After probing Grant Morrison's deep brain in Talking With Gods, indie director Patrick Meaney dissects the internet Jesus himself in upcoming documentary Warren Ellis: Captured Ghosts.

"I am a messiah," acclaimed comics writer Ellis cracks in Wired.com's premiere clip below. "Ask anyone on the internet."

Ellis, whose work displays a knack for mad hilarity, merciless action, dark cynicism and incorruptible bravery, is a scathing public wit on camera – much less guarded than Morrison and definitely more animated.

"He's everything you'd imagine: Funny, dark and cynical, but also a really kind, giving guy," Meaney told Wired.com in an exclusive e-mail interview about the film, which premieres worldwide Sept. 9. "He always says he doesn't know why we're doing this movie about him when he's just 'a midrange comics writer.' But I think if you look at the sheer enthusiasm that others have for him, it's clear that he's someone unique in the comics world."

Featuring the most extensive interview Ellis has ever given, as well as spirited testimonials from disciples and pals like Joe Quesada, Molly Crapabble and Jeff Newelt, the work-in-progress documentary shines a light on one of the comics industry's few visionaries. Coupled with Meaney's previous film about Morrison and Dez Vylenz's superb 2003 documentary The Mindscape of Alan Moore, Captured Ghosts will round out a cinematic holy trinity offering comics noobs a crash course on the medium and its mind-wiping messengers.

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Portrait of a Comics Visionary as a Self-Constructed Brand Muppet —————————————————————–

Ellis made his mark with transgressive, mind-blowing comics like Transmetropolitan and Planetary, as well as webcomic epic FreakAngels and fetish-heavy novel Crooked Little Vein.

Yet the English writer remains deeply humble and often downplays the importance of his body of work, said Meaney, who developed a serious interest in comics around the turn of the century that anticipated Hollywood's current onslaught of comics-based movies.

The gonzo dystopia of Transmetropolitan and the cerebral sci-fi of Planetary floored Meaney, but Ellis' desire to remain internetworked with those who follow his challenging work truly hooked the director on his subject.

"I stumbled across the Warren Ellis Forum, which has now relocated to Whitechapel, as it was a major discussion point for comics masterminded by Warren," said Meaney, whose favorite new Ellis comic is the transhumanist head-trip Doktor Sleepless. "I was really amazed by the fact that I could post something and within minutes, Warren himself would respond! And, I was fascinated by the strange world that Warren built, the cult that grew up around him, and the way it paralleled what he was doing in his comics."

The forum was populated by individuals who would go on to become heavy hitters in the comics industry, including Matt Fraction, Antony Johnston and Kieron Gillen, all of whom Meaney interviewed for his film.

That connection with his readers continues to this day. "Warren's tweeting, blogging, posting all the time," said Meaney, and the constant communication underpins Ellis' acerbic and cynical internet persona.

"The main reason we chose to do a doc on Ellis is similar to the central reason we chose to do a project on Grant: They're both writers who are as iconic and legendary off the page as they are on the page," Meaney said.

"Warren mentions in the film that as a commercial writer, you are a brand, and these are two guys who have done an amazing job of creating an image that is fascinating on its own terms, and particularly interesting in relation to the work. They also both have an air of mystery about them, and there's always the question of how much of what they're doing or saying is playing to the image and how much is genuine.

‘We'll be bringing out different techniques to make Ellis' ideas come alive, including a muppet version of Ellis.’"But Warren's greatest strength, more than anyone else I've interviewed, is his skill as a verbal storyteller, to set up a scenario, draw you in and always deliver a great punch line," Meaney said. "Ellis really knows how to package a story to make it hit, and some of his insane online spirit must have rubbed off on the [Captured Ghosts] interviewees as well, because there's a lot of wackiness coming from nearly everyone in this film."

Just how wacky is the documentary?

"We'll be bringing different techniques to make Ellis' ideas come alive," Meaney said, "including, at one point, a muppet version of Ellis, which we're giving away for Captured Ghosts' Kickstarter project."

(Venues interested in participating in what Meaney calls a "global day of Ellis" for the Captured Ghosts premiere should contact Respect Films to sync up. Those who can't make the September screenings or score the Kickstarter swag can purchase the DVD from Halo-8 in December.)

Transforming Comics-Based Hollywood Into Blockbuster Hollyweird —————————————————————

Like Grant Morrison's oeuvre, Warren Ellis' comics are stacked with engrossing stories just begging for the right kind of movie or TV adaptation.

"I would love to see a Planetary television series, which seems absolutely perfect for AMC as a kind of updated, genre-hopping X-Files," said Meaney, adding that Ellis said the comic has been optioned several times. "One writer mentioned to [Ellis] that he passed on the project because he didn't want to be the guy who ruined Planetary."

These days, the Alan Moore effect – wherein Hollywood is repeatedly burned at the box office and by fandom after turning game-changing comics into underwhelming films – has taken hold. Meaney said a Transmetropolitan adaptation is "stuck in limbo" and a web project in development with Joss Whedon has been delayed by The Avengers movie.

Meanwhile, superhero films strangely hew to a purposeful realism that comics regularly annihilate. From Christopher Nolan's box-office-blasting Batman trilogy, concluding in 2012 with The Dark Knight Rises, to Zack Snyder's self-described "most realistic Superman movie ever made," comics flicks are showing off superheroes who carry plenty of earthly baggage.

‘Trying to fit every hero into Batman's mold of the tortured crusader is not going to work in the long term.’"I do find it strange how many of the superhero movies seem to be about how terrible it is to be a superhero," Meaney said. "That probably ties in with the trend of darker interpretations of our archetypal cultural characters. Spider-Man must want to abandon the costume, Batman must suffer for his work. The problem is that a really good dark work is great, but trying to fit every hero into Batman's mold of the tortured crusader is not going to work in the long term."

Still, Meaney said he remains hopeful that someone has the talent and the stones to successfully adapt Ellis' smart comics to film.

"The Green Lantern movie looks goofy, but it also looks like a hero who's at least trying to have fun, which is nice to see," he said. "And I think the success of Ellis' Red is encouraging. Hopefully, it will point Hollywood to more of his work. Comics have a cultural cachet now. We've reached the point where, even if not that many people are actually reading them, they're still getting mainstream respect."

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