First look–Dark Horse brings R.I.P.D. to the big screen

The largest independent comic book publisher and the third largest comic publisher overall, Dark Horse Comics has scored pretty well at movie theaters so far in its relatively brief 27 years as comic book publisher, with successful adaptations by its Dark Horse Entertainment division of its books The Mask, Time Cop, Tank Girl, Mystery Men, Hellboy, Sin City, 300, and Aliens vs. Predator. Finally, Dark Horse Comics has teamed up with Universal Studios to bring to the big screen one of its most popular long-running series, R.I.P.D., from the anthology series Dark Horse Presents.

Roy Pulsipher and Nick Walker are dead, but that doesn’t mean their stint in law enforcement is over. Both Roy and Nick are officers in the Rest in Peace Department, or R.I.P.D., sworn to serve the Almighty and protect the living from the evil monsters among us. If you haven’t read R.I.P.D. before, you can see a seven-page preview of the prequel comic book series, R.I.P.D.: City of the Damned, released this past winter in a trade edition and available at Amazon.com, here:

R.I.P.D.: City of the Damned movie prequel preview

The new movie perfectly casts Jeff Bridges as the western hero Roy Pulsipher with partner Nick Walker played by Ryan Reynolds (Green Lantern, The X-Files, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Adventureland). Also starring in R.I.P.D. are Kevin Bacon, Mary-Louise Parker, Robert Knepper, and classic character and genre actor James Hong (Sky King, Dragnet, Zorro, Wagon Train, I Dream of Jeannie, The Sand Pebbles, Gomer Pyle, USMC, I Spy, Hawaii Five-O, Kung Fu, The Bionic Woman, Wonder Woman, Blade Runner, Missing in Action, Big Trouble in Little China, Magnum, P.I., The Shadow, Lois and Clark, Tank Girl, The X-Files, Charmed, Bones, Chuck) (phew!) as Nick’s avatar.

So here’s the first preview for R.I.P.D.: