Comic-book origins, elite secret teams, ass-kicking females, Brett Ratner: The Unknowns has it all

By Sean O'Neal | July 28, 2010 | 5:17pm

Aux Features Film

There simply aren’t enough movies about elite teams of ass-kicking secret operatives these days, which is why Brett Ratner is hoping to fill the aching void left in the wake of The Losers, The A-Team, Salt, The Expendables, Red et al. with The Unknowns, an adaptation of the recent comic-book series about a seemingly ordinary girl who discovers she is actually the “highly skilled and deadly leader” of an elite team of ass-kicking secret operatives, and who must recover her own identity, as well as unearth the global conspiracy that erased her memories in the first place. It's a story just crazy enough to work, over and over again with only slight variations.

The comic was created by Mark Altman and Steve Kriozere with a main character—who has both guns and breasts, so bonus—modeled after actress Monica Olsen, although it’s not clear yet whether Olsen will officially take on the role in the film, which has also yet to name a director. But even at this early stage, Ratner is already confident that “The Unknowns will be a great new comic-book/action franchise,” which there simply aren’t enough of either. Plugging holes, that’s what Ratner is all about.