Netflix Is Adapting One of the Best Graphic Novels of All Time, Despite Four Failed Attempts

Netflix is no stranger to dabbling in comic book and graphic novel adaptations. The streamer has previously found a lot of success with the likes of The Umbrella Academy, based on the Dark Horse series, plus others like Sweet Tooth (based on the Vertigo comic), Locke & Key (based on the IDW comics), The Old Guard (based on the Image comic) and, of course, their adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. All that goes without even mentioning their collaborations with Marvel that gave fans Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and more. Now, they’ve set their sights on a major title.

According to Deadline, Netflix has set its sights on one of the best graphic novels ever for its next big series, winning a competitive bidding war to adapt Charles Burns’ Black Hole for television. To make this news even more exciting than this long-awaited adaptation, horror fans will be thrilled to learn that filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun is attached to direct the new series. Schoenbrun previously made a major name for themselves in the genre with two feature films, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair and I Saw the TV Glow. The bad news in all this is this isn’t the first time someone has tried to make Black Hole, but this one could break the trend.

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Originally published from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s as 12 issues, Black Hole has become a totemic work in graphic novels on the whole, winning an Eisner award in 2006 when the first complete collection of the series was released. The story of Black Hole deals with kids in suburban Seattle during the 1970s, where kids are told that if they have sex too young, they will contract a disease that turns them into a monster, among other horrifying possibilities.

Knowing the story of Black Hole, it fits in perfectly with Schoenbrun’s previous work in a way that makes this a great pairing. Both of Schoenbrun’s previous movies have used the horror genre and even the motifs of pop culture to take a look at defining moments for people in their youth, even going across generations. We’re All Going to the World’s Fair holds up a mirror to living online, viral challenges, and finding identity in spaces where you feel you can actually be who you are. By that same notion, I Saw the TV Glow deals with young adults reflecting on shared experiences of their youth and how these seemingly disposable memories were significant to becoming who they are.

There is only one problem with the Black Hole TV series ahead of the project actually getting off the ground: this isn’t the first time someone has attempted to bring the story to life. Way back in 2006, director Alexandre Aja was attached to develop a feature film adaptation of the story, which was followed in 2008 by Academy Award nominee David Fincher attempting to adapt the story. Fincher’s version failed to get off the ground at that time, but he became attached to it again in 2013. Guess what happened there, too? After the second Fincher film also faltered, Dope director Rick Famuyiwa became attached in 2018, with another announced adaptation that never materialized. Suffice to say, best of luck to Netflix and Jane Schoenbrun, we want this one to work.