Ultraviolet: What, no comic book?

Well, as far as I can tell, the upcoming film Ultraviolet appears to not be based on a comic, contrary to a number of references to it being a comic book film. I finally found an on-line comic with almost the same title (Ultra-Violet), but but it's pretty obvious there's no relation between the two.

It appears that this all came out of Kurt Wimmer's head (he's the writer and director). When asked about where he got the story in a 2003 interview, he said,

The movie is basically (John Cassavetes') Gloria told in the future... [with a few other differences]

[Note: Along with that interview, there are a number of comic-book-looking storyboards.]

Greg Dean Schmitz over on Yahoo! references a Variety article that mentions:

Kurt Wimmer wrote the role of Ultraviolet specifically for Milla Jovovich...

I found a similar quote over at ign.com (referring to the Variety article):

Wimmer, the trade says, wrote the script with Jovovich in mind after seeing her in Resident Evil.

Apparently, the movie wasn't even originally called Ultraviolet. In a 2002 article, Fangoria reports on Wimmer's "sci-fi vampire project", quoting Wimmer:

It's called VALKYRIE, and that's the lead character's name...

None of this completely precludes that it could have been loosely based on an obscure comic, but I would have to say the lack of evidence points toward that.

I don't know where the whole "comic book" relationship came from but I guess it's possible that it had it's genesis with this (horrible) FilmJerk screenplay review that I've seen referenced in a number of places. From that review:

Dialogue, characterization and the settings are all spotty, as it plays out as something more suited to the comic book or videogame form than a major motion picture.

Besides that, all of the production art I've seen for the movie looks like it was something that was printed in a comic book. [*Note: this sentence sounds like I was saying the concept art was bad enough to be found in comic book; actually, the art is very good - I just meant to note that it had a very comic-book feel to it...]

I think I'll follow up with all the comic book movie sites and see if I can't get any more info...