Seth Rogen, Matt Tolmach and David F. Sandberg have teamed up to adapt the Rick Remender-written comic Fear Agent as a series.
Amazon has won a competitive bidding war to pick up rights to the title, beating out Peacock, HBO Max and TNT, according to sources.
Sandberg, who directed Shazam! and Annabelle: Creation, is on board to helm and executive produce while rising scribe Mattson Tomlin, who co-wrote Robert Pattinson-led The Batman, will pen the pilot.
Rogen and his Point Grey Productions partners Evan Goldberg and James Weaver are exec producing with Tolmach and David Manpearl. The group previously teamed for the sci-fi comedy Future Man that streamed on Hulu. Tolmach identified the title 10 years ago, trying to find the best way into the ambitious and offbeat comic.
Remender and Agent co-creator Tony Moore, who drew the series, are also exec producing as is Lotta Losten. Josh Fagen is overseeing for Point Grey.
The setting up of Agent comes as Remender, the prolific creator who is making heavy inroads into the comics-to-screen business, signs a three-year overall deal with Sony Pictures Television, which is behind Agent. Remender previously teamed with SPT to turn his comic Deadly Class into a series for Syfy. He also acted as showrunner, marking one of the few times a comics creator rose to that level. (In most adaptations, comic creators have minimal involvement in the adaptation of their works.)
The logline is thus: Interstellar invaders. Time travel. Clones of clones of clones, and lots of whiskey. Whether he’s battling the scourge of space, going back in time to stop the alien invasion that changed Earth forever, or winning his ex-wife back, there’s nothing that Heath Huston won’t do to try to right the wrongs and gets his family back. He is, after all, the last Fear Agent.
The comic, with Jerome Opena also an artist on the series, was first published by Image when it launched in 2005 then moved to Dark Horse, which became its home until the story’s conclusion in 2012. The comic had a dedicated following and attracted Hollywood attention early on, with Universal at one point developing an adaptation for the big screen.
Rogen's Point Grey has already made inroads into Amazon's series business, exec producing the adaptation of the Garth Ennis-written comic The Boys. The company is also behind the well-received comic book adaptation of Preacher for AMC.
Tolmach is currently in production on Spider-Man spinoff feature Venom 2 and is in post on Morbius, also based on a Spider-Man-adjacent character. He is also coming off the blockbuster performance of Jumanji: The Next Level, which has grossed over $712 million worldwide; the rebooted Jumanji franchise has now made almost $1.8 billion.
Remender's imprint Giant Generator recently signed an exclusive deal with Image Comics. He is repped by UTA and Katz Golden.
Sandberg, repped by Paradigm, Gotham Group and Jackoway Austen, is prepping to mount a sequel to Shazam! for New Line. The DC Comics-based project is eying a summer start.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/seth-rogen-david-f-sandberg-tackling-rick-remenders-fear-agent-1271777
