While he’s still slogging away on the delayed shoot of Fast & Furious 7, **The Conjuring **director James Wan has one eye on potential future gigs. He’s now set up an idea, based on the Malignant Man graphic novel series he created, over at 20th Century Fox.
Malignant Man is a weird superhero origin story focusing on a bloke named Alan Gates. Diagnosed with terminal cancer, he begins to accept the cards that fate has dealt him, only to learn that his tumour is not what he thinks at all. It’s actually a mysterious, supernatural parasite that grants him a new lease on life and a set of otherworldly powers to boot. Yet with his new powers come – you guessed it! – fresh responsibilities, because he’ll have to put his abilities to use battling an evil army out to destroy society.
Wan came up with the original concept for the graphic novel, but handed writing and art chores over to Michael Alan Nelson and Piotr Kowalski, with comics company Boom! handling the distribution. Thanks to the outlet’s production deal with Fox, Wan will now start developing the story as a likely film to direct. Given its blend of action and disturbing elements, it feels like he’s dipping a toe back in horror while still branching out.
Fast & Furious 7, meanwhile, should be speeding on to our screens on April 10 next year.