It’s interesting to see just how many comics from smaller companies (many of them creator owned) are landing fairly sunstantial movie deals these days. This time it’s Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele’s THE SURROGATES, which was published by Top Shelf, which is now slated to be a movie put together by the team that made TERMINATOR 3. It’s a darkly futuristic tale of a robotic dystopia. The Variety story indicates that 300’s dark, R-rated look is already opening the door for other edgy, graphic novel projects:

Disney has acquired rights to the graphic novel “The Surrogates” and will develop it into a sci-fi thriller that Jonathan Mostow will direct.

Michael Ferris and John Brancato will write. The trio last teamed on “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.”

[snip]“This is a Philip K. Dick-like futuristic universe, but people who live a second life already on the Internet can relate to some of the themes here,” said Brancato, who with Ferris is adapting the Robert Ludlum novel “Sigma Protocol” for Strike Entertainment.

Subject matter is edgy for Disney, and Oren Aviv is eyeing Touchstone as a home for it.

“This is a grounded sci-fi premise, but there are big effects, and it’s clear from ‘300′ that people want to see different kinds of things, and this falls into that category,” Hoberman said.