Deepak Chopra And a New Age Of Comic Books

So far, none of these titles has led to movie-deal magic, but it's early, says Devarajan. The first Virgin title was released in July. If a Variety-worthy sale is ever made, the company has partnership arrangements with the director, the details of which the partners would not get into. Though no contracts have been inked, Deepak Chopra has already written a screenplay for a movie version of the Sadhu, a Virgin title about India's answer to the samurai.

"Nicolas Cage is totally on board," Chopra says by phone.

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Chopra is outside a Coffee Bean in Santa Monica, Calif., where he's drinking a cup of coffee containing two scoops of white chocolate powder. ("It's my own concoction," he says.) He sounds like a guy living the sweet life. He's just come from a two-hour workout, which included weight training and yoga, and he's taking the rest of the day off.

As he tells it, he isn't in this comics thing just to make a few bucks off a major motion picture. No, he's thinking way bigger than that. He believes comic books can bridge cultural gaps, including the yawning maw that stands between the United States and its enemies.

"Kids all over the world are reading comic books," he says, "and if we could create a transcultural hero that appeals to kids in countries like Iran and Syria, that could have a huge impact. We've even made a proposal to the State Department to study celebrity heroes in Islamic countries and make superheroes out of them. It's a good way -- "

Wait, you called the State Department?

"Yes."

What did they say?

"We had a conference call, and I think they were very receptive. Iran right now, more than 60 percent of the population is under 25. I think we should try to figure out how to capture the collective imagination of this new generation and see if we can get out of this old us-versus-them paradigm."

For the moment, though, Virgin is focused on winning over American comics readers. Which might be a tough sell. Virgin and its Hollywood-focused strategy have met with some arched eyebrows. It's a little redolent of focus group testing, says one competitor, who had a booth at Comic Con and didn't want to be named because he didn't have anything nice to say.

"The great stories come from artists who tell stories that they have to tell," he says. "If you start with a movie in mind, you're just not going to wind up with the same thing."