The road of any comic book story or character making the leap to the big screen can often be a long one. Though the likes of Spider-Man and Batman are synonymous with movies these days, it still took decades for the former to finally headline a feature film. It’s what makes today’s news so surprising that the Image Comics series D’Orc is officially headed for the big screen less than a year after the very first issue was published.
Deadline brings word that Sony Pictures has acquired the film rights to D’Orc, Brett Bean’s blockbuster new comic series, and that Bean himself is set to adapt the series for the big screen. Though the plot of the movie will be “under wraps,” one assumes that it will be like the comic and follow the titular “half dwarf, half orc” character with his magical talking shield, plus headless ghost chicken companion, as they make their way across the land of Sunderaine and all the other beasts they encounter. Perhaps even more surprising than D’Orc’s quickness to getting turned into a film is that Sony plans to make the series a live-action movie and not an animated one.
In the pages of D’Orc, the world is split between its “light” and “dark” armies by a dense realm of fighting known as The Scar. With an anarchic style and an irreverent tone, it’s not only easy to see why fantasy readers have grown to love D’Orc but also how it could easily be translated into a feature film. That’s what makes the news that Sony has picked up the rights specifically for a live-action adaptation so surprising, as D’Orc seems best suited for animation.
Naturally, yes, an animated movie of D’Orc would take longer to get made by the studios, but Sony Pictures Animation has actually been one of the most underrated houses in Hollywood these days. Recent years have seen them not only deliver the Spider-Verse movies, but other hits like The Mitchells vs. the Machines, Goat, and KPop Demon Hunters. D’Orc would fit alongside all these easily; instead, it will enjoy the company of Sony’s live-action franchises like Spider-Man, Resident Evil, and Jumanji, which, all things considered, isn’t a bad roster either.
D’Orc made headlines earlier this year when the series sold out at the distributor level before the first issue had even been released; the result was not only quick reprints of the first but subsequent issues as well. As of this writing, D’Orc #1 has on its 8th printing from Image Comics, with Issue #9 arriving this week.
“I’ve run out of words for the reaction to D’orc and his healthy dose of hope, humor, and violence!” Bean said earlier this year about the comic’s success. “Not a great look for a writer, but the Dictionary suggested amazed, floored, confused, and overwhelmed so let’s go with all of the above.”
