graphic novel: Last News

Holly Jones A myriad of sentiments converge when estranged siblings meet to unpack the weight of their father’s recent death in Spain’s Álex Montoya’s third feature “La Casa,” adapted from the Eisner-winning graphic novel by Paco Roca and sold by Latido Films. The film, which bowed last night, figures in the official competition selection at this year’s Málaga Film Festival, his project “Lucas” having previously swept the fest’s Zonazine sidebar in 2020 – snagging best film, actor (Jorge Motos) and Audience Award plaudits. Written by Montoya and Joana M.

Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series spotlighting the year’s most talked-about scripts continues with Nimona, Netflix‘s animated feature based on ND Stevenson’s 2015 National Book Award-nominated graphic novel about finding friendship in the most surprising situations and accepting yourself and others for who they are.

Naman Ramachandran Damon Wayans Jr. and Andrew “King Bach” Bachelor have engaged David F. Walker to co-write and Ben Bishop to illustrate graphic novel “Shogun Run.” Wayans Jr and Bachelor had revealed earlier this year that they would create and write the graphic novel.

EXCLUSIVE: Wiip has snapped up rights to Adamtine, a horror graphic novel by award-winner Hannah Berry, to develop for film.

Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation, an illustrated adaptation of Frank’s indispensable, historic book The Diary of a Young Girl. In the passage, the then-teenaged author and victim of the Holocaust described her genitals and attraction to other females.Frank, a German-born Jewish teenager who died in 1945, just months before Germany’s defeat in World War II, wrote the diary during a two-year time period when she and her family were in hiding to avoid being sent to Nazi death camps, remaining ensconced in a secret annex above the Amsterdam warehouse for the company that her father had owned.The graphic novel, which hews closely to the text of the unedited, original version of Diary, contains portions of Frank’s diary that had previously been edited out of the book’s 1952 English edition, but were restored in the book’s 1989 republication, reports The Dallas Morning News.Those censored sections included passages where Frank wrote about her understanding of male and female genitalia — including the development of her own body during puberty — and where she expressed feelings of attraction toward a female friend.Pulling from those passages, the graphic novel adaptation depicts Frank asking a female friend if she’d feel comfortable exposing their breasts to each other, with her friend declining.

Jamie Lee Curtis is shedding some insight on where the inspiration behind her upcoming graphic novel stemmed from. "I wanted to know what would happen when Mother Nature fought back," Curtis said in an interview with People magazine. "It turns out I have a very dark imagination." She described her original idea for the environmental novel as being "very father knows best." Curtis got her idea when she was 19, but shelved the idea for decades.

EXCLUSIVE: Film and TV adaptations of works by the likes of Evelyn Waugh and Langston Hughes could be incoming following a deal struck between Artists, Writers & Artisans (AWA) and International Literary Properties (ILP).

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Federico Fellini’s post-war immigration story “Napoli-New York,” which was penned for the big screen by the famed director but never produced, is set to become a graphic novel written by French comic book writer Jean-David Morvan. Meanwhile, as previously announced, cameras are rolling in Naples on the movie version by Oscar-winning director Gabriele Salvatores. Fellini co-wrote the tale with his frequent collaborator Tullio Pinelli, a writer on the Italian maestro’s “La Dolce Vita” and “8 1/2,” as well as other titles. Turin-based media company Arancia Studio has now attached the prolific Morvan – who has written more than 250 books that have sold millions of copies – for the graphic novel adaptation.

William Earl Podcast network Audio Up and graphic novel publisher and merchandiser Z2 are partnering to produce the fictional “Neon Empire.” Described as “one part ‘8 Mile’ with a dash of ‘Once Upon a Time in America,’ the story is a dark send-up of Nashville’s music business featuring original music from top country artists. Based on a central character called Kountry Boi, the “hick-hop” star goes from rags to rap riches while coming to terms with his own troubled past. The idea was developed by Audio Up founder Jared Gutstadt, who played an early instrumental role in the development of real-life genre-hopper Jelly Roll. “Country music is changing, and the new outlaws are defining this town,” said Gutstadt, who is in the process of building a Nashville outpost for his company. “Until now, it was unheard of to have country acts with tattoos on their face who refused to conform to the strict guidelines and cookie-cutter approach of Music Row. This new world has yet to be explored in fiction, and Neon Empire is an expose of this creative, hyperkinetic, and often violent world. This is fiction rooted in a reality that I’ve been dying to reveal. Z2 is the perfect conduit and partner to bring this to life.”

EXCLUSIVE: Black Mask’s graphic novel Destiny, NY, created by Pat Shand and Manuel Preitano, is being developed for the small screen by Sony Pictures Television.

NCT 127‘s ‘Limitless’.NCT 127 and its labels SM Entertainment and Universal Music Group have teamed up with Z2 Comics – which has worked with other musicians including Weird Al Yankovic and Gorillaz – on the new original graphic novel ‘NCT 127: Limitless’.The graphic novel shares its title with the boyband’s 2017 single ‘Limitless’ and will be “presented in the manhwa format”, according to the Z2 Comics website. The novel is set to follow in the boyband in a “reality-crossing mystery” that will take place in both the real world and “new, surreal dreamscape” as they prepare for a sold-out concert in New York.‘NCT 127: Limitless’ will be available in 10 different hardcovers – one for each active member of the boyband, alongside a general cover with the full group – starting from US$21.99.

Jeff Benjamin The past year has seen the K-pop industry expanding into everything from ETFs to Broadway, and today, March 15, marks its leap into the comic and graphic novel world: Top group NCT 127 has teamed up with Z2 Comics alongside Universal Music Group and its Korean label SM Entertainment for “NCT 127: Limitless,” an original graphic novel from the act to mark the first officially licensed K-pop print comic. With its title taken from the group’s 2017 single of the same, “Limitless” is both a hardcover and deluxe hardcover manhwa (a general term from South Korea for comic books and graphic novels with a distinct, detailed artistic style) to share a multiverse-hopping, reality-blurring tale of NCT 127 rehearsing for a sold-out stadium show in New York City.

EXCLUSIVE: MRC has made a deal to develop Pornsak Pichetshote’s Eisner Award-winning graphic novel bestseller The Good Asian into a series. James Wan, Michael Clear and Rob Hackett are producing for Atomic Monster. Will Rowbotham and Luke Maxwell are producing for 3 Arts. 

Naman Ramachandran Damon Wayans Jr. and Andrew “King Bach” Bachelor will create and write the graphic novel “Shogun Run.” Set in 1990s South Central Los Angeles, “Shogun Run” is described as “Big Trouble in Little China” meets “Attack the Block.” Producers David Uslan and Gary Glushon will serve as creative consultants on the project, while the illustrator will be revealed imminently. The graphic novel will be published by First Second, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers, in 2025. A series or film adaptation of the graphic novel is on the cards down the line. Wayans Jr. was most recently in Netflix’s “The Harder They Fall,” which opened the 2021 BFI London Film Festival and went on to win a BAFTA. Bachelor, an internet personality with more than 27 million followers on TikTok as King Bach, is currently in thriller film “Fear.”

EXCLUSIVE: Graphic novel series The Shrouded College is in the works as a TV series after Seth MacFarlane’s Fuzzy Door and UCP secured the rights. The project is set up at Peacock.

Naman Ramachandran Fremantle has deepened its relationship with Artists, Writers & Artisans, Inc. (AWA) by making a minority investment in the company. Fremantle had struck a strategic development deal with AWA Studios, the film and television division of AWA, last year. AWA is backed by James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems, SISTER, and Lightspeed Venture Partners. In 2021, the company established AWA Studios, helmed by Hollywood veteran Zach Studin as president. Marvel alum Axel Alonso serves as co-founder and chief creative officer overseeing editorial output. Matthew Anderson, co-chair and president and Jon Miller, co-founder and co-chair, lead AWA’s executive team.

EXCLUSIVE: Legendary Entertainment and AfterShock Media have closed a deal for a feature adaptation of the latter’s graphic novel Party & Prey from creators Steve Orlando & Steve Foxe, in a competitive situation. Patrick Brice (Creep) has been tapped to direct from a script by Rob Forman (iZombie). 

EXCLUSIVE: AWA Studios is adapting Garth Ennis’ (The Boys, Preacher) graphic novel Marjorie Finnegan, Temporal Criminal for the big screen. 

K.J. Yossman Ben Kingsley is set to star in a feature film adaptation of “Violent Cases,” the first ever graphic novel from Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean. The feature will be led by writer Mike Carey, director Colm McCarthy and producer Camille Gatin (collectively the creative team behind “The Girl With All the Gifts”) and produced by Scary Monster, Lakesville Productions and Foton.Pictures. Carey has also worked on “Lucifer” and other books in the Sandman universe, which Gaiman also created. “‘Violent Cases’ is a journey into the mind of Neil Gaiman, as a famous author recounts fragmented childhood memories and visits to an osteopath who once worked for Al Capone, weaving a dark and twisting tale about stories, our memory, violence and the ways we can’t escape our past,” reads the logline.

EXCLUSIVE: Ireland’s Lighthouse Studios is developing its first original series, Savage Town.