Futuristic western Earp: Saints for Sinners to be directed by Sam Raimi

Famous Old West icon Wyatt Earp to be gun-slingin’ in the not-to-distant future? Yup!

According to THR’s Heat Vision, filmmaker Sam Raimi (DRAG ME TO HELL, THE QUICK AND THE DEAD) is attached to direct an adaptation of Radical’s graphic novel EARP: SAINTS FOR SINNERS, a re-imagining of the classic western figure that has him “set in a future in which he takes on outlaws in a ravaged society where the only boomtown left is Las Vegas.” The graphic novel’s co-creator Matt Cirulnick will write the screenplay.

So where does this leave Raimi’s on again-off again adaptation of WORLD OF WARCRAFT? Who knows? Coming up next for Raimi will be OZ: THE GREAT AND POWERFUL for Disney, a prequel of sorts to the 1939 classic.

Here’s a meatier synopsis of the Earp graphic novel: Where sin city meets the wild west in the not-too-distant future.

In the pages of Earp: Saints for Sinners, state-of-the-art motorcycles serve as modern-day horses, sky-high casinos line the streets instead of saloons, and disputes are settled by old-fashioned gunfights in the dark and twisted boomtown of Las Vegas. As unemployment skyrockets, crime spreads like a disease and the streets swarm with criminals, prostitutes, and drunks. But, in the midst of this cultural wasteland, there is one man who stands to lay down the law and remind people of their forgotten ideals. This man is Wyatt Earp.

After losing his brother, Virgil, during the arrest of outlaw Jesse James, Earp is ready for a major lifestyle change. Craving simplicity and wanting to protect his younger brother, Morgan, from the same fate as Virgil, Wyatt looks west. Leaving New York and his Marshal badge behind, he settles in Las Vegas to run an upscale saloon with his best friend and ex-partner, Doc Holliday. The city presents new opportunities and faces, but it isn’t long before old enemies and scars return, as well. Once again, he must enforce the law and bring justice to criminal entrepreneur Edward Flynn, Flynn’s personal army “the Pinkertons,” and Jesse James’ own “James Gang.” On top of this, the complicated love triangle between talented starlet, Josephine Marcus, and sworn enemies, Wyatt Earp and Jesse James, also wreaks havoc on Earp’s life.