Channing Tatum is set to appear in the Image Comics film adaptation of The Maxx. Tatum has been linked to the film for some time, but recently, the actor confirmed on his Instagram that he will officially appear in the lead role. The Maxx is an unusual comic book with a cult following. Adapting it for a film may be tricky as it seems too weird and offbeat for Hollywood and mainstream audiences.
The Maxx, Sam Kieth’s bizarre comic book creation, came at a time when comics, movies and television could get wild and weird. Launched in 1993, The Maxx features a hulking purple creature in a psychological world called the Outback. The titular hero is assigned to protect the Jungle Queen inside this parallel dimension. While existing as a hero in the Outback, in the real world, The Maxx (Dave) is a vagrant on the streets living in a box. Dave is connected to Julie (Jungle Queen), a social worker who has numerous times busted him out of jail.
Counterculture
Tatum is set to appear as Dave and his alter ego, The Maxx, with Skate Kitchen and The Wolfpack’s Crystal Moselle directing for Paramount Pictures. Comics in the 90’s and The Maxx were part of the rich counter-cultural movement of the time. This intense movement existed in all artistic mediums like movies, books, music and art.
Within this vibrant ecosystem was The Maxx, featuring a weird-looking character and a unique storyline that mixed comedy, drama and psychology in a way that few books have done previously and since. With the popular zeitgeist open to many art forms and varying forms of expression, The Maxx found a broader audience on MTV, where it was adapted into an award-winning animation and live-action splice that featured on the cable network’s underground Oddities label, a home for wacky and ‘out-there’ series like The Maxx.
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Is it too Weird for Hollywood?
Kieth used the book to explore themes such as PTSD and mental health while telling an exciting story. The Maxx took readers on a whirlwind discovery of 90s anxiety and Gen X pessimism. Readers weren’t sure if Dave was The Maxx or if he was simply hallucinating the entire experience as a way to deal with trauma. Director Terry Gilliam and films like The Fischer King with Robin Williams strongly influence Kieth’s work. Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys also deals with similar themes of displacement, isolation, and mental health.
These dense and challenging topics are loaded into The Maxx, and attempting a film adaptation will be challenging. Would such a film be too weird for mainstream audiences, fed on a diet of light-hearted Marvel films? Depicting the Maxx would also be another challenge; the purple creature has claws for hands and buck teeth that jut out everywhere.
None of this sounds like your typical comic book movie and Kieth’s dark; moody storylines will mean the project has to find a clever way to tap into the current zeitgeist, infected with formulaic storylines. Tatum and the creative team will need to create something so compelling that it breaks through shallow audience expectations and grips them on an emotional level with a groundbreaking story that pushes the comic book genre into fresh new territory.
Will The Maxx be too weird for Hollywood, or are you excited for the Channing Tatum film?
The Maxx |
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The Maxx follows the adventures of the titular hero in two worlds: The real world and an alternate reality referred to as the Outback |
Studio: Paramount Pictures |
Running Time: N/A |
Release Date: N/A |
Cast: Channing Tatum |
Director: Crystal Moselle |
Writers: Crystal Moselle |
Genre: Fantasy Drama |
Box Office: |