Wed Nov 12, 2008 — by Robert Greenberger

Dark Horse Renews Partnership with Universal Studios

New Projects Included in Pact

Sci Fi Wire is reporting that Mike Richardson, founder of Dark Horse Entertainment, that he has struck a renewed partnership with Universal Pictures to develop a slate of movies based on the company's many comics and graphic novels, including R.I.P.D.

"Actually, we're quite busy right now," Richardson told reporters at an event celebrating the release of Hellboy II: The Golden Army on DVD. "The most immediate is R.I.P.D. ... David Dobkin (Wedding Crashers) is directing. We're doing it over at Universal Studios. We have a great script by [Matt] Manfredi and [Phil] Hay. R.I.P.D. stands for Rest in Peace Department. It's based on a graphic novel by Peter Lenkov. It's about dead cops that died in the line of duty that are sent back basically to get people who don't want to come peacefully, people who stayed behind. It's a lot of fun. ... It has a few of the elements of something like a Men in Black, except this one has real scares in it. It's not sort of a cartoon scares. A lot of humor, but real scary stuff going on."

Dark Horse and Universal have several projects predating the new partnership including the previously announced Emily Strange, the character created by Rob Reger and a staple at Hot Topic stores.

Freaks of the Heartland, based on the graphic novel by Steve Niles (30 Days of Night) has been placed with Overture and Richardson said David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express) will direct.

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