20th Century Fox isn’t the only filmmaking entity interested in Mark Millar’s work. Hot on the heels of his comic book Superior** being optioned comes the news that Transformers producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura has picked up the rights to MPH{
The comic, which Millar created with Duncan Fegredo for Image, focuses on two 19-year-old n’er-do-wells who stumble on the titular street drug that offers an intriguing ability: they can suddenly move at the speed of light, but only for seven days at a time before the effect wears off. Naturally, they don’t always use these newfound powers for good.
“Lorenzo's one of the few real moguls in the industry, having hired Chris Nolan for Batman and bought the rights to the Harry Potter books when he was head of Warner Bros. and then of course he's the guy behind the Transformers movies,” says Millar. “So he's a guy who really knows how to make huge pictures and he's somebody I've always wanted to work with on one of the bigger Millarworld adaptations.”
Di Bonaventura and Millar plan to lock in a screenwriter before packaging the whole deal up and taking it to studios. The producer had some success with Red, putting together two films despite Warners/DC initially turning him down.
MPH will arrive on comic racks on May 21. Millar’s The Secret Service hits UK screens on October 17 thanks to regular collaborator Matthew Vaughn and Fox.