Brett Ratner Says Script for YOUNGBLOOD Still Being Written

Since the announcement in August of 2009, Brett Ratner and writers J.P. Lavin and Chad Damiani have been hard at work to adapt the comic series into a film. Ratner discusses with MTV what has been holding the project up.

MTV was able to sit down and discuss with Brett Ratner about his proposed Youngblood film which will be an adaption to the comic series by Image Comics.

Hold ups are a usual part of film making in Hollywood. Especially when adapting films from books, comics, television series and what not. In regards to the Youngblood film Ratner explain, "We're still working on it," said the director, "There were some rights issues. We actually waited for over a year for the rights to these comic books. There were a lot of owners of these comic books and a lot of people were claiming they had the rights. It's taken a long time but I think we've finally cleared the legal part of it."

Youngblood is a comic series which focuses on a superhero team created by writer/artist Rob Liefeld. Liefeld is serving as a consultant on the film and he apparently, according to the director, approached Brett Ratner to adapt the series into a film.

"Rob brought it to me. I think Bryan Singer wanted this," he said. "Rob was like, 'My favorite X-Men [movie] is yours.' And you're a comic book geek? So Rob came in and came after me and said, 'I want you to do this comic book. I believe that you could do this great.' I was happy."

Wikipedia offers a description of the group, "Youngblood was a high-profile superteam sanctioned and overseen by the United States Government. The members of Youngblood include Shaft, a former FBI agent and archer whose bow uses magnets to propel its arrow instead of a string; Badrock, a teenager transformed into a living block of stone;[1] Vogue, a Russian fashion model with purple-and-chalk-white skin; and Chapel, a government assassin."

It may have been set back with right issues but Ratner assures that fans will see the superhero team on the big screen sometime in the future.

"I'm a tenacious guy and I persevere and I don't stop and if I focus it's going to happen," he said. "And I'm focused on it."