Paramount to Produce Devilina Movie Based on Obscure Comics Character

Five years after producer Steven Paul bought the rights to the Atlas Comics characters, Paramount is ready to launch a superhero universe.

By Russ Burlingame

Paramount Pictures is developing a feature film adaptation of Devilina, based on the Atlas Comics character from producer Steven Paul. Blacklist writer Rebecca Webb (Echo) will write the screenplay, which will be produced by Paul, SP Media Group's Scott Karol, and Jason Goodman. Goodman is the grandson of Martin Goodman, the Marvel Comics co-founder whose wife was the cousin of Stan Lee. Atlas has a diverse portfolio of characters across numerous genres. 

The move comes five years after Paul, who previously produced the Ghost Rider movies for Sony and Marvel, acquired the rights to the Atlas portfolio of characters, with an eye toward creating a shared universe based on Devilina and other Atlas characters. Shortly after the purchase, the COVID-19 pandemic shut down Hollywood, seemingly delaying the start of the Atlas universe.

"From the beginning, Atlas Comics' expansive library of characters and stories was crafted as an interconnected universe. Devilina serves as the introduction, and we are dedicated to honoring this foundational vision of Atlas, ensuring that audiences can fully immerse themselves in these dynamic characters and narratives," says Paul. 

"Dating back to the golden age of comics, Atlas has been home to some of the greatest comic book creators of all time," said Jon Gonda, EVP, Production, Paramount Pictures' Motion Picture Group. "There are so many characters to love and so many stories to be told."

In the comics, the last attempt to bring the Atlas characters to the page was also a shared-universe idea, with veteran writer (and now Ahoy Comics publisher) Tom Peyer writing. The 2011 series saw superheroes Grim Ghost, Phoenix and Wulf the Barbarian come together with hard-boiled cop Mike Lomax. 

If you're not familiar with Atlas Comics...well, you probably don't have to be. It lasted under a year, with a focus on creating and introducing a lot of new characters (many of whom only appeared once). Martin Goodman founded the short-lived publisher in 1974.

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Here's the logline, via Deadline (who first reported the deal): "Devilina follows a sheltered young woman who journeys to New York in search of her past, only to discover she is the sister of Satan, and her twin brother has been manipulating her while a detective investigates a series of murders linked to her."

Conor O'Farrell, director of development at SP Media Group, is developing the project.

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