Before Mark Millar’s Chrononauts was even released in 2015, the comic had already been tapped for a movie adaptation. However, as is so often the case these days, the updates stopped there. Fast-forward to today and there is finally some movement on the project.
The Chrononauts. Image: Image Comics
Deadline reports that Philip Gawthorne has been hired to write the screenplay from the comic, which is about two super smart scientists who discover time-travel and decide to broadcast their adventures on TV. Chris Morgan, writer of the Fast and Furious series, is a producer, along with Millar and his co-creator Sean Gordon Murphy.
Gawthorne has yet to have a feature film produced but has written a bunch of scripts for various studios, including a Kojak movie and a remake of Cube. Universal, which owns the rights to Chrononauts, does not seem to be in any rush to make this movie, so his script will have to be pretty strong for us to get any significant updates in the coming months.
Meanwhile, over on Twitter, Millar told a story that the original idea from Chrononauts came from a Universal executive who asked him to come up with a story that would star Chris Pratt and Chris Hemsworth. The result was a short story that got adapted into the time-travelling comic. Neither of those actors are attached (or probably aware of their connection to the property), but if anyone on that level got involved, the movie would probably come together pretty quickly.
[Deadline]