Greg Mclean launches comic book and speaks about Wolf Creek 2
Wolf Creek Director Greg Mclean is set to launch his first comic book series, Dark Axis: Secret Battles of WW2, with chapter one called Dark Axis: Rise of the Overmen due out in October.
“It’s a World War II horror novel about a group of American GIs who stumble upon German soldiers building supersoldiers for the Third Riech,” Mclean told Encore.
Projekt Lazarus
Mclean has created a trailer (above) introducing chapter one, called Projekt Lazarus.
“I was going to be a comic book artist and got sidetracked and now I’ve come back full circle to be able to tell these huge stories.” Mclean has collaborated with Chris Wheeler and Jason M Burns to creat eh story and artists Xavier Irvine and Luis Guerrer.
“Last year we started a comic book company called Diezel Punk that takes high concept film ideas and launches them via graphic novels through transmedia outlets and avenues. It will be available on iPad and all good comic stories.”
“The lines between the movies, TV, games, comics and online experiences can really work together these days with greater synergy and we really want to be ahead of the curve in creating entertainment that works across all media platforms.” Mclean said in a statement, describing it as Saving Private Ryan meets Evil Dead 2.
Wolf Creek 2: ‘Mick is Back’
In speaking with Encore, Mclean also spoke about plans for Wolf Creek 2. He would be doing both pre and post production in South Australia. “We have a relationship with Oasis post and they’ve posted both my films and are a creative bunch of guys, so we basically have everything we need to it do here. We could have gone elsewhere. The thing is, our film is set in the outback so we need long lonely roads and stretches. I’ve made two films, one solely in SA and the other in NT and Vic with post in SA. The talent pool will lead to a filmmaking renaissance not seen since the ‘70s.”
While the first film was made for an estimated budget of around $1m, the sequel will be made for $13m. “I think the first was really a very extreme film, made for a very low budget with an enormous amount of talented people giving their time for free to the worth of $5m. And we didn’t want to repeat the first film. The suspense and drama is a bigger film but it’s still loosely based on the true crime element of Australian history.
And of course Mick is back. “He’s really the heart of the film. It was such a knock out performance, we were so fascinated by the character. We can’t wait to get back and work with John again. When he was first cast, within five minutes of meeting him he understood the reality of that character. He grew up in far North Queensland and understood the brutal pig shooting ways of this character. He was referring to people he knew and people he met. Obviously they weren’t serial killers but the personalities he knew he drew on to create the character.
We originally wrote the first film with the question, why isn’t there an iconic Australia horror character; a boogie man, Jason, Freddy. The fact is he caught on and we’d love him to keep going, with stories we can tell but it really depends on the success of the next movie.
Citing the success of Red Dog, and McLean’s preference for ‘Australian’ pictures, he says, “Why wouldn’t you. But there is no reason we shouldn’t be making these other films. I think the main thing we should exploit is the culture in our storytelling but it’s a global business. If you look at Rising Sun Pictures, they’re working on the biggest budget films globally. Ultimately we’re making films for the world.”
Wolf Creek 2 will source finance from the South Australian Film Corp, Screen Australia, the producers offset as well as some presales and distribution through Arclight internationally and Village Roadshow in Australia and New Zealand. “At the end of the day it’s about the movie experience, Wolf Creek was $1m that made $60m. Good stories create good business.
Dark Axis – Secret Battles of WW2 is now available to order as a limited edition 1st print. Don’t miss out on what is bound to become must have collectors item for all horror and comic fans.
