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Ellis Talks Transmet Rumor

Warren Ellis, co-creator of the Transmetropolitan comic series, clarified rumors about a possible film adaptation in comments to the Comics2Film Web site. Cinescape Online quoted Patrick Stewart (X-Men) as saying he's attached to the project: "I'm sitting here looking at a collection of Transmetropolitan comic books as I speak to you."

But Ellis said that no such project is in development at the moment. "Patrick Stewart has apparently said, in a dozen places, that he still wants to make a Transmet film," Ellis told Comics2Film. "This does not mean one is in production, nor that anyone's actively working to develop it right now. I think Patrick is brilliant. I think he'd make an excellent Spider Jerusalem. Providing [Transmet co-creator Darick Robertson] was amenable, and I can't imagine he wouldn't be, we'd go and make a film with Patrick and Wendy Stewart in a second. But right now, nothing's happening. Patrick and I haven't spoken in a while. He did the last [Star] Trek film and X-Men 2 back-to-back, and I haven't caught up with Wendy in a little while now. When we do talk, we talk Transmet. There were overtures made to Darick and [me] by a director about a year ago, and I kept Patrick and Wendy updated whenever anything happened. It came to nothing, as you can tell. Hollywood's built on talk. It's no big deal. Before that, we all tried to set up Transmet as a Web animation with rich media around it, as a stepping stone to a movie, but the company involved tried to screw us all, and that was that."

Ellis added, "What Patrick is saying is that he still wants to make the film. He knows I'm right there with him. We see things the same way. Patrick publicly attaching himself to the project doesn't hurt. But right now, nothing's happening."