Today's Variety reports that New Line Cinema has acquired the rights to A History of Violence, a graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke that was published by DC's Paradox Press. In fact A History of Violence was the first book in the Paradox Graphic Mystery line -- the second book was Max Allan Collins' Road To Perdition, which was recently made into a highly successful film starring Tom Hanks.
New Line may hope they have another Road to Perdition on their hands -- and in some ways maybe they do since A History of Violence is also a fairly downbeat but elegant character study about a character whose violent past catches up with him. But A History of Violence, which was written by John (Judge Dredd) Wagner, is a contemporary story set in small town America, with flashbacks to the mean streets of Brooklyn, New York.