Ever since creating and writing superhero sitcom No Heroics for ITV, Drew Pearce has seemingly hit a vein of good luck, as big gigs have suddenly landed on his doorstep. Not content with winning the job of penning the next **Iron Man outing alongside director Shane Black, Pearce is now signed on to adapt DC Comics tale The Mighty for Paramount.
The Mighty, which was crafted as a graphic novel by Peter J. Tomasi and Keith Champagne, along with artist Peter Snejberg, follows police officer Gabriel Cole, whose life as a youngster was saved by seemingly heroic super-powered type Alpha One. But there’s a twist: Cole discovers that the alleged hero actually has a dark side and has horrible plans for his mortal charges.
So Cole decides to thwart Alpha One’s plans – no easy feat when your villain has special powers and you’re just relying on being a tough cop.
While it might seem odd to find a DC Comics character headed to a studio other than Warner Bros. (which, after all, owns the company), it’s not without precedent as Warners is not necessarily required to pick up all the DC titles (Red was an example of a book that the studio passed on). In this case, the novel’s team had an option to search elsewhere for film deals. So now Paramount’s Disruption Entertainment company is overseeing things.
The presence of Pearce will likely help it shuffle further along the development halls, but there’s no guarantee that it’ll make it to screen…