Movies
Uni to Adapt Dark Horse’s ‘Fear Agent’
With the San Diego Comic Con approaching fast, expect a sh*t ton of announcements for comic book to film adaptations. This evening the Risky Business Blog on the Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Universal Pictures could be heading to outer space for an adaptation of Dark Horse’s Fear Agent. You’ll find all of the details inside.
Universal could be heading to outer space.
The studio is in early development on the Dark Horse sci-fi property “Fear Agent.” The project is now an open-writing assignment, but there’s a possibility that the studio could match a spec whose rights are controlled by “Air Force One” producer Jonathan Shestack and bring Shestack on to produce “Agent.”
“Agent” centers on a colorful, borderline alcoholic astronaut named Heath Huston, a Texan who works as a so-called fear agent, the last of a dwindling breed of spacemen whose mission it is to fight threats to the planet Earth, which is partly destroyed during the course of the series.
The property emphasizes a kind of in-your-face adventure as Huston hops around the galaxy fighting various alien species and threats.
Rick Remender penned the series, which began life in 2005 as an Image Comics property before moving to Dark Horse the following year.
Dark Horse Entertainment, the production banner of indie comics powerhouse Dark Horse, has been behind a number of comics-to-film breakouts, including “Hellboy” and “30 Days of Night.” After releasing the Dark Horse production “Hellboy 2,” Universal last year partnered with Dark Horse for an overall production and distribution pact.
Universal has put several other Dark Horse properties in development. The company this spring announced that it was developing “The Secret,” an adaptation of the tale of a missing teenager that Scott Milam (who is currently penning the remake of Mother’s Day shooting next month) has signed on to write. It also is eyeing the counterculture title “Emily the Strange.”
In addition to “Air Force One,” Shestack recently produced the Matthew McConaughey romantic comedy “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” and is producing Lionsgate workplace comedy “Cover Your Assets.”
Described as “Ted meets ET,” David Mikalson’s raunchy comedy Goblin is being brought to life over at A24, and Will Forte (“The Four Seasons”) is now in talks to star.
Deadline first reported the news this afternoon.
Kenneth Branagh has been cast to voice the titular Goblin in the upcoming A24 movie, with the character said to be “green-colored” as well as “anatomically correct.”
Skyler Gisondo (Superman) is reportedly playing the Goblin’s human best friend.
The mysterious project sounds a bit like films including A Gnome Named Gnorm and more recently, Frankie Freako, though it’s important to note that it’s not billed as a horror movie.
Deadline details, “After [Mikalson] hatched the idea to make an outrageous buddy comedy about a goblin, using a practical puppet and operating outside the Hollywood system, his script quickly got him a rep team. While others might have eyed the raunchy comedy as a writing sample or planned to wait to see the micro-budget version Mikalson has been directing in Kentucky, A24 jumped all over it. The hot indie essentially has agreed to finance a full feature.”
“There was a lot of interest, but A24 came with what Mikalson really wanted, after spending all his money crafting the puppet title character: they acquired the movie and agreed to let him make it with a significantly increased budget than what he had left after creating the anatomically correct title character,” Deadline’s report goes on to explain.
What does the titular Goblin actually look like? Well, a cake that Mikalson had whipped up for his reps might give us our first look at what to expect. Deadline explains the photo you’ll see down below, “Take a look at the cake he commissioned with Marc Gravelle at Cake Art in West Hollywood, to present to his reps as thanks for making his dream come true.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.