Woo’s “Caliber” Sure to be High

Seriously, you’d rather have an umbrella right now more than a charmed gun.

Comic Book Adaptation of the Week (so far).

Variety reports that action director John Woo will direct Caliber, a title from Radical Comics. Radical is a studio working on projects with a number of writers, artists, and companies, including Johnny Depp’s Infinite Nihil. Depp’s company will produce the film along with Barry Levine of Radical and Woo and partner Terence Chang’s company Lion Rock.

Here’s how the oh so reliable Wikipedia describes Caliber:

“The Arthurian legend as retold in the American Old West, with all of its great symbolism, magic and spirit of adventure. The Knights of the Round Table are all gunslingers bound by the code of honor to protect the weak and defend the innocent until they are undone from within by their own moral corruption. In this tale, Caliber itself is tattooed six-gun given to Arthur by the Indians and imbued with supernatural power. The secret of the gun is that it is never loaded with bullets, but when a man with justice on his side is holding it, it can fire. When it does, it fires thunder itself and never misses.”

So are you getting the title? Caliber…Excalibur…huh? Huh? Get it? Yes, very clever.

The project is supposed to be introduced at Comic-Con next week, but there’s a lot of questions about when this is actually going to happen. Woo is one busy guy. He’s working on editing part two of his epic Red Cliff. He’s also been announce as the director of 1949, another historical epic, this time about the Chinese Civil War. In the US he’s booked for The Sicilian Clan, a remake of a 1969 French crime drama (the original starred the ridiculously hot Alain Delon) and The Divide, a story about a Chinese immigrant who’s working on the construction of the transcontinental railroad in 19th century America. You would have to think that production on Caliber is an absolute minimum of two years away. By the time this gets started, even the incredibly youthful Depp might have to look for a Merlin type part. Depp at about age 200 might finally outgrow his babyface looks.