CHUD spoke with McBride (currently stuck in another dimension in Will Ferrell's Land Of The Lost), and he revealed that his dreams to bring on some DC villains for his adaptation of the comic Hench, about an ex-football player who gets work as a henchman for local villains.

While this is a noble idea, I doubt he'll get the DC big-dog bad boys. But wouldn't it be kind of brilliant if McBride was only allowed to bring the truly crap DC villains to life? Think of the randoms like Toy Man, Orca or Calendar Man. It could be pretty hilarious just to see Orca in the flesh (or blubber, if you will.)

The other two science fiction films McBride is working on include an animated picture called Despicable Me. He works with Steve Carell (who plays a villain who acquires three orphans). And then there's a 1980s-set feature called Mr. Machine. McBride describes the flick (which he collaborated on with David Gordon Green):

"It takes place in the '80s," McBride said in a group interview on Friday in Hollywood, where he was promoting Land of the Lost. "It's kind of like a Gremlins kind of feel, about these kids who make this robot for their science project. It ends up taking over their town."

Sounds pretty engaging, and we're pretty desperate for ORIGINAL material in science-fiction films, so we're grateful to McBride and company, merely for coming up with something on their own.

[via Scifi Wire]

According to Variety, Warner Bros has picked up the rights to Adam Beechen and Manny Bello's 2004 graphic novel. The script will be adapted by McBride and his Eastbound And Down co-writer Shawn Harwell. No word yet on who will direct.

Hench centers around a former football player who, when injury ends his career, goes into the freelance henchman business with predictably unpredictable results.

WB nabs 'Hench' for McBride [Variety]

DM Productions have just announced plans to adapt Danny King's upcoming novel The Henchmen's Book Club for the big screen. The book centers around, unsurprisingly enough, a book club populated by off-duty supervillain henchmen seeking to better themselves through literature and gain some new friends while doing so. We admit it, we're skeptical; the premise sounds fun, but we've seen the "henchmen are people too" thing before in The Venture Bros and Adam Beechen's awesome graphic novel Hench.

Nothing about production date, director or stars has been announced yet.

Flickr image by Tofu Guns.

Matalon acquires 'Henchmen' [Variety]