Dan Dare movie: Sam Worthington confirms role

According to MTV.com, TotalFilm.com and others, Sam Worthington, whose recent films include "Terminator: Salvation", "Avatar" and "Clash of the Titans", today confirmed he will be appearing in a feature film based on Frank Hampson's classic sci-fi comic strip creation "Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future". The actor hasn't as yet confirmed what role he will be playing in the new film, but I think it will be very surprising if it's not the title character.

Although Dan Dare first appeared in the Eagle comic 60 years ago almost to the day (April 14th, 1950 in fact), amazingly this new Dan Dare movie will be the first ever appearance of the famous spaceman on the "big screen". So far he has only ever appeared in comic strip stories, computer games, TV adverts and a CGI cartoon TV series.

It seems that the film will be based on the 2007/2008 Virgin Comics reboot of the character by Garth Ennis and Gary Erskine (pictured above), rather than being based directly on the 1950s and 60s original (pictured top). Perhaps not entirely ideal for Dan Dare purists, but better than nothing I suppose. One thing is for sure, this film has an awful lot to live up to - Dan Dare is considered to be one of the world's best ever comic strips by industry professionals and genre fans alike.

To find out all about Dan Dare, visit my sites at Dan-Dare.net, Dan-Dare.org and DanDare.org.uk.

(See also here)