Darkwoods Prods. is working with Himani Original Prods. to develop a CG feature film and animated TV series based on Bernie Wrightson’s comic book character Captain Sternn, originally seen in the pages of Heavy Metal Magazine and later in Columbia Pictures’ 1981 animated feature Heavy Metal. The two companies are also joining forces to create new comic books and video games based on the property.
Darkwoods Prods. is the production shingle of Oscar-nominated director/writer/producer Frank Darabont (The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption, The Majestic). Key creative personnel include Wrightson (SwampThing), writer David J. Schow (The Crow) and Himani president/founder Kevin Kutchaver (Hercules, Xena), who serves as director of animation.
While working with Jeff Jones in The Studio, Bernie Wrightson was inspired by Star Wars to gave birth to the inter-stellar con man Captain Sternn. Described as “part Han Solo and part James Garner in The Great Escape,” Sternn took a humorous, skewed look at the world in the not so distant future. His adventures were continued in an award-winning five-issue comic book series titled Running out of Time, published in 1993 by Kitchen Sink Press.
In addition to comic books like Swamp Thing, Batman and The Punisher, Wrighton has lent his artistic talents to illustrations for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Stephen King’s The Stand, as well as conceptual art for films like Ghostbusters, Galaxy Quest and Spider-Man.
