Interview by Frederik Hautain, posted June 06, 2007

Brodie's Law, the indie comic that originated at Pulp Theatre Entertainment and was collected in trade by Markosia Enterprises, is coming to the silver screen. Like the comic, the movie will star thief and killer Jack Brodie who becomes the most wanted man in Britain after a heist goes horribly wrong.

BF spoke to director Renny Harlin about the Darclight feature production and how it landed in Hollywood.

BROKEN FRONTIER: What's the story of Brodie finding his way to the big screen like? Don't hold back… you know Brodie wouldn't either!

RENNY HARLIN: It has been like being castrated by a rusted pitchfork. Actually it has not been too bad, just a matter of patience. The easiest part was the adaptation, which took only a couple of months, which is an absolute miracle. Getting people interested in the project has been fairly easy.

It has just been a matter of pulling the less compelling pieces together, meaning money, contracts, all of those things that make us tear our hair out waiting. But now we're ready to move into hyper-drive and shoot this.

BF: Not to discredit the movie deal in any way, but there are certainly better-known comic properties out there aside from Brodie's Law . What then would you cite as the main reasons for this adaptation happening so quickly?

RH: True, this is not Spider-Man. Usually a studio buys the rights to a well known comic and pulls the elements together from there. Brodie came about in a different way. The producers, Mark Costa and Ford Oelman found Brodie's Law at a comic book convention – I believe it was Comic Con. They optioned the material, then came to me to directly.

I fell in love with it immediately and found a writer who was eager to adapt it. So the project was put together outside of the studio system, which is rare. Otherwise they would have hired 10 writers and it would be out of development in a little under a decade.

BF: Renny, everybody knows you as the director of Die Hard 2 , Cliffhanger , and The Long Kiss Goodnight . Recently, you did Mindhunters —my girlfriend got a real scare out of the ‘puppeteer' scene—and The Covenant , a movie based on the Top Cow/Spacedog graphic novel of the same name. Looking at that last movie, what was the experience of adapting a comic book story like?

RH: The Covenant graphic novel was created at the same time I was in production on the film, and I didn't even see it until the movie was in post, so it was not an adaptation. However, I don't know what influence the script could have played on the graphic novel. So, if anything, I would say that the film could've been an influence on the graphic novel.

BF: Why were you interested in helming this project specifically?

RH: Because it is the most debauched and insane thing I have ever read. I wanted to do something completely different than anything I have ever done, and there I was flipping through pages of Rastafarians, psycho-kinetic drugs, and men falling in love with chain saws, I thought, you know – I think this might be it.

BF: How close does the script by Kirsten Elms stay to the story of the comic?

RH: The general plot and characters are pretty consistent. But since we did not have any suits to answer to, we decided to go a little crazy and push existing elements to their extremes.

For example, there is a hooker in the comic named Suzie, and we decided to make her a psychopathic dominatrix and created this underground sex club that accommodates the most deranged fetishes imaginable. The entrance is hidden beneath the altar of a church. That should be an interesting shooting day.

BF: Is the script completely finished?

RH: Yes. We might do some polishing here and there, but overall this is the movie I want to make.

BF: In terms of the visual aspect, what are the plans there? The fact that the art and color palette used on the book created a very distinct atmosphere, it would seem logical to make use of the same techniques that made Sin City and 300 a success…

RH: ...which is why I am going to rip off every shot.

Rodriguez is an absolute genius, and it does not surprise me that everyone on earth expects the next 50 comic book movies to be shot exactly like Sin City.

What made Sin City so amazing was Rodriguez's unrelenting loyalty to Miller's vision, and he did this flawlessly, but I am taking a completely different approach to Brodie.

This is not to say I don't have a loyalty to the world Dave and Daley created, but I am not going for a hyper-stylized look. I am exploiting the grittiness of the world, because this is what attracted me to the story. It has more of a Snatch feel to it than a graphic novel.

BF: Arclight Films' genre-subsidiary Darclight was shopping the film for international markets in Cannes. Was the film fest a positive event in that regard?

RH: We've had nothing but rave reviews in Cannes, but since the festival just ended it's tough to say what specific deals have been made.

BF: Overall, where do things stand now in the movie's preproduction process?

RH: I already know every frame of the movie, from the lighting, to set design, to editing so actually the hardest part of my job is done. Now it is a matter of pulling together the perfect cast and shooting it. I'm going to be location-scouting next week to see if I can find a city that passes for the east end of London. Luckily the entire story takes place at night.

BF: Have you got an eye on an actor for the lead role? Ideally, who'd you love to see portray Brodie?

RH: It's a tough role to cast because Brodie has a very specific look and temperament, given that he already exists in the comic, but I'm certain we will find the right actor. It's a great part.

BF: Will Brodie's Law artist David Bircham be involved in the adaptation as well, and if so, to what extent?

RH: Both Daley [Osiyemi] and David have already had a tremendous influence on how I have planned to shoot this movie by virtue of them creating the source material. Of course, I'll have an ear open to both Dave and Daley's opinions in all aspects of the production. They're both incredible talents and surprisingly sharp considering they are clinically insane.