The filmmakers behind Netflix’s hit original superhero movie Project Power are going in for a different type of hero with their next film. According to a report from Collider, directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman have signed on to helm Warner Bros. adaptation of the Mark Millar and Steve McNiven comic book Nemesis. Despite Millar’s entire Millarworld brand being acquired by Netflix, the rights to this series (along with properties like Kingsman) remain at other studios. Promising Young Woman director Emerald Fennell penned the most recent draft of the script which sounds remarkably different from the source material.
As outlined by Collider, the film version reportedly follows “a genius engineer who witnesses the President of the United States commit a deadly crime and teams up with a vigilante to take down the President and his corrupt government.” Fans of the original comic will recall that the premise for Nemesis was about flipping the idea of Batman on his head, with a teaser image for the series posing the question: “What if Batman was the Joker?” The comic told the tale of a bored billionaire that used his money and resources not to stop and fight crime, but to cause and accelerate it with chaotic explosions, personal manipulation, and death. While the president did play a part in the original series, the above logline seems to be taking it in a different direction.
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Millar responded to the news on Twitter, writing: “Weirdly, this is my Nemesis book, still at WB for the next few years. I’m at Netflix & not involved, but they seem to be doing very much their own thing with it. Pleased to hear @emeraldfennell on the screenplay. She’s great! Nemesis, like the rest of the Millarworld IPs, owned by Netflix, of course, but Nemesis & one or two others still have the movie rights out there at other studios for the time being.”
The world will have plenty of Millarworld adaptations in its future beyond Nemesis. Disney recently delayed the release date for the prequel movie The King’s Man until early next year while Netflix is already hard at work on the television adaptation of the series Jupiter’s Legacy, which is expected to arrive later this year.
A host of other titles from Millar are in the works at the streamer including Empress, Huck, and Sharkey the Bounty Hunter as feature films at Netflix in addition to an animated series of Supercrooks. The first original title Millar debuted under his Netflix deal, The Magic Order, is also being produced as a series for the streaming service with Aquaman director James Wan attached.
