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Brian Azzarello has given up waiting for a 100 Bullets movie or TV series, and "maybe I wouldn't even see it" if it did happen
Brian Azzarello doesn't let movie & TV adaptations guide him on what comics are successful or not, even 100 Bullets
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Knowledge you can learn, but wisdom comes from experience. For 100 Bullets writer/co-creator Brian Azzarello, the shadow of the reknowned DC comic book crime drama - which originally ran from 1999 through 2009 - isn't filled with regrets about it not yet being made into a TV series or movie that we all know would be amazing. In an interview with Popverse's Dave Buesing, Azzarello says he used to wonder about that, but now judges success by how proud he is of the comic. (And he is proud.)
"When I was younger, I used to think about how 100 Bullets could be a television show, or 100 Bullets could be a movie," says Azzarello. "Man, I wrote the books. I like the book. If it ever happens, it happens."
According to Azzarello, 100 Bullets was first optioned just two years into the series ultimate 10-year run, back in 2001, and that while some of the movie, TV, and video game deals for the series were announced, others were only known to the studios, DC, and the books' creators. The closest it's came to being adapted was a 2011 Showtime TV series adaptation that showrunner David S. Goyer has said was nixed due to a new wave of school shootings, and a 2015 live-action movie headed up by Tom Hardy.
"But it's like, here's another check for the option. Here's another check. There's another check," says the writer. "It's not a lot, but it's like free money, I guess."
For a series that's been in a perpetual state of limbo for 23 years now, we asked if an adaptation ever were to be made, would it be a relief? Azzarello says he's unsure.
"I don't know. I'd have to see it. Maybe I wouldn't even see it. Poor Alan Moore. I wouldn't bitch about it like him," says Azzarello, referring to the Watchmen co-creator who has publicly disagreed with DC's handling of contractual terms for various projects he's done for them.
Azzarello, who has written adaptations of Moore's work including a prequel to Watchmen and the screenplay to an animated Batman: The Killing Joke, says that he wouldn't work on an adaptation of his own comics - even if asked.
"That's the other thing, like, I've been asked, 'Well, do you want to be a part of the adaptation?' I'll talk to people about it, but I already wrote something," says Azzarello. "I have other stories I want to tell right now."
Read Brian Azzarello's full interview with Popverse here.
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