Atlantis Rising Coming To Theaters By Way Of 300 Producer
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Producer Mark Canton has a strong box office record when it comes to slick, big budget comic book adaptations. He was a producer for both Immortals and 300 (and is set to produce the upcoming sequel/prequel 300: Battle of Artemisia), which have grossed more than $600 million together internationally. Canton is looking to repeat his previous success in comic book adaptations by bringing Atlantis Rising to the big screen.
Atlantis Rising is a 5-part Platinum Studios Inc. comic miniseries by Scott Brown and Tim Irwin about an “undersea civilization that began over 10,000 years ago, and whose presence is unknown to the surface population.” The denizens of the titular civilization don’t stay hidden, though, and a war breaks out between Atlantis and the terrestrial world. According to Platinum Studios chairman Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, Atlantis Rising is “a provocative sci-fi thriller that at its core brings up the question: whose planet is this?” I’ve never read the comics, but the premise sounds interesting enough to fuel a big-budget action film.
In this week’s announcement of the new film project, both Canton and Platinum Studios chairman Rosenberg emphasized their hope that Atlantis Rising could spawn a successful and long-running film franchise. Said Canton, “‘Atlantis Rising’ has the franchise potential of ‘Men in Black,’ which I greenlit for Scott while at Sony’s Columbia Tristar Motion Picture Companies.” The series was originally optioned by Dreamworks back in 2008 with Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci set to produce, but the project never really got off the ground. The rights recently returned to Platinum Studios, though, allowing them to partner with Canton now.
