Two San Diego Comic Cons and a half year later, the David Fincher-producer live-action adaptation of Eric Powell’s The Goon is still stuck in development hell. What’s the hold up? Only about $55 million (doll hairs?) and some confidence in adult animation — two things I don’t expect to fall in their lap any time soon (maybe next decade?) Details inside.
In an interview with Aint it Cool News, producer David Lynch explains: “Animation that isn’t singing furry animals is hard. Especially something as outré as Eric Powell. And it’s his script! (laughs) It’s main-lined Eric Powell. We kind of went out with it at the end of the year and I don’t know that a lot of people were paying attention, but hopefully someone will step in and want to (pick it up).

“I gotta hope there are more avenues for animation than… I certainly wouldn’t call The Goon ‘adult animation.’ I think that ends up starting to sound like Fritz the Cat and that’s not what it is. It’s more like ‘teen animation.’ And it’s funny!

“Hopefully this will be the year that people go, ‘Wait a minute! We don’t all have to be trying to imitate Pixar!'””

He also adds the budget is approximately $55 million. Yikes. That’s kind of steep considering the comic isn’t all that great (in my opinion).

“The Goon” is a comic book series created by Eric Powell in 1999. The story is about the adventures of the Goon, a muscle-bound brawler who claims to be the primary enforcer for the feared mobster Labrazio. The Goon (and his sidekick Franky) often get tied up in other machinations, often in relation to the evil zombie gangs under the command of the Nameless Zombie Priest.