Fingers crossed

Dear Hollywood (and Alexandre Aja), please don't screw this up:

Alexandre Aja's Piranha 3-D comes out today, but he's already planning his next project: the roguish Space Pirate Cobra. A precursor of Han Solo and Mal Reynolds, the anime character became huge in Europe, but now he's coming for us.

[....]

According to Deadline's report the other day, Aja wants to turn Cobra into a huge tentpole action film, and he's co-writing the script with Gregory Levasseur. The duo will also produce the film, along with Marc Sessego and Alexandra Milchan. Aja has a solid track record as a horror director, but wants to branch into big science fiction/fantasy action-adventure. He's been trying to get the blessing of creator Buichi Terasawa for years to make a big live-action adaptation, and has finally snagged it.

Here's the synopsis of Aja's film, according to Deadline:

In a future where merchant spaceships and ruthless brigands sail across space, Cobra is a notorious rogue pirate whose refusal to align with the United Galaxies Federation or the Pirates Guild puts him on the business end of a huge bounty. As he tries to keep his identity secret and avoid capture, Cobra teams up with a sexy bounty hunter named Jane, who is out to locate her sisters and decode a treasure map tattooed on their backs. Their goal: to liberate a lost treasure on Mars.

Sounds like the movie will cut from origin story to the latter-day Cobra arc of the Royal Sisters, led by Jane Royal. Interesting...

From io9. Image found on the intergoogles because I own the issue pictured.