Garth Ennis is a genius. An absolute, dyed-in-the-wool, rebellious genius whose foul-mouthed, violence-packed, blackly comedic yet thought-provoking work in comic books is among the finest from any writer, anywhere in the world, in the last 15 years. Preacher. Hitman. Bloody Mary. The revamped Punisher. This guy can write like Tarantino in his pomp, and then some.
But it’s been a bit tougher for the Belfast-born writer when it’s come to having his work adapted for the big screen. Preacher has been knocking around for years, and is currently in development at HBO. The recent Punisher movie was largely based on one of his storylines and look how that turned out.
But now, with fingers crossed, we might be seeing some hardcore Ennis in live-action (memo to self: rephrase that sentence to sound less pervy), for Columbia Pictures and producer Neal H. Moritz have snapped up the rights to his Dynamite Entertainment comic, The Boys.
Created along with artist, Darick Robertson, The Boys follows the adventures of a group of CIA agents – ‘The Boys’ of the title – who have orders to keep tabs on the proliferation of superheroes and, if necessary, take them out.
"Rather than begin with a romantic idea of superheroes out to save the world, The Boys imagines a world in which superheroes really exist, with all of the flaws that real people have," Moritz told Variety. "The boys are there to make sure that people with superhuman powers don't get out of line."
It’s a dark and funny twist on your average superhero tale, then, and should make a cracking movie, as long as Moritz – producer of Click, xXx and The Fast And The Furious – assembles the right talent. We recommend that he hires Ennis to write the screenplay immediately. And no, this message has not been sponsored by Garth Ennis.