Last time a Will Eisner comic reached the screen, it was in the distinctly peculiar form of Frank Miller's The Spirit. It sounds as if a proposed adaptation of Eisner's graphic novel A Contract With God will be treated with more reverence however, with producer Bob Schreck announcing "we are well aware that the work ahead has a very high bar of excellence to aspire to, set by Mr Eisner's pioneering achievements".

The book contains four segments - The Super, The Street Singer, Cookalein, and A Contract With God itself - each drawing on Eisner's childhood experiences in the tenements of New York's Bronx district. The sometimes jarringly bleak tales of "life, death, faith and failure" were Eisner's first attempt to break out of the funny pages.

As befits a collection of four stories, the film version will be a portmanteau affair, with four directors tackling a chapter each. The names currently attached are Alex Rivera (director of the 2008 sci-fi Sleep Dealer); writer and cinematographer Tze Chun; Barry Jenkins (low-budget San Francisco indie drama Medicine For Melancholy); and Sean Baker, the brain behind MTV's Warren the Ape, and the director of Prince of Broadway. 

Will they come up with a grown-up comic-book movie to reflect these austere times, as well as Eisner's? One thing's certain: nobody will get hit with a toilet by Samuel Jackson.