On the hit man comic book Alias, which he created for NOW Comics in the
late 1980s: "... Actually the title and entire property still belong to
Universal Studios who bought all rights from NOW Comics during the
bankruptcy... They were very close to filming it 10 years ago. It had a
screenplay by
Frank Darabont and was to be directed by
Joe Dante with
Nicolas Cage
and
Gene Hackman to star. As I said, 'very close' to filming. The project
was axed two months before principal photography was to start. The
story I was told was that the producers lacked faith in Cage's box
office. Guess the joke's on them."
