charles burns Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It's a sad day when an anticipated adaptation loses a pair of talented scriptwriters -- and that day has dawned. Neil Gaiman told MTV that he and co-writer Roger Avary are no longer attached to Black Hole, the big-screen adaptation of Charles Burns' terrifying graphic novel. (You can check out a preview of it here on Pantheon's official site.)

They've been working on the project for two years. Originally, Alexandre Aja was set to direct, but then David Fincher claimed it as his own. And that's when Gaiman and Avary stepped aside. "Once they got David Fincher on, David explained his process consisted of having over ten drafts, done over and over, and Roger and I were sort of asked if we wanted to, if we were interested in doing that. And we definitely weren't."

Fincher is a notoriously demanding director (Robert Downey Jr. once compared working with him to being in a gulag), but no one can question the results. Then again, after spending two years on the script, the prospect of writing ten more drafts can hardly be appealing. If nothing else, Gaiman and Avary's work might stick around -- Gaiman says they left the last draft with Fincher, though he's unsure what will happen to it. "So we'll wait and see what happens. I just hope whatever happens, it's faithful to Black Hole." I think the graphic novel remains in good hands. The tone of the book seems a walk in the park for Fincher. And how far can a story about sexually transmitted mutations stray, really?

Any time I hear news about a new project from director David Fincher, I get a little excited. Barring his debut, the studio-monkeyed Alien 3, Fincher has had a remarkably impressive run as a flick helmer: Seven, The Game, Fight Club, Panic Room and Zodiac, with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button on the way. So even though he already has a few projects in development, Mr. Fincher has signed on to direct an adaptation of Charles Burns' graphic novel Black Hole. Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary, who last collaborated on Beowulf, will bang out the screenplay for MTV Films and Paramount Pictures.

The Hollywood Reporter offers this as a plot synopsis: "The story follows a group of high school students whose lives are altered drastically when they come in contact with a sexually transmitted disease called the "teen plague" or "the bug." But if you head on over to the publisher's site, you'll find a much more thorough breakdown. To me it sounds like John Hughes meets (early) David Cronenberg ... and obviously that'd be just fine by me. Here's hoping Fincher makes Black Hole his very next project.

Black Hole is a comic book series that was published by Charles Burns over the course of about a decade. Collected in a widely-praised graphic novel last year, the series explores "fear of adulthood, sex and ostracism" via a story about a horrible, sexually transmitted disease known as "the bug" that leaves teens with symptoms ranging from "a rash or a few bumps" to extreme disfigurement. According to Publishers Weekly, "The AIDS metaphor is obvious, but the bug also amplifies already existing teen emotions and the wrenching changes of puberty." Ah. So you're saying it's sort of a harrowing read, then?

Burns' incredibly intense work has been optioned by Paramount and MTV Films, who have hired Neil Gaiman - no stranger to graphic novels - and Roger Avary to adapt it for the screen; the pair previously worked together on the screenplay for Robert Zemeckis' upcoming Beowulf. Directing the film will be Frenchman Alexandre Aja, whose remake of The Hills Have Eyes opens this weekend. Aja is about to head into production on The Waiting; it's expected that work on Black Hole will begin as soon as that film wraps.