Waypoint Entertainment, the production company behind Shane Black’s The Nice Guys (due May 20), has acquired the screen rights to Supercrooks and American Jesus, two properties created by the prolific Mark Millar, whose comics have a good track record of actually making it to the big screen (Wanted, Kick-Ass, Kingsman: The Secret Service, as well as Captain America: Civil War, which is based on the Civil War miniseries Millar penned for Marvel). 

Supercrooks, a fast-moving heist saga, co-created with artist Leinil Yu, was a four-issue miniseries from Marvel’s Icon imprint in 2012 that was collected into a graphic novel published in 2013.  The high concept here is that the heist team that pulls off the caper is composed of supervillains (based on the theory that you can’t have too many flamboyant, attention-grabbing characters in any one saga).  Supercrooks has been optioned before (in 2011—see “Big Two Just Became the Big Three”)

American Jesus, a 3-issue series that first appeared as Chosen in 2004 before Image repackaged it as a 72-page graphic novel with the American Jesus moniker in 2009, features art by Peter Gross along with a clever narrative about the second coming of Jesus in the form of Jodie Christianson, an apparently indestructible Illinois teenager, who grew up in the 1980s and may just be the last best hope for our tortured modern world.  American Jesus was also the subject of movie option speculation back in 2009 (see “American Jesus’ a Film”).

Millar told Dateline that he was extremely pleased with the new agreement with Waypoint and the current prospects for these properties: “I only come to LA one week a year and do all my meetings in the pub during those seven days every September. On my most recent trip I met these guys and was wowed by their plans and the scale they’re working on. Leinil and I couldn’t be more delighted to have Supercrooks up and running with such talented people, and Peter Gross and I have held American Jesus back for a decade until the right team came along. This really is that team! The level of talent we’re talking about behind the camera has us all ridiculously excited. Fans of the books are in for an absolute treat.”