For the right look, Pathfinder director turns to comics

While some creators are determined to take a more "cinematic" approach to comics, director Marcus Nispel wanted his remake of the Viking film Pathfinder to have the look of "a darkly stylized graphic novel come to life."

So, he turned to comic artist Christopher Shy, and drew at least a little inspiration from the work of Frank Frazetta.

"I wanted to do a Viking movie," Nispel said in today's New York Times, "but the ones I read all had the same ingredients: a sea battle, eating ham hocks and drinking out of horns. I didn't want to do Wagnerian clichés. I remember Pathfinder as being more like First Blood than some inflated epic."

Although Nils Gaup's 1987 movie was set among the warring tribes of ancient Norway, Nispel's version moves the action to North America, where a Viking boy is left behind and becomes the savior of the native people in their fight against the Norsemen.

Nispel, best known for his 2003 remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, worked with Shy on a series of concept drawings, which were then given to the film's costume designer and movie director.

"In a reverse on the usual sequence of movie follows book," The Times notes, "Mr. Shy's drawings will form the basis of a graphic novel, in effect an adaptation of the film." That book, written by Pathfinder screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis, will be released by Dark Horse Comics in July.

The movie, originally set to premiere on July 14, will now open on Sept. 8.

Pictured: Actor Clancy Brown in a production photo. While supervising the shoot, Nispel said he realized the pose resembled Frazetta's famous Death Dealer painting.