Mark Millar is on Hollywood’s shortlist for bankable comic-book writers, and according to The Hollywood Reporter, his latest title, Huck, has been picked up for a feature-film adaptation before it hits shelves. Huck is a superhuman do-gooder of “simple intelligence” who modestly aims to perform a good deed daily. When his abilities are discovered, Huck winds up on the radar of supervillains, presumably of “complex intelligence.”
While that might seem like a thin premise for a movie, Millar’s track record should be taken into account. The adaptations of his Kick-Ass series weren’t box-office juggernauts, but they performed well enough for smaller budget films, and Wanted made almost $350 million on a $75 million budget. Meanwhile, Millar wrote Old Man Logan, which may become the premise for the third Wolverine film (despite Logan being contractually prohibited from hunting any Hulks), and the next Captain America movie is based on his Civil War storyline. And of course there’s Kingsman: The Secret Service, Millar’s gritty, British answer to Agent Cody Banks, which banked $412 million despite being dumped into theaters in the winter. Considering that even Alan Moore’s seminal Watchmen couldn’t even turn a domestic profit, Millar possesses Hollywood’s most prized superpower: consistent returns.
Studio 8 has picked up the project, and is now scouting directors and writers to adapt Huck. Whoever ends up playing Huck, we just hope he avoids the Tugg Speedman approach towards characters of “simple intelligence.”