Vigilante Entertainment, a newly-formed production company headed by Hicham Benkirane, former chief of audiovisual development for Les Humanoides Associes, has optioned Warren Ellis’ mini-series Black Summer, which debuted in 2007 from Avatar.  Like Watchmen, Black Summer examines the perils of vigilantism, though in this case it’s the saga of the Seven Guns, seven friends who have undergone extensive surgery to transform into superheroes to take on the corrupt establishment of the West Coast city in which they live.  Complications ensue when one of the band of superheroes sets his sights on bigger game. 

According to Variety, Ryne Pearson (Knowing) is working on the adaptation.  On his Bad Signal blog Ellis noted that Vigilante was the third movie company that had expressed interest in the rights to Black Summer.  Ellis explained that he decided to accept Vigilante’s bid because “they went after it aggressively enough that I was persuaded that they didn't just want to put it on the shelf and look at it every now and then.”