Fox To Adapt Boom! Studios Superhero Property, IRREDEEMABLE

The last several years have seen quite of a spike in comic book properties heading to the big screen – the most obvious ones being the movieverses within Marvel and DC while we await what happens with Valiant. This week now, it appears 20th Century Fox, the studio behind the sprawling X-Men saga of the last sixteen years is building up another movieverse with source material from Boom! Studios.

For this, we turn to the award-winning comic series, Irredeemable, from author Mark Waid and illustrator Peter Krause, which launched in 2009 and has sold over a million copies. The 36-issue series centers on the Paradigm, a beleagured team of superheroes who are forced to turn to the aid of a supervillain when The Plutonian – their former colleague and the world’s greatest superhero, The Plutonian, begins menacing against mankind.

The latest report from Deadline suggests that the aforementioned studio sees potential for the new venture following the success of Deadpool and believes they can harness the Irredeemable series. As such, screenwriter Tommy Wirkola, whose prominence stems in part from the fervor of recent zombie hits like Dead Snow and Dead Snow 2 and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, will provide the script for Ant-Man co-scribe and producer Adam McKay to direct. Boom! Studios’ own Ross Richie and Stephen Christy are also producing with co-producer Adam Yoelin, and producer Kevin Messick.

Of course, the news doesn’t come too far off either from the success of helmer Tim Miller’s Marvel adaptation of Deadpool, and not without a bit of controversy. In the wake of its greenlit sequel and prior hitting well-over $760 million dollars at the global box-office, it was Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy helmer James Gunn who, in February, railed against the notion that studios could make films resembling Miller’s $58 million dollar flick and still essentially achieve the same effect. “…They’ll be green lighting films ‘like Deadpool’ – but, by that, they won’t mean ‘good and original’ but ‘a raunchy superhero film’ or ‘it breaks the fourth wall.’” said Gunn. “They’ll treat you like you’re stupid, which is the one thing Deadpool didn’t do.”

For what its worth, we can only hope Gunn’s predictions will be contrary to reality in lieu of what McKay and Wirkola will bring to the table for Fox. If not, then perhaps this should service a signal to Fox to take heed to Gunn’s advice after the fact. Deadpool 2 is already in developement and, for all intents and purposes, will still be its own thing when it releases in due time.

What do you think? Does Irredeemable have what it takes to echo the success of Deadpool? Comment below!