Legendary director and producer Ridley Scott has found his next project ahead of the release of his latest film, Gladiator II, on November 15. Per Deadline, Scott’s label, Scott Free, will team up with another production company, Mechanical Cake, to publish three original graphic novel series: Modville, Hyde, and Nick. Dave Elliott, co-founder of Radical Publishing, will serve as editor-in-chief of the books, and other attached creatives include Bill Sienkiewicz, Chris Weston, Dan Panosian, and Brian Rood.
Details were scant about the comics, but Modville was described as a sci-fi/southern gothic crime drama involving AI humans (“mods”) in future New Orleans, written by Mechanical Cake co-founder and CEO Jesse Negron, with art by Hendry Prasetya (Power Rangers) and Eko Puteh (Mysterious Ways). Vol. 1 (of 8) will be available to pre-order in March 2025.
Hyde, on the other hand, will be a sequel to Robert Louis Stevenson’s horror classic, following the titular fiend as he sets up a human experimentation lab beneath the streets of London, while Nick is a Yuletide war story inspired by Norse mythology. “First-issue previews” of both series, which don’t have confirmed creative teams, will also be released in March.
Negron was a protégé of Ridley’s late brother Tony Scott, working with the pair as executive producers on the 2002 CBS reality series American Fighter Pilot. He ventured into comics by 2013, writing an issue of Heavy Metal that year, and founded Mechanical Cake with COO Tom Sanders in 2015. Scott, 86, praises Negron, Sanders, and Elliott in the press release, saying, “Mechanical Cake is a terrific company. They understand the art of graphic novels. As an artist and painter, these projects are exciting to me, and I look forward to collaborating with Jesse, Tom, Dave, and the Mechanical Cake team.”
Tom Moran, Scott Free’s Senior VP Development & Production and Tony’s former assistant, adds, “Ridley and Tony Scott are known as great filmmakers (Alien, Blade Runner, Top Gun, True Romance) but few people realize their shared first true love of painting and art is what drove both of them into filmmaking. For the first time in Scott Free’s history, we are excitedly diving into comics as a new way to explore art and storytelling.”
In a statement, Negron comments, “We all agreed that we would find a way to distribute directly to you, the audience, so you can experience our stories exactly as they were intended. You can decide whether they’re worth your while.” You can sign up for updates on the comics, and contact Mechanical Cake in the meantime, via their official website.
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