PRIEST: Animated Prologue & A Bit of Manhua History

Animated prologues are in! Taking a promo leaf off of the Sucker Punch animated series by Ben Hibon, the Korean-manga "Priest" gets adapted into a CG-fueled movie by Russian animation director Genndy Tartakovsky (creator of Sym-Bionic Titan). Maggie Q does a video-intro and I'm already sold!

We previously blogged about PREIST on TOYSREVIL in 2010 circa SDCC. Here is the post, along with a little history of the story:

From Manhwa To Movie: Priest in 3-D:

Making it's "public" debut at San Diego Comic Con 2010 [tagged] was Screen Gems' PRIEST ~ a 3-D feature film adaptation of Korean manhwa / comic book created by Min-Woo Hyung. Starring Paul Bettany as "Ivan Isaacs" (Priest) and Maggie Q (as "Priestess" ~hur), and directed by Scott Stewart, "Priest" is scheduled for a May 13, 2011 release. Truth be told, it was the motorbike on show at SDCC which got my attention first LOL


[Event images via SuperHeroHype]

ABOUT-THE-MOVIE: Priest is an upcoming futuristic superhero vampire-western horror film loosely based on the manhwa, the Korean name for comics and print cartoons, of the same name. The film is directed by Scott Stewart and stars Paul Bettany, Cam Gigandet and Maggie Q. [Wiki].


ABOUT-THE-COMIC: Priest (Hangul: 프리스트) was a manhwa (Korean comic) series created by Hyung Min-woo. It fuses the Western genre with supernatural horror, Gun fu, and dark fantasy themes and is notable for its unusual, angular art style. An interview with Hyung in Priest: Volume 3 states that the comic was inspired by the computer game Blood, which featured a similar horror-Western aesthetic and undead protagonist. Priest was published in English by TOKYOPOP. [Wiki]


DIFFERENCE-BETWEEN FILM-AND-COMIC:
Fans of the manhwa have voiced their heavy criticism against the movie regarding changes related to central storylines and core characters. Primarily how the protagonist and antagonists in the film have been altered. In the books, Ivan Isaacs was portrayed as a priest that turned into a demon possessed undead creature. In the film he's a human that's a priest and a vampire hunter. The books had him face a multitude of enemies, mainly demons, zombies, and angels with zero encounters with vampires. The main antagonist in the books was an angel called Temozarela. The film's antagonists are only vampires with a leader called Black Hat. [Wiki]

Actress Maggie Q is in it, so I'm absolutely fine with whatever differences to be had, IMHO.


Superbowl 2011 TV SPot: