You'd think with a darker, grittier superpowered film like Chronicle doing gangbusters at the box office, it would open doors for more films of the sort. Well, not quite. The comic book film I had been most looking forward to was The Boys, based on Garth Ennis' violent, sexually graphic series about a team of powered agents who monitor and confront if necessary their superhero counterparts. Let's just say that the phrase "with great power comes great responsibility" doesn't mean a squirt of piss to the heroes in the world Ennis has created, with most using their abilities for personal gratification.
Adam McKay(Anchorman, Talladega Nights) had been planning to write and direct the film, and it was thought that has history of banking $100M+ hits would be sufficient to get Sony to open their wallets. Apparently not, as they've dropped out of development on the film. This doesn't mean the project is totally dead, with McKay himself noting that other studios are interested. Certainly there's another studio out there willing to take a chance on an R-rated, hilarious comic book property that skewers all of those dorky heroes we'll be watching in The Avengers this summer?
Another cap casualty appears to be The Mortal Instruments, which was under Sony's Screen Gems imprint. Based on Cassandra Clare's popular tween series about a girl who teams up with a shadowhunter to take on demonic forces. Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower had been set to star, with Scott Stewart (Priest) set to direct. The project now enters a similar limbo as The Boys, hoping another studio will help pick up the tab, but they'll have to find another director as Stewart is no longer attached. [THR]
