Anticipating the inevitable “peak oil” production of superhero films, Paramount has acquired the DC Comics property The Mighty, which inverts the already staid formula of a costumed guy saving the world by making him the villain. The book by Peter Tomasi and the enviably named Keith Champagne follows an ordinary cop who’s worshipped the superbeing Alpha-One ever since the latter saved his life as a child, yet must confront his hero when he discovers that Alpha One has an evil plan to eradicate all life on Earth. It’s dark and gritty source material, negating the need to turn it into a dark and gritty reimagining, so it already has that going for it. At the moment, it’s only been optioned, so there’s no guarantee of production just yet—and we’re guessing there won’t be until Paramount can gauge whether the next year’s sheer onslaught of comic-book films ends up exhausting the genre. (Although, that would be assuming studios actually thought in those terms, so who’s to say, really?)
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