I guess we're starting to see the fruits of having Ben Affleck in the cape and cowl here with this announcement that just hit
Variety about an hour ago. Warner Bros. have brought in Affleck and Matt Damon, along with Jennifer Todd to produce the trapped-in-development
Sleeper project to the screen.
Sleeper by Ed Brubaker (the guy who wrote the story that
Captain America: The Winter Solider is based on) and Sean Phillips was a two volume, 12-issue-each comic book series that started in 2003 under DC Comics' Wildstorm imprint (now printed under Vertigo), and is about a man name Holden Carver that is impervious to pain and can transfer any pain to others through skin contact. Carver is undercover in an international super-powered crime syndicate but ends up getting in too deep and is afraid he can't get out.
Shawn Ryan and David Wiener are the two that are writing the script. Ryan was the showrunner for
The Shield on FX and Wiener worked with him on the short lived military drama
Last Resort on ABC. This could fair to be well since
Sleeper may have superpowers but is far from the stuff that Marvel is doing or even the future stuff DC might be doing with their universe. Sleeper is closer in tone to
Donnie Brasco than anything you saw in
The Avengers or
Man of Steel. Having the guy who wrote the trials of Vic Mackey handling the tale of Holden's descent into bad guy land with no way out is a very attractive proposition.
Also it's must be pretty nice in the Brubaker household since he's seem to be having a pretty major impact soon on superhero movies.
