Rob Liefeld's Extreme Studios to get Shared Movie Universe

Saw this story on Deadline this morning:

Rob Liefeld, whose disruptive Deadpool creation was the blockbuster movie surprise of 2016, is at the center of the first big film rights deal of 2017. Graham King and Fundamental Films have partnered to build movies from the comic book characters Liefeld created in what is known as Extreme Universe. King has partnered with Weed Road’s Akiva Goldsman, and they will produce the movies with Liefeld and Energy Entertainment’s Brooklyn Weaver. This rights deal is seven figures, I hear.

The Extreme Universe covers nine comic books, encompassing more than 100 characters that include Brigade, Bloodstrike, Cybrid, Lethal, Re-Gex, Bloodwulf, Battlestone, Baboom and Nitro-Gen.

Source: Deadline

Commentary: While a lot of comic fans seem to take great joy mocking Rob Liefeld, I have always liked Liefeld.  X-Force was my favorite comic when I started reading comics.  I got to meet Liefeld a few years ago at San Diego Comic Con, and he was very generous with his time.  

All that said, I definitely have some concerns about how the Extreme Studios line has been treated in recent years.  In 2012, we got a real strong relaunch of books like Youngblood, Glory, Supreme, Bloodstrike, and Prophet.  But most of these books sort of faded away.

Then towards the end of 2015 we got ANOTHER relaunch of Bloodstrike, which had two real strong issues, and then vanished without a trace.

While this was going on, in 2013, Liefeld posted a Kickstarter to bring back Brigade (which was a series I loved back in the day).  Brigade was expected to launch in October 2013, but just last week we got an update from Liefeld saying there were even more delays and the series still isn't coming out.  I will say that Liefeld has been real classy about this, offering refunds to backers throughout and promising to double rewards when the book comes out.  BUT, at the end of the day, I want a new Brigade book, not my money back.

I also wonder if this isn't just an attempt for studios to try and reclaim the magic that was the Deadpool movie, which is NEVER a good reason to make a movie.  And while Liefeld did co-create him, Deadpool from the movie is pretty far removed from his early appearances in New Mutants and X-Force.

I am amazed that we keep getting announcements for all these shared movie universes.  I understand that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a raging success, but so far no one has come close to duplicating it.  We don't need everything to be a shared cinematic universe. Shared Universal Monsters universe?  Shared Robin Hood universe?  Shared Hasbro universe?  None of this appeals to me, and I would be very surprised if this Extreme Universe line ever happened, especially since it's missing some heavy hitters in Youngblood and Prophet.