The late George Romero, while mostly known for his efforts in the horror realm, did manage to make a couple of films outside of his supposed home genre. And if it wasn't for the fickle hand of fate, we might have seen the Night of the Living Dead auteur make one of the earliest comic book movies. But save your shock and awe for the real kicker: this comic film was going to happen with Marvel Comics, as he was in talks to adapt its character Copperhead into a feature film.
A brand new docu-series on the lost projects of horror greats, Untold Horror, has been uncovering some pretty cherry projects that almost were. Among them was the story of how Romero and Marvel Comics almost brought a wild story of robots, science gone wrong and a post-apocalypse where a man can throw a horse with his bare hands. While it sounds different from the comic incarnation that the film might have been based on, it's definitely something that sounds like a prime George A. Romero film.
Copperhead went through three incarnations during the history of its Marvel Comics run, with the 1978 incarnation being the one timed closest to the proposed production of the Romero-written feature film. A hero that didn't have powers, but had a hell of an arsenal of gadgets, like micro-suction cupped gloves, flare bombs and a grappling hook. Though considering how outlandish the story of the film adaptation sounded, there's a chance that George A. Romero might have taken some liberties with the source material. Ultimately, the project's logline was a mash-up between Robocop and Transformers, before either film even existed.
If the Copperhead project that Bloody-Disgusting shared the details on actually occurred, it would have been the first major motion picture for the Marvel Comics banner to call their own. But, unfortunately, the project collapsed due to the fact that no studio would fund the project. What could have been a huge step in the Marvel Comics movie-making game ended up being another project that had George A. Romero attached to it, but sadly never saw the light of day. The most we get to see is the concept drawings, courtesy of artist Bob Layton, which were unveiled when he and Romero were reunited for their segment of Untold Horror.
While we eventually did get Robocop and Transformers in separate entities, it would have been amazing to see Copperhead's special brand of crazy make its way to a theater near us. But what you can do is take a look at the rest of the 2017 release schedule, or even peer into the future with the 2018 schedule, for future frightful delights.
