The three movies Joe Cornish has directed have been the incredible Attack the Block, the serviceable The Kid Who Would Be King, and the long-awaited upcoming adaptation of Neal Stepherson’s Snow Crash. So, sure, why not have his next movie be about an old, grumpy John Carter wannabe, who’s called in for one last mission from the alien world he used to save?
Starlight is one of the tamest, most thoughtful entries in Mark Millar’s comics career, which means to say it’s still pretty violent but not gratuitously so. There’s very little shock value in the story about the elderly Duke McQueen, who used to travel to the world of Tantalus, where he saved the world many times over, in a ‘30s sci-fi pulp sort of way. Once he was stuck back on Earth, however, no one believed his tales other than his wife. By the time the series — and presumably the movie — starts, the kids have long since moved out and Duke’s been a widower for a year. And that’s when his old spaceship reappears to take him to take him on a final adventure.
This news comes via Deadline, and it seems like an odd project for Cornish to choose, and odd source material to be produced since there are still plenty more sensational/marketable Millar comics to pick from. However, between The Boys, Invincible, The Umbrella Academy, and the upcoming Jupiter’s Legacy, I wouldn’t mind a little more earnestness in my sci-fi superhero entertainment… assuming Starlight ever makes it to production.