Hollywood helps India's Kapur sketch comics

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Several Hollywood stars such as Nicholas Cage and Guy Ritchie are helping Oscar-nominated Indian director Shekhar Kapur produce a comic book series inspired by Indian mythology, a newspaper reported on Thursday.

Kapur, who directed "Elizabeth", said rock group Duran Duran were also interested in working with him on the comic books.

Richard Branson’s Virgin Comics -- of which Kapur is a co-founder -- will publish the comics that are aimed to appeal to Indian and international audiences, the Mumbai Mirror said.

It said Cage had created the character of a "sadhu" or an Indian sage while Ritchie was working on a story.

John Woo, director of hits including "Face Off" and "Mission Impossible-II", is also writing one of the stories, the newspaper said. The books will be released in Indian this year.

"I have seen in the West (that) Batmans and Supermans have ruled the comic book industry," Kapur told the daily. "So here we are working around Indian mythology."

"We already have 120-130 titles out in the market," said Kapur, whose next film, "The Golden Age", based on the relationship between Queen Elizabeth I and Sir Walter Raleigh, is in post-production.

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