Netflix has secured the film adaptation rights for writer Greg Rucka and artist Leandro Fernandez’s comic The Old Guard, according to a report from Deadline.
Furthermore, Charzlie Theron is slated to star in a female-fronted action movie that will also feature KiKi Layne, who had a breakout performance last year in If Beale Street Could Talk. Rucka himself is writing the screenplay with Gina Prince-Bythewood (Love & Basketball, Beyond the Lights) slated to direct. Most of that has been previously announced, with the involvement of Netflix being the main news here.
The Old Guard, which was originally published by Image Comics in 2017, is the story of a band soldiers who can’t die, trapped in immortality without explanation and struggling to keep their status a secret during modern times in which anonymity of any sort is difficult.
Prince-Bythewood has prior involvement with comics-to-screen adaptations, having also directed the pilot episode for Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger. Netflix, meanwhile, is also rapidly connected to the comicbook industry. While all of its street-level character Marvel television shows have now ended, the streaming entertainment giant does have a partnership underway with writer Mark Millar that gives it access to many of his Millarworld properties. Netflix is also increasingly farming its own original IP out to comic book publishers, with shows like Stranger Things, GLOW, and even Narcos getting new comic book adaptations from publishers like IDW and Dark Horse.
