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.

 

A History of Violence is still a long way from reaching the silver screen, but at least the book itself appears to be in print and available from Diamond via the Star System.  No writer or director has been announced for this project yet, but in its favor, A History of Violence is much in the mode of noir classics like The Killers (1946) and Out of The Past (1948) that Hollywood loves to make and remake.