It’s your one-way ticket to midnight,
call it HEAVY METAL …

I did not see this coming, but Paramount Pictures is making an animated film based on Heavy Metal, the 1970s sci-fi/fantasy magazine that spawned the 1981 cult classic film Heavy Metal and a mediocre sequel in 2000, Heavy Metal 2000.

Director David Fincher is spearheading the film project and will direct one of the planned eight or nine individual animated segments. Kevin Eastman — co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and current owner and publisher of Heavy Metal, will also direct a segment, as will Tim Miller, whose Blur Studios will handle the animation for the feature. The trio will also produce the film, and the studio is currently hiring more directors, a different one for each segment.

As with the original movies, and in keeping with trademark style of the magazine — erotic and violent storylines and images — the new animated feature is being conceived as an R-rated, adult-themed film.

Heavy Metal magazine debuted in the United States in 1977 and introduced the works of American artists and writers such as Robert Silverberg, Harlan Ellison, and H.R. Giger.

I haven’t picked up the magazine since the 1980s, but the 1981 Ivan Reitman-produced film Heavy Metal — which had comedy geniuses John Candy, Eugene Levy, and Harold Ramis in the voice cast — is one of my favorites of all times. And while I always thought the Soundtrack should have been a little heavier, I love it nonetheless (especially the Sammy Hagar title track and Black Sabbath’s “Mob Rules”).

How will a Heavy Metal movie appeal to today’s audiences? While I have faith in Fincher, I’m wondering how faithful the film will be to original style of the magazine and what type of animation will it be? And dear lord, who will be on the soundtrack?

I’ll be keeping my eye on this one.

[Source: Variety]