Scott Duvall Talks Heavy Metal's Movie Tie-In, Narcopolis: Continuum

Beginning in November, Heavy Metal Media has announced they will publish Narcopolis: Continuum, a four-issue miniseries based on the the upcoming UK sci-fi movie Narcopolis from T Squared Films.

The first issue is actually available digitally now, with the second expected next month, but each of the issues will track behind in print, so that fans can choose to buy digital now or print later in the year.

Writer Scott Duvall joined ComicBook.com to discuss the project. You can check out the solicitation text for #1 below; final order cutoff for #1 is today, so talk to your retailer. You can get #1 digitally at the Heavy Metal website.

How did you come to be involved in this project? It's not like you're an established name who's the first one somebody would think of for a movie tie-in.

No, not at all. And all credit goes to my wife; she's friends with Elliot Cowan. He's the lead actor and he's also the producer on the movie, Narcopolis. She's known him for years through her family; her father taught him drama, actually, in school in the U.K. So she's kept up with him over the years, and he was aware that I was involved with the comics industry and had ties to that.

So he had been talking to the director of the film, Justin Trefgarne, who is very inspired by comic books. He had thought there's a lot of stuff with this particular project that lends itself to an expanded universe. There's other corners to this world they've built to explore, and what better way to do that than with comics?

So one thing led to another. Elliot put me in touch with Justin; we spoke and hit it off. He sent me the script and I sent him an outline for the project, and we went from there.

Traditionally, we've had a comics adaptation. Now, almost nobody does that. There's a lot more expanded universe material. What do you think is the biggest upside of doing it this way instead of adapting the material?

I really love that stuff. What got me into that initially was the Star Wars expanded universe; I used to read all those novels and that was kind of my gateway. It's cool; you want to see what the rest of the story is and where it goes from the original movies you enjoyed.

I think there's a little more of that stuff going on. I know they did that with Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Michael Moreci had a series he wrote that tied the first and second movies together. I think it's just so much more interesting to do it this way.

I just wanted to be able to tell a different story in this universe. It does weave in and out of the movie a little bit because we play with time a lot, both in the movie and the comic. There are gaps to fill, and that gave us room to explore different avenues and just show what happened. There's a lot of backstory missing from the movie and I wanted a chance to be able to come up with my own interpretation and just run with it. I think it's a unique way of doing it.

A straight-up adaptation can be cool, but you might as well just be watching the movie at that point.

What's your version of the elevator pitch for this?

I love this question because even when I was pitching it, I still hadn't really figured out the best way to pitch this. Since I started writing it, I figured it out. I think I would pitch it as this is kind of Blade Runner meets Back to the Future Part II. The movie itself is inspired in its general tone and vibe by Blade Runner, but also Back to the Future II in the sense that there are times with this comic series that we re-enter the first movie and kind of affect the way the story goes and you get to see how that all ties together.

In the movie, we focused on the main character, Frank, and in the comic we focus on his son, Ben. So we get to see how Frank's storyline affects his son, and it picks up where their relationship left off. The whole story revolves around their relationship; that's the core of the story.

How much have you been collaborating with the filmmakers to be sure you're not stepping on any toes or going too deep into mythology they might want to explore in a sequel or whatever?

I've been in close contact with Justin; we did a lot of Skype. I've never actually met the guy in person because he's based in the U.K. but I would send him my outline, he would send me notes, and we would jump on Skype to discuss them.

He really gave me carte blanche; he said to come up with what I thought would be a good story to tell in this universe and run with it, so it was really freeing actually -- more so than if I was working with a big studio and I would get lots of notes. It was a very freeing experience to just create. I did my best to try and not break the rules of this universe but maybe bend them a little bit so it would allow me to tell the story in the way it needed to be told.

You mentioned not stepping on their toes, but this was never intended to be a sequel to the film; it was intended to be a companion piece, so anyone can pick up this comic and read it and enjoy it whether or not you've seen the movie, and if you've seen the movie, that enhances the experience.

What was the most important element of the universe that you wanted to make sure you pulled in?

Because the story's futuristic and we skip ahead a few years from our present time in the movie and then twenty years beyond that in the comic, even though technology advances and it affects people's day to day lives, at the core of who they are and everything, it doesn't affect their relationships with each other. At the end of it, it's still a very human story. It's a story that could have been told in the present day just as easily.

Do you think it's interesting to explore the idea that technology isolates people, now that we've seen it so much?

Yeah, I do. I've seen a lot of stories about that even now. Say with social media, the idea is that it connects us and makes the world smaller but in effect it's actually making us a little more divided and splitting society apart in a lot of ways.

I don't know how I would compare this story to that idea, exactly. In this story, he has created a new drug that he hopes to bring himself closer to his father that he lost years ago and he doesn't know what happened to him. So he's trying to use technology to his benefit to be able to close that gap in his history.

Is there anything else you want to make sure to communicate to our readers?

I would just love to give a shout-out and some extra props to my art team; I think they've done such a phenomenal job with the material. Ralf Singh is a newcomer but he's a huge talent and I think you're going to hear a lot more about him. I hav ea colorist, Nicolas Chapius, who's really good. He's really elevating the material as well as Taylor Esposito, our letterer, who's amazing to work with. The really cool thing about working with Heavy Metal for this project is that I got to pick my own editor, and I brought in Valerie D'Orazio, who I've known for years. She's a good friend and always gives me good advice, so being able to work with these people and select my own team for this project was such an advantage and a great experience.

Narcopolis: Continuum #1

Writer – Scott Duvall
Artist – Ralf Singh
Colors – Nicolas Chapuis
Letters – Taylor Esposito
Cover Art – Ralf Singh, Nicolas Chapuis

22 pgs, $3.50
Sell Date: 9/23 digitally, 11/11 print

Part 1 of 4 - In the near distant future, genius inventor Ben creates the ultimate drug. No ordinary narcotic, its effects will take Ben on a trip through time in an attempt to uncover the truth behind his father's disappearance twenty years ago. In searching for answers, the past reveals its secrets that the young scientist won't accept, even if it means risking everything he's worked for. Based on the UK sci-fi thriller, Narcopolis: Continuum explores new corners of the world introduced in the hit movie.