You may not know the under-the-radar, indie comic Black by Kwanza Osajyefo, Tim Smith 3, Jamal Igle, Khary Randolph and others. But Hollywood hopes that will change soon. Studio 8, which has a distribution deal with Sony, just picked up the option for the comic with the hopes to turn it into a movie.
The cover of the comic Black. Image: Black Mask Studios
Black is about a world where only black people can have superhero powers. It’s a discovery made when a young man named Kareem Jenkins is racially profiled and shot by police, then gets up and lives to tell the tale. Kotaku debuted the first five pages of the Black Mask Studios project last year, which you can see here.
[referenced url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2016/06/what-if-only-black-people-could-get-superpowers/” thumb=”https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/t_original/xx0py9jplltbwtdbhbpt.png” title=”What If Only Black People Could Get Superpowers?” excerpt=”A young black person gets shot by police. This time, he gets up, discovering that he’s more powerful than he ever could have imagined.”]
Described as X-Men meets The Wire, Black‘s powerful premise makes it pretty obvious why Studio 8 would want the film options. The comic challenges its audience with upsetting social issues such as racism and police brutality via a more accessible superhero construct. As well-liked as superhero movies are, they rarely stand for something, and Black definitely does that.
Deadline broke the news of the deal and they report Osajyefo and Smith 3 are on board as producers. There’s no news on a screenwriter yet but that would likely be the next step in getting Black to the big screen.
The comic series itself just finished its six-issue run this week.
[Deadline]