While Warner Bros. has been building its mainstream DC superhero universe - Man Of Steel and its busy Batman/Wonder Woman-featuring sequel; Green Lantern; TV's Arrow and Flash - it also hasn't been neglecting its more adult Vertigo roster. Screen versions of Sandman, **Preacher **and **Hellblazer **are all in the works, and they're now joined by the more recent Federal Bureau Of Physics. David S. Goyer, natch, is producing the project, and has delegated the business of adapting the comic to Justin Marks, the writer of Jon Favreau's Jungle Book.
The comics by Simon Oliver and Robbi Rodriguez involve an alternate universe that is no longer expanding, and where the laws of physics are constantly in flux. The titular FBP is formed to deal with frequent quantum disturbances.
"You wake up in the morning and you have the weather report, the traffic report and then you have the physics report on the radio while you're eating your cereal," is the way Oliver explains it. "There's a wormhole on the freeway or loss of gravity in a supermarket parking lot." We follow special agent Adam Hardy as he battles frequent bizarre happenings and internal bureau politics.
Oliver wrote the original treatment for the film, so it will now be Marks' job to put meat on those bones. Aside from Jungle Book he's been working on a military action thriller for Jerry Bruckheimer, and was the writer of Disney's new 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea before that project sank. He worked with Goyer previously on the stalled Green Arrow film Escape From Supermax, and on Warners/DC's Suicide Squad.
Marks has also recently worked on The Raven, Shadow Of The Colossus, Hack/Slash and Dead Space, but his only screenplay existing as a completed movie so far is Street Fighter: The Legend Of Chun-Li.
Pending delivery of his latest script, Federal Bureau Of Physics doesn't yet have a start date or director.