Thanks to Andy Diggle, both for writing the Losers and alerting me—through his Twitter feed—that there be another TV spot. It’s short, but it has some new footage, mostly from when Max gets the Losers pissed off.

I think we can safely say that I am excited about this movie. Everything I’ve heard and seen tells me this is going to be a fun adaptation of an awesome comic. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—I can totally live with changes being made to the source material if they can distil its essence.

I think this may have been achieved.

Also? I’m really looking forward to seeing more of Chris Evans as Jensen.

There’s a new 30 second TV spot for the Losers available on Youtube. I don’t have much to say. There’s nothing really new presented here, a couple of scenes and such, but nothing ground-breaking.

The wife has agreed that if we can get a babysitter, we’ll go. I won’t be there opening night, but considering my love for the comic, I really want to see this one. It might not be something that demands the big screen, but I’m not willing to wait the months required for the DVD to hit the shelves. That’s saying a lot, because I’ve passed on a lot of movies.

According to Coming Soon, the Losers are back in April. That makes me happy, because I think we might actually have a volunteer for babysitting in April. Of course, that means it’ll be a toss up between the Losers and Clash of the Titans, which also has an April release date.

As much as I love the idea behind the Clash of the Titans, I’m going to have to go with the Losers.

You never know, maybe I’ll get two movies in this year. Stranger things have happened.

And so my big plans for April have been dashed. The Losers have made the move to the gladiatorial arena of movies, also known as summer.

First, I got the news from Andy Diggle (the author of the Losers comic) on twitter.

“THE LOSERS movie is moving to June! This is a MASSIVE vote of confidence from WB, who see it as a big summer movie after A+ test screening!”

I mean, great that the movie is test-screening so well, but I might actually have the chance to go see a movie in April, and this was what I planned to see.

Then Matt Goldberg over at Collider announced the date would be June 4th. That’s the weekend before the A-Team comes out.

Now, as cool as the casting and the trailer for the A-Team may be, given the choice, my movie dollar will go to the Losers. That may change as more information comes available, but right now I’m going by my love for the comic and the trailer. I realize this isn’t a literal adaptation—liberties have been taken—but that’s the way it works. I still think it looks like they’ve retained enough of the cool from the comics to make the movie awesome.

I’ve got a long wait until I find out if that is true. That wait is going to seem even long since in response to a question about the content of the movie, Mr. Diggle also tweeted: “First TPB plus the flashback origin story from later issues.”

I think I need a new pair of pants. Clean up in aisle 3!

The first trailer is up for the Losers. It looks like they are drastically changing the storyline while keeping some of the cooler scenes. I’m cool with that. It also looks like they’ve increased the humour factor. I’m not particularly cool with that (see my comments on Red). But, whatever–I’m giving this one the benefit of the doubt for a few reasons.

1) It looks like they’ve got the characters done well enough. I don’t think I can see Clay and Roque from the comic fist-bumping, but Pooch, Cougar and Jensen look about right. Jensen might be a little bit too geek-chic and too little geek-geek, but I can live with that.

2) I never did like the actual resolution in the comic book. The Max revelation never did it for me. If they’ve been able to get the basic cool badassedness that was the Losers into a single movie, I’m ready to accept a lot of deviations from the original.

Let’s just say I’m cautiously optimistic. I may even try to pull the required strings to get to see this in the theatre.

Check out the trailer at MSN Movies.

Collider has the first two official pics and a synopsis for The Losers, by way of Omelete. Nothing heart-stoppingly cool, but it’s enough to show that the visual of the movie is close enough to the comics to make me happy.

The synopsis? Ay, there’s the rub.

The synopsis in question:

An explosive tale of double cross and revenge, “The Losers” centers upon the members of an elite U.S. Special Forces unit sent into the Bolivian jungle on a search and destroy mission. The team-Clay, Jensen, Roque, Pooch and Cougar -find themselves the target of a lethal betrayal instigated from inside by a powerful enemy known only as Max. Presumed dead, the group makes plans to even the score when they’re joined by the mysterious Aisha, a beautiful operative with her own agenda. Working together, they must remain deep undercover while tracking the heavily-guarded Max, a ruthless man bent on embroiling the world in a new high-tech global war.

Okay, they’ve got the “presumed dead” and “Max is the mastermind” aspects, but Bolivia? I’ve said it before, I really hope that there are a few cosmetic changes for understandable reasons–maybe they felt Afghanistan was too emotionally close to comfortably use in an action movie–but Hollywood has proved, again and again, it is awesome at completely destroying a cool idea.

While the “bent on embroiling the world in a new high-tech global war” is a little too bad-Bond-plot, it isn’t any worse than the reveal in the actual series. I loved a lot of the Losers, and the action up to the end was outstanding, but I’m on record as being disappointed both in Max’s bio and the plan as revealed in the final few issues. Changing Max’s goals, and changing Max himself, I wouldn’t be against.

But don’t change Aisha, even the climax of her character arc. Don’t change Roque. Don’t change the tenor or atmosphere of story. The comic did so many cool things so well, don’t just change for the love of changing.

Final thought: as expected, Zoe is looking hot, but these pics make her look quite different from her Uhura character, which is a good thing. I’m actually surprised at how different she looks. The pic of her alone really reminds me of Thandie Newton. That’s a very good thing.

A pic has surfaced of Zoe Saldana as Aisha in the Losers. There are a few things that this picture tells me.

1) Zoe Saldana is crazy HOT. Of course, I already knew that.

2) The writer of the article either didn’t do his homework, or the movie changes Aisha’s background from Afghanistan/Pakistan to South America. If the character is South American, are they going to bother to explain the name, or just assume the viewing public are slack-jawed yokels who can’t discern between Arabic and Spanish (maybe Portuguese)?

3) They’ve got the look of the character down.

Personally, I kind of expected something a little . . . I don’t know exactly how to say this, . . . rougher? While Aisha in the comics is supposed to be attractive, she is somewhat masculine. It’s more in her poise and attitude than in her appearance, but it’s there. Not so much with Ms. Saldana.

Now I’m not saying she’s poorly cast. I think it was a casting coup. I’m eager to see how she’ll approach the role. The thing is, that smile is anything but badass.

In any case, along with the other photo, this makes me comfortable with the look of the characters. But are we going to get a decent adaptation or will they shit all over the source material? Maybe somewhere in between? It is Hollywood—they have a somewhat noticeable hatred of source material.

Here’s an image for the Losers posted by Idris Elba on his twitter account, and caught by Collider.

I have to say, my concerns for Chris Evans as Jensen have been somewhat lessened because he does look the part—and I do believe he can deliver on the motor-mouth humour aspect. I like what I can see of the rest of the team, especially Cougar.

This doesn’t mean that Sylvain White is going to deliver an awesome adaptation, it just means the guys look the parts.

And yes, of course I’m going to see this, just probably not in the theatre.

Coming Soon made my day. Head on over there for shots from the filming of the Losers. The photos have got Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Clay) and Idris Elba (Roque) and are likely early in the story. I won’t say more—read the comic.

I’m a pretty big fan of the Losers from DC/Vertigo (except for the ending reveal, which kind of sucked @$$), so hearing there is a movie in the works is pretty cool. So far, we’ve only heard that maybe Jeffrey Dean Morgan will be in it, then again, maybe he won’t.

Now Collider is reporting that Idris Elba (who?) and Zoe Saldana (whoa!) have been signed.

Apparently there a script, but does it suck? This is my question.

Oh, and I am available to re-write or otherwise doctor said script . . . for the right price! (I work cheap. Really. Quite cheap)