Hollywood hasn't been much for original ideas these days, so its no surprise that following the whopping success of the graphic-novel to screen project Sin City, little guys out there are trying to get in on the action. Granted, Sin City wasn't the first major graphic novel film but it's certainly been the most lucrative. That's all Hollywood was waiting for.
According to Hollywood Reporter, Benderspink Management & Production recently optioned film rights to the graphic novel "The Gray Area". The story circulates around a corrupt cop who is killed and goes to an odd sort of purgatory called, you guessed it, the Gray Area. While there he is apparently endowed with special power which he must use to prove he knows right from wrong to repent his evil doing ways in life.
Benderspink is a pre-production firm that options ideas and sells them off to bigger companies. If you have a script to sell, they're the kind of place you might go to pitch your idea, although you might try Pink Cat productions first. I hear Jason Muzie is looking for a new project. Benderspink had a hand in bringing about many well known projects like Final Destination, Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo and Cats & Dogs. Yeah, kinda makes me wish they weren't in business too. To their credit they are somehow involved with the upcoming Red Eye, the latest film in Wes Craven's crusade to make scary PG-13 movies.
It may be awhile before "The Gray Area" gets scooped up by a studio for full blown production, but if Hollywood stays true to its reputation for jumping into trends it won't be a very long while. After all, at the rate they're going they'll have made a movie about every possible DC and Marvel character by 2009 and they'll need something to feed off next.
