Writer/director Adam McKay (Anchorman, Talladega Nights, Step Brothers) is in talks with Sony to direct an adaptation of The Boys comic book series created by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson.  Sony/Columbia acquired the no-holds-barred series about a super-powered CIA squad charged with keeping tabs on society’s growing “superhero problem” back in 2008 (see “Columbia Opts for ‘The Boys’”).  Ennis and Robertson began their ultra-violent saga at DC/Wildstorm where after six issues the series, in spite of solid sales, became “too hot to handle,” and the creators took the property to Dynamite Entertainment where it has flourished.

McKay, who is currently promoting his action comedy The Other Guys, which stars Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg and opens August 6th, told Collider that he normally only directs films based on properties that he has had a hand in writing, but that The Boys appealed to him so much that he is very anxious to make it.  He compared the property to Watchmen, but noted in contrast to Watchmen with its Cold War setting, The Boys is a truly contemporary property, saying “I think The Boys is the current day Watchmen, I think it’s the same thing in terms of examining superheroes, exploding myths…and it’s placed in a time when monopoly corporations have basically bought our country…I’m just blown away by it.  I haven’t been so excited by anything in a long time.”

McKay also stated definitively that if he makes The Boys, it will be an “R” rated movie, telling Collider, “literally it doesn’t work unless it’s an “R.  It was one of the first things I told Sony—and God bless Sony, it’s one of the great studios, they understood that immediately.”