Tradecraft: Dark Knight Producer Attends Langley High

Tradecraft: Dark Knight Producer Attends Langley High

Deadline reports that Charles Roven, a producer on The Dark Knight, and his Atlas Entertainment partner Alex Gartner (Get Smart) have optioned an upcoming graphic novel hatched by producer/manager J.C. Spink and Christopher Cosmos called Langley High. According to the trade blog, "the protagonist is a student from Langley High, located 1.7 miles from CIA headquarters. His father is captured in Russia and when he’s disavowed as a CIA agent, the student teams with an undercover CIA agent teacher from the high school and goes on a mission of revenge." So it's basically The Rescue or Iron Eagle but with spies.... I love it! The Rescue was one of my favorite movies as a kid. Pure young adult escapism.

Tomm Coker and Daniel Freedman will adapt the alleged graphic novel into a film. My only question is whether it will ever actually materialize as a graphic novel, or if the galleys or script and concept art or whatever actually exists at this point served their purpose in getting the material optioned as a film. Remember when what ultimately became the Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes movie was first announced? Supposedly it was based not directly on the stories of Arthur Conan Doyle, but on an "upcoming comic book" by Lionel Wigram. That comic never materialized, and eventually what actually existed of it was released as a bonus for people who bought the DVD at Target, and it amounted to a few concept illustrations by John Watkiss (James Bond 007: Light of My Death), not an actual comic book. That happens a lot in Hollywood, when half-finished comics are really nothing more than marketing tools to sell screenplays. Anyway, I hope Langley High is really a comic, because I'd like to read it! I can't help be a little suspicious, however, since no publisher is mentioned. Either way, I'm excited for the possible movie, and hope it happens.