Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Comic book/graphic novel adaptation master David S. Goyer is taking on 100 Bullets as a potential TV series. I hear Goyer is attached to write and executive produce a drama series project for Showtime based on the Eisner and Harvey Award-winning comic book that published 100 issues between 1999 and 2009, all written by Brian Azzarello and illustrated by Eduardo Risso, whose credits include the Batman and Superman comics. Warner Bros. TV, whose sibling DC Comics published 100 Bullets through its Vertigo imprint, is producing.

While lauded as one of the best comic books/graphic novels of the past decade 100 Bullets is an atypical comic as it features no superheroes, magic, supernatural elements or a sci-fi twist. It is a dark, noir-style story about the attempt by one man, the mysterious Agent Graves, to destroy a secret group of families that control most of the world’s wealth and power, and it also poses a classic moral question, “If you could get away with murdering the person who ruined your life, would you do it?” The book’s starting-off point is Graves giving ordinary people who have been wronged a pistol and a briefcase with 100 untracable bullets, offering them to exact justice for themselves with no danger of being caught. The self-contained storylines eventually blend into a sprawling crime saga where everything — and everyone — is connected as Graves takes on a multinational clandestine organization named The Trust. Among 100 Bullets’ distinguishing traits is Azzarello’s realistic use of regional dialects and accents, as well as the frequent use of slang.

On the comic book adaptation front, Goyer wrote all three Blade movies and directed the last one. He recently co-wrote with Christopher Nolan the screenplay for Batman Begins, which launched the Nolan-directed Batman franchise. CAA-repped Goyer also co-wrote the story for The Dark Knight and the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises. Additionally, he wrote the story and screenplay for Man of Steel, the new Superman movie produced by Nolan, directed by Zack Snyder and starring Henry Cavill. On television, he has created/co-created the Blade series, Threshold and, most recently, Flash Forward.

TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.