Sony Picks Up New Superhero Project From Deadpool Creator Rob Liefeld

Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld saw one of his creations net big screen success for Fox, and now he’s hoping to repeat that success with another project at Sony, which goes by the name of Shrink.

Shrink is an original property created by Liefeld that centers around a female psychiatrist named Jessica Powers who specializes in treating and helping superheroes. She’s described as a strong, smart, and intuitive doctor who helps treat those with special abilities, and the story is being described as a high-concept twist on the Billy Crystal Robert De Niro project Analyze This (via Deadline). The film will be produced by Doug Belgrad, Adam Fields, and Liefeld for Sony Pictures.

As you can see from Liefeld’s small stories, the character takes on all sorts of superpowered beings, helping them through their emotional issues whether they are made of rock, fire, or grow to giant heights at the snap of their fingers. This project was actually brought to Sony back in 2000, and a script was produced by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, but the studio never moved further on development.

The script would just sit there until it was discovered by Fields, who then let Sony know that since those days their rights to the comic had expired, so the studio made sure they got them once more and put the project back into development.

The concept holds a great deal of promise, and if it can strike a similar chord amongst fans that Deadpool did, Sony could have a hit franchise on its hands. In theory, they could even blend it in with Spider-Man universe (with Marvel’s approval of course), but that remains to be seen.

Liefeld also recently introduced a brand new character to the Marvel universe named Major X, whose origins somewhat mirror Shrink. In this case, the project was an unpitched one from Liefeld back in 1992, and now he’s finally getting his due in a new Major X series. As for why it took so long, Liefeld recently explained that to ComicBook.com.

“This was a storyline that was on my list of things to do in 1992 before the landscape changed,” Liefeld said. “It’s either late ’91, early ’92, it was in New York and they were having an X-Men … they’d brought everybody in to plot the future of the X-Men. Major X was in my notebook, I just didn’t speak up at the time because there were other voices that were really, I think, dying to be heard. And I think guys like myself and Jim Lee at the time were quiet because we were flat out, we were tired, man. We were tired. We had been going at mach speed with the X office for about three years at that point. And I think we just were looking for maybe some new challenge at the time, but you always want to go back and revisit old threads, especially ones that haven’t been … I feel like this is new territory. That’s the exciting part. The other thing is the instincts. Just like the instincts to bring Cable and Deadpool and Domino. It just felt like the right time and the right place, and you know, all you got is your instincts when you’re making art. And I’m gambling that this is the right time and the right place for Major X to make his play.”

Major X hits comic stores in April.