Rob Cohen’s ‘Razor’ Coming To Big Screen, Courtesy Of Number 11 Films, Lotus Entertainment

Filmmaker Rob Cohen, who has long been interested in making a movie from the bestselling comic book franchise Razor, has just partnered with The Crow producer Jeff Most (Most Films) to produce the film with Number 11 Films fully financing and handling worldwide sales on the project. It will be the first film under a new sales and financing partnership Number 11 Films entered into with Lotus Entertainment. The two companies will be introducing the project to buyers at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival during the Marché du Film.

Razor is based on two of Everette Hartsoe’s comic book series, Razor and Stryke. Razor, considered a bad girl comic, has sold over 6 million copies worldwide and tells the story of a woman — impervious to pain after the death of both her sister and father — who becomes a superheroine and wears a get-up with razors on her arms to go after evil in Chinatown.

Interestingly, comic book writers Everette Hartsoe and James O’Barr were inspired to create the comics, Razor and The Crow, respectively, due to the loss of someone dear to them. In O’Barr’s case, it was the unsolved loss of his fiancé by a hit and run driver that lead to the creation of The Crow. In Hartsoe’s case, his younger sister was murdered when he was only 15. In grief, he created, Razor.

Those two comics — Razor and The Crow — subsequently appeared in a series of crossover comics that lead to a shared universe and a No. 1 graphic novel The Crow/ Razor.

Cohen is best-known for creating and directing the debut films for The Fast and the Furious and the XXX franchises. Because of his work in writing and developing Razor, the filmmaker has also become a comic book creator with his series Red Dog.

“I have loved Razor since its first publication. It has operatic themes, female empowerment, revenge, action, a love story, all shrouded in a delicious darkness that fits our time,” said Cohen.

Other producers on Razor include Philip Lee (The Dark Knight, The Revenant), Jim Steele (The Arrival) and Sean Lydiard (Office Uprising).

“Razor is a fast paced, high concept action movie based on a very successful underlying IP and with a director who has proven himself in this genre time and again, said Jim Seibel co-chairman of Lotus Entertainment in making the announcement.

Lotus co-chairmen Bill Johnson and Jim Seibel and Keith Wells’ Number 11 Films new sales and financing partnership are looking to produce and finance three to four films annually with budgets between $5M and $40M. Wells is a successful entrepreneur who has launched and exited businesses in several industries and has a strong network of relationships in the finance and investment communities. Executives are taking meetings in Cannes during the Marché du Film.