While the endless revolving door of projects means potential movies are always slipping in and out of the Development Hell lobby, it seems there are more and more higher profile titles being ditched as studios decide they can’t make the budget work or don’t want to use up precious resources on gambles. Now Sony has decided to shove The Boys back out into the harsh world of turnaround.
Adam McKay is in charge of developing the Garth Ennis comic series about the group of unorthodox CIA agents whose job is to police superheroes. But they don’t just look to keep order: they have a licence to kill if their powered-up charges get too far out of hand.
The Anchorman director has not yet given up hope for the script, which has seen writing contributions from Seth Rogen, Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay. Talking to Film School Rejects, McKay explained that he’ll be making some changes to help the film’s chances at another home, but that he’s still looking to get the thing made. “It’s not dead. Two studios very interested. Love Sony but they made a mistake,” he says. “It’s now PG-13. But I found cool ways to keep it edgy. Nolan does so much with that rating. I want this movie to have the conceptual floor of MIB: the police for the superheroes, with the bad ass action groove of The Matrix or Oldboy.”
The Boys isn’t the only movie that Sony has released back into the wild: the studio's Screen Gems arm has dumped Cassandra Clare novel adaptation The Mortal Instruments. While that had already started to cast its leads, with Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower attached, Constantin Film will now look to drum up the financing elsewhere.
But the company will have to find a new director even if the money comes together as Priest man Scott Stewart is no longer involved. He’s busy overseeing another new development, as the US SyFy channel has picked up a series based on his first film, Legion. Considering the generally poisonous critical reaction to the apocalyptic humans-vs-angels pic, we’re a little confused as to why anyone thought it would make a launching point for a TV series. Then again, the Buffy movie didn't exactly send critical hearts a-flutter and that show turned out alright. And hey! It is SyFy after all, home of the likes of Dinocroc Vs. Supergator. So perhaps it’s the perfect fit!