Coheed and Cambria's Claudio Sanchez Talks 'Amory Wars' Movie, Collaborating with Mark Wahlberg

Over the summer, Coheed and Cambria frontman Claudio Sanchez revealed that he has partnered with Mark Wahlberg and Leverage to produce live-action film based on the singer’s series of graphic novels The Amory Wars. The collaboration, announced at Comic-Con, brings Sanchez and his Evil Ink Comics together with Wahlberg and Stephen Levinson, the producers behind Entourage, Boardwalk Empire and Wahlberg’s recent film Contraband.

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Little has been revealed about the relationship or the big screen plans for the series, but Sanchez recently told The Hollywood Reporter that the adaptation is currently in the early stages of development. “It’s very preliminary stages,” Sanchez confirmed. “Because the mythology is very dense and a lot of parts are already created ... it’s just trying to find the right starting point to get people attracted to it.”

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The story of The Amory Wars is set in Heaven's Fence, a fantasy universe run by a tyrannical dictator named Wilhelm Ryan, and is inspired by Sanchez's vast conceptual tale surrounding Coheed and Cambria’s albums. For Sanchez, the initial idea came from his desire to keep a perimeter between his personal life and the band’s music.

“When I created The Amory Wars I created it as a curtain,” Sanchez says. “When I started writing these songs I had a hard time as a lyricist giving my story away. But at the same time as a songwriting that’s my release, I need that in the creative process. For me creating this concept was certainly a way to tell my story but also hide behind something. I always knew I wanted to tell it in a more detailed fashion -- graphic novels and comics -- but I wasn’t so sure that it could get this far.”

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His involvement in the film is unclear at this point, but don’t expect Sanchez to star in the future movie. “I’d love to see the band’s music make a cameo,” he notes. “Not necessarily as the soundtrack but as Stan Lee does for the Marvel movies maybe the music could pop in once in a while.”

Sanchez will also be closely tethered to the development of the story. “Being the creator I’d certainly like to think [I’ll be very involved in the movie],” he says. “That’s certainly our understanding going forward in the partnership.”

Since the mythology is so dense and the story so expansive, can The Amory Wars compel a general audience? Sanchez seems to think so. “I think the story is pretty universal in terms of the themes and the subplots,” the singer says. “I think people can find a character they can connect to or find as their favorite. And they can get behind the main character as well. It’s a universal story and I think it’s going to draw a bigger audience than just the band’s. I think it has already.”

Coheed and Cambria are currently wrapping a U.S. tour. Volume two of their double album, The Afterman: Descension, is scheduled for release on Feb. 5 via Everything Evil/Hundred Handed Inc.

Twitter: @THRMusic

Lindsey Byrnes