WITCHBLADE AIRS THIS WEEKEND

The "Witchblade" movie, based on the Top Cow comic, is scheduled to air on TNT this Sunday, August 27.

The TV movie focuses on Detective. Sara Pezzini (Yancy Butler) as she tries to come to grips with the awesome powers of the Witchblade, a mystical gauntlet that grants its bearer incredible powers Essentially, this is exactly what Top Cow Publisher Marc Silvestri envisioned when he optioned off the Witchblade property to the Oliver Stone production company in 1997.

The Witchblade comic featured a sizzling hot female lead in Pezzini, plenty of action and a cutting edge supernatural twist. A "Witchblade" TV project seemed like a slam-dunk. But bumps along the way, and Silvestris insistence on how the character should be portrayed, slowed the process.

"We pressed for the look to be NYPD Blue meets the X-Files, " explains Silvestri, an executive producer on the project. "Frankly, thats what took so long to get it on the air, we didnt want a campy comic book show. We wanted to change the genre. Were the first ones to take a comic book property and treat it as a drama."

So in came director Ralph Hemecker, a veteran of gritty, supernatural-oriented dramas like "X-Files" and "Millennium." Tagging along was the raspy-voiced Butler, whos previously lugged around a holster and flashed a badge in "Brooklyn South" and played a junkie on "NYPD Blue."

"You buy her as a cop," adds Silvestri. "Shes very attractive but she looks like shes walked the street as a cop, like shes seen some very bad things. Shes seen the underbelly of society."

"You don't play a cop, you play a person who happens to be a cop," explains Butler, who grew up on the schoolyards of New York City imagining herself as the Eartha Kitt version of Catwoman.

"Sara's vulnerable and strong, kind of like myself. She's real, both good and bad."

While "Witchblade" will adopt the spirit of the comics first eight-issue storyarc, this wont be "Barb Wire" or "V.I.P." About the only thing youll see Pezzini flashing in this film will be her gun.

"If we had gotten some bombshell playmate," admits Eric Etebari who plays the young and mysterious Ian Nottingham in the film, "people would've seen through it as just a typical bad guy action film."

Heres what you can expect to see in the "Witchblade" TV movie: A Gothic dark moodiness to the project, compared by some insiders to almost being "Joan of Arc"-like at times. A young, hip cast including "Baywatch" veteran David Chokachi as Detective. Jake McCarthy, Will Yun Lee ("Profiler") as Pezzinis partner Michael Yee, Etebari as Nottingham and Anthony Cistaro ("Angel") as Kenneth Irons, the billionaire obsessed with possessing the Witchblade.

Ironically, Cistaro roomed at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles with Brian Haberlin, one of the original co-creators of the Witchblade comic that exploded on the scene five years ago making artist Mike Turner an overnight megastar in the comics industry.

The question all fans want to know though is what will Sara Pezzinis Witchblade costume look like? The good news is Butler will strap on the Witchblade costume, but unfortunately, for most of the film this will consist of just the mystical glove. Because of the cost involved, Butler will only morph into the full Witchblade costume at the films climax.

"She wont look like Sara in the Witchblade costume in the comic," said Silvestri, "it just wouldn't translate. This wont be one effect after another, it'll be a police drama. Sara will wear the Witchblade when it makes sense."

With "Witchblade," the emphasis isnt on the effects. It's about the mood, the look, the feel of this gritty, urban cop drama. But more importantly, its about Sara Pezzini and the Witchblade.