Lionel Wigram, the producer of the Robert Downey, Jr. Sherlock Holmes movies, has acquired the rights to Jeff Smith’s self-published RASL comic book series. RASL showcases the Bone creator’s darker side. The series follows the adventures of an ex-military scientist-turned art thief who jumps between parallel universes, but who soon stumbles into a mystery that not only threatens to expose him, but which could also lead to the discovery of one of the world’s most dangerous secrets.
Wigram, who has just finished shooting on Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, told Deadline that he hopes that RASL “will become a big movie franchise for Warner Bros.” Wigram will produce the film. Wigram’s colleague Peter Eskelsen, who brought the property to Wigram, will be an executive producer along with Jeff Smith.
Smith, who has been extremely reluctant to let any Hollywood studios acquire Bone, apparently has no such compunction about RASL, perhaps because the latter’s science fiction/crime/noir ambience is something that contemporary Hollywood generally does well.