File this under "we'll believe it when we see it," but writer Kurt Busiek's superb comic book series Astro City appears to be moving closer to becoming a movie. According to Mike Fleming of Deadline's New York office, Working Title Films have optioned Astro City, with Busiek serving as executive producer alongside legendary indie-film entrepreneur Ben Barenholtz and screenwriter Jonathan Alpers (the latter two of which have been developing the property since 2003). For the uninitiated, Astro City is a self-contained superhero universe populated by characters (and stories) that bear some similarities to iconic DC and Marvel comics. Busiek, along with artists Brent Anderson and Alex Ross, explore the meanings of those comics: how they reflect their times, how the characters speak to the desires of their readers, and so on. That Busiek and company do this primarily in the form of shorter stories, told from a variety of perspectives (including the non-heroes) would seem to make Astro City more suited to television than the movies, but perhaps Barenholtz's team has a Sin City-style anthology film in mind. Either way, whether this project comes to fruition or not, here's hoping that it provides Busiek with enough money to focus on turning out more actual Astro City comics.
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