io9: the champions

Cruise To Become First Scientologist Superhero?

Graeme McMillan — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 07:00:15 PST

Is there a Himalayan air crash in Tom Cruise's future? If rumors about the movie version of The Champions being retooled for the actor are true, then the answer would seem to be yes.

Variety is reporting that The Champions - a movie version of the 1960s TV show about three members of an international taskforce given superpowers by a hidden advanced civilization after a plane crash in the Himalayas, produced by Hellboy's Guillermo del Toro - is just one of three projects being reworked by writer Chris McQuarrie for Cruise in the wake of their partnership on "good Nazi, no really" movie Valkyrie.

Don't expect to see it in theaters anytime soon, however; while studio United Artists thinks that The Champions could be Cruise's first franchise opportunity since Mission: Impossible, McQuarrie and Cruise will first collaborate on a remake of French thriller Anthony Zimmer before they can think about boarding any disaster-bound jets.

'Valkyrie' writer, Tom Cruise re-team [Variety]

Brit Superhero Show Could Be A Movie Trilogy — Or More

Charlie Jane Anders — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 10:01:41 PST

Guillermo Del Toro's movie of classic British series The Champions may be kicking into high gear. United Artists has hired Valkyrie/Usual Suspects writer Christopher McQuarrie to co-write the script, about a group of Brits who discover a lost civilization and get amazing superpowers. (Del Toro may or may not direct.) And UA is hoping Champions will become a multi-film series. [Hollywood Reporter]

Guillermo Del Toro Tackles Telepathic British Spies

charliejane — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 23:52:46 PST

Three spies crash-land in the Himalayas, where a monk gives them telepathic powers in The Champions, a forgotten British show from 1968. Now fantasy/horror mastermind Guillermo Del Toro is adapting it into a movie for Universal. Del Toro is one of the few auteurs you can trust to update this material without uncritically including the screwy "Far Eastern Monk" archetypes. But will it be a waste of his talents?

It depends on whether Del Toro can do for this uber-Cold War storyline what he did for Franco-style fascism in Pan's Labyrinth: translate it for modern audiences, while simultaneously exposing its underbelly. So much of our science fiction media is in the throes of Cold War nostalgia, it would be great to see a sharper take on those narratives.

Del Toro Adapts British Sci Fi [Cinema Blend]