Terry Moore Gives Update on the 'Strangers in Paradise' Movie

It has been almost a year since Angela Robinson was tapped to direct the movie based on Terry [...]

It has been almost a year since Angela Robinson was tapped to direct the movie based on Terry Moore's acclaimed Strangers in Paradise, and little has been revealed yet about the status of the project -- but Moore revealed a bit during a recent interview with SYFY Wire.

The long-running comic, which is currently in the midst of a year-long revival to celebrate its 25th anniversary, centers on three characters: Katchoo, Francine, and David. The three are living a quiet life in Texas when dark forces from Katchoo's past track her down, hoping to take everything from her, including Francine and David.

"Because Strangers in Paradise is the work from my heart, I guess maybe the book of my life, I turned down offers where I was just going to hand it to somebody for $20," Moore said. "That just seemed like not a good idea. And I used to talk to people and they'd say 'Oh, that lesbian story,' And I'd say 'nope.' If you said that you didn't read it. There's so much more to it, and nobody likes labels, right? So now we're going to do the movie and the deal was, I have to write the first script, just to at least get the story going in the right direction. because I'm working with friends, with Angela and all that, I think it's going to work. Angela is a great writer; she did this movie called Professor Marston and the Wonder Women. She wrote that, so she's really really good and I trust her to take my first script — and when I write a script it's not like it's going to say cut to black or anything. It's more like an actor's script, like a stage play. It's not like a shooting script. Angela will turn it into what she needs it to be, but I feel really good about trusting her with my baby."

Moore's approach, of course, could be said to mirror that of Todd McFarlane, the Spawn creator who eventually came to the conclusion that if he was going to get a movie made that he could be proud of, he would have to have a hand in it himself. McFarlane will direct Spawn later this year for Blumhouse, with Jamie Foxx in the lead role.

In the twenty-five years that he has been working in mainstream comics, Moore has earned a reputation for writing and drawing women well; when asked, he tends to deflect, saying that he simply writes them like people, and chooses to make his characters female because that is what he prefers to draw.

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(Image: Terry Moore)

"I've been wanting to adapt Strangers In Paradise for over a decade, since the first time I read it and couldn't put it down. Terry Moore writes real female characters with such breathtaking sensitivity," Robinson said at the time of the announcement. "With Strangers In Paradise he pulls off the nearly impossible — a sexy, stylish crime story with tons of heart. I look forward to our collaboration."

Strangers in Paradise, along with Silver & Black (the planned Silver Sable/Black Cat movie set in Sony's Spider-Man universe) and DC's New Gods, will be the first comic book movies directed by women of color.

Moore, a best-selling and award-winning indie writer/artist, has seen his share of film and TV options over the years, but neither Strangers in Paradise nor Rachel Rising, his recent horror series, made it past the screenplay stage.

Robinson directed Professor Marston And The Wonder Women, a drama that centers on the life of Wonder Woman creator William Moulton Marston and the women who inspired her personality. That film is available on DVD, Blu-ray, and streaming. Strangers in Paradise XXV #4 will be in comic shops on Wednesday.

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