Dark Horse Entertainment and Netflix are reteaming again after the continued success of The Umbrella Academy to release the spy thriller Bang! The film will see Idris Elba team up with Bullet Train director David Leitch.
The Netflix film is based on the comic series created by Matt Kindt and Wilfredo Torres with the script adaptation being written by Kindt and Zak Olkewicz, who also penned the screenplay for Bullet Train and Fear Street: Part II. Elba and Leitch will also take on producing duties for the project along with Mike Richardson and Keith Goldberg for Dark Horse and Kelly McCormick.
In Bang! a terrorist cult hopes to bring about the apocalypse in an unlikely way: through books that brainwash their readers. In order to stop them, the world's greatest spy is sent to take out the author of the books. The comics are a mind-bending and meta look at the James Bond/super spy trope and feature an assortment of heroes banding together for the common good. It's currently unknown if the movie will follow the plot of just one issue of the series or if it will be an amalgamation of the run, although it seems likely that it will lean more towards a retelling of the initial issue, which mainly focuses on the story of spy Thomas Cord. The comics also bring the author Matt Kindt into the story, so it will be interesting to see if that aspect remains, especially with Leitch's background working on Deadpool 2.
Bang! isn't the only project by Kindt and Dark Horse in the works at Netflix. The author's series Mind MGMT is also being adapted into a series for the platform. Another take on mind control, Mind MGMT sees a young journalist accidentally stumble upon the top-secret Mind Management program after she begins investigating a flight where everyone onboard simultaneously became afflicted with amnesia. The comic also features psychics, They Live! style advertising, and a talking dolphin.
Bang! and Mind MGMT join previously announced Dark Horse projects such as the drama series Revenge Inc. and feature film Lady Killer. Revenge Inc. focuses on an underground facility that specializes in revenge, while Lady Killer sees a 1950s housewife lead a double life as a killer for hire. Blake Lively is set to star and produce.
No production details or release date are currently known about either project, but Emmy-nominated writer and producer of Stranger Things Curtis Gwinn has been announced as attached to Mind MGMT. Kindt also recently launched his own imprint label at Dark Horse called Flux House.
Bang! is currently in development at Netflix.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter