It’s not just major publishers getting in on the superhero movie boom—Kwanza Osajyefo, Tim Smith 3, Jamal Igle, and Khary Randolph’s BLACK comics universe just got a shot in the arm with the announcement that The Breaks co-creator Seith Mann will adapt what they hope is the first in a franchise of new films.
We’d previously learned that BLACK had gotten a movie deal. Now, Deadline reports that Studio 8 has tapped Mann to write an adaptation of BLACK, which follows a teenager named Kareem Jenkins who miraculously survives a police shooting, using his newly awakened superpowers to join an underground group of black superheroes and help enact change to better the lives of powered and unpowered African Americans. As well as developing BLACK, Studio 8 apparently has plans to take it even further with adaptations of Black Mask’s range of BLACK [AF] spinoff series, starting with the female-led America’s Sweetheart.
BLACK was one of our favorite comics last year, and should make for a powerful movie—one that’s now actually a big step closer to actually happening.
Update: A previous version of this article cited Mann as directing the film. We’ve since learned he’s writing the script. We’ve amended the piece to reflect this and io9 regrets the error.