Broken Frontier

Premiering on June 10 at 10pm (ET/PT), exclusively on Starz, comes Comic Books Unbound - a documentary look at "the evolution and revolution of Hollywood’s adaptations of famous and infamous comic book characters and storylines".

The press release reads:

From superheroes to superstars, Hollywood turns to comic books for imagination and inspiration, snatching bigger-than-life characters off the page and throwing them onto the big screen. In recent years, comic books have become the single biggest force in Hollywood where A-listers and Oscar winners commonly don capes and cowls to star in comic book fare. Some of Hollywood’s biggest blockbuster successes, such as the Spider-Man, Superman and Batman movies, X-Men and the upcoming Iron Man, have been ripped from the pages and adapted from visually and emotionally stimulating comics and graphic novels. Starz Inside: Comic Books Unbound looks at this colorful corner of entertainment, bringing to life comic books and characters to the big screen.

The documentary covers the obvious comics franchise movies (Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Sin City) as well as the less obvious (Road to Perdition, Persepolis, A History of Violence, 300, American Splendor) right through to recent releases like Hellboy II and Iron Man. With a stellar cast of comics luminaries contributing (Stan Lee, Selma Blair, Guillermo Del Toro, Ron Perlman, Richard Donner, Michael Uslan, Roger Corman, Kevin Feige, Zak Penn, Paul Pope and Mike Richardson among many others) this special presentation promises some unique insights into big screen super-heroics. Broken Frontier's James Wortman took an advance look...

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With Iron Man, the Hulk, Batman and Hellboy taking over the multiplex this summer, it’s no secret that comic books have made it big on the big screen. On June 10, Starz Inside takes a look at the history of comic book film adaptations in Comic Books Unbound, a special hosted by film critic Richard Roeper (pictured right) that follows comic book movies from their pulp serial roots in the 1940s to the big budget blockbusters that dominate the summer movie season year after year.

"I never imagined years ago that these characters would have the life that they have now on film," Stan Lee tells Starz Inside. These days, however, Lee has reason to celebrate his characters’ life on the silver screen, with Iron Man earning nearly $100 million in its opening weekend alone. Another Lee creation stomps his way into theaters on June 13 in The Incredible Hulk.

But comic books were hardly a sure thing at the cinemas in the 1950s, in the midst of a highly publicized witch-hunt spurred by Dr. Frederic Wertham who authored Seduction of the Innocent in 1954. The book nearly brought the comic book industry to its knees, blaming comic books for juvenile delinquency. The Comics Code Authority was born out of the controversy, but the mainstream damage was done. Aside from the campy Adam West Batman movie and television show and the Lou Ferrigno Incredible Hulk series, very few comic book characters made that panel-to-screen leap in the 1960s and 70s. However, in 1978, one man not only took a leap. He flew.

Richard Donner’s Superman was the first comic book movie to become the highest-grossing movie of the year at the box office, inspiring a generation of fans to bring their own comic book fantasies to life years later.

"The first Superman, for me, remains one of the supreme comic book-to-film adaptations of all time," says Guillermo del Toro, who brings Dark Horse antihero Hellboy to the screen for the second time on July 11 in Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

And del Toro is in good company, standing alongside Bryan Singer (X-Men, X2: X-Men United, Superman Returns), Sam Raimi (the Spider-Man series), Jon Favreau (Iron Man), Zack Snyder (300), David Cronenberg (A History of Violence), Robert Rodriguez (Sin City) and Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight) as filmmakers who respect and honor the comic book art form as they continue to change the face of modern Hollywood. Just ask Stan "The Man" himself.

"The future of comic book movies is unlimited, as long as people can keep coming up with fresh versions of these things that people love," Lee says in the one-hour Starz Originals presentation. ‘Nuff said.

For more information on the Starz Inside: Comic Books Unbound special then go to their website  here.