuse to be on the set," Wagner said. "The two producers that I am working with, this is a special production for them. They're not big Hollywood producers. But they fully, fully connect with what's special about the story and what needs to be in there."
Wagner acknowledged that there will be tweaking from the comic book.
"For instance, one of the changes would be, in the comic we just drop right in the middle of a scene and Kevin is meeting Mirth. Boom, like that," Wagner said. "In the comic, that works, that helps connect you to the everyman-ness of it. He's a cypher, he doesn't have any personality that we see in it. He becomes part of our personality, the reader. In the movie, you need to flush that out a little bit more. You need to have some bit of a background. So far, what we've come up, really, I think fits pretty well."