Posted in: Comics, DC Comics | Tagged: keith giffe, lovecraft, wonder woman 198

We Just Told Keith Giffen That His Graphic Novel, Lovecraft, Was Being Turned Into a Movie by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss

Published Fri, 13 Dec 2019 13:40:32 -0600

This morning, I sent a note to legendary comic book creator Keith Giffen congratulating him on the news about Lovecraft. He asked what I was talking about.

Because yesterday, Deadline announced that David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, best known for writing/directing/showrunning Game of Thrones at HBO, were developing a film based on the DC/Vertigo original graphic novel Lovecraft, for Warner Bros, And that discussions regarding the book had been going back several years. Which, it seems, was all news to Keith Giffen, and Bleeding Cool getting in touch was the first he'd heard of it.

Lovecraft was published in 2004 by DC/Vertigo in a relatively obscure fashion. It was based on an unproduced screenplay by Hans Rodionoff, written by Keith Giffen and drawn by Enrique Breccia. And it seems that by being a graphic novel, it suddenly became of interest to movie people again – well, at least 16 years later. But rather than going to the original screenplay, the new script will use Giffen and Breccia's adaptation, storytelling and visual choices, and written by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi.

Deadline only mentioned Hans Rodionoff by name, as did the NME and Variety. The Daily Mail, and The Wrap only mentioned Keith Giffen. The Radio Times decided that Giffen was the artist, not the writer. Variety didn't mention any creator of the graphic novel.

Just no one at DC or Warners seems to have thought to tell Keith Giffen that this was all going on. Let's hope he gets an invite to the premiere along with Wonder Woman 1984 for co-creating Maxwell Lord. But first, here's what Lovecraft is all about.

A fascinating but disturbing study of one of America's greatest horror writers, the intense LOVECRAFT examines the bizarre life of author and recluse, Howard Phillips Lovecraft. Since his early childhood in the late 1800's Lovecraft was haunted with dark visions of demons and death. Trapped in a world of macabre creatures and grotesque thoughts, the writer found escape only by weaving his living nightmares into fictional blood curling horror stories. An uncensored tour into a troubled mind, this beautifully painted hardcover edition traces the toils of a man considered both mentally ill and genius as he stumbles across the fine line between reality and insanity.

Copies on eBay have been flying off today as people worked out just which graphic novel this was and the asking price has jumped from around $10 to $50 for the hardcover version.