This is one of those “heard it from someone else” stories, so before we even get to the meat of it, we’re labelling it as a big ol’ rumour. But according to Samuel Bayer, the man behind the new Nightmare On Elm Street, comedy directing god Adam “Anchorman” McKay might be shifting genres slightly to tackle the adaptation of Garth Ennis’ The Boys.

Talking with Film School Rejects, Bayer dropped a mention of the comic as one of his dream projects, albeit with a possible McKay-shaped roadblock. “It’s so funny, I would die to do that comic book. From what I’ve heard from the producers on the movie is that Adam McKay is doing it. He did Anchorman, I guess. The studio is really hot on him…”

Sounds like there’s a dash of bitterness in there, and Bayer goes on to express the hope that Nightmare performing well might vault him into the job.

But while McKay has specialised in his comedy collaborations with Will Ferrell (Talladega Nights, Step Brothers, the upcoming Other Guys), we could certainly see him tackling something a little darker. Plus, he has a good relationship with Sony.

It’s been a while since there was much movement on the film version of the comic – you might recall we reported that Sony and producer Neal H Moritz snapped up the rights back in early 2008.

And later that year, writers Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi were hired to take the first pass at the script, which we worried might not include the full flavour of Ennis and artist Darick Robertson’s cracking story about a team who keep tabs on – and, when the need arises, take out – superheroes.

But for now, this is strictly unofficial, unconfirmed stuff. Take the biggest pinch of salt you’ve got, and have it ready.