Adam Wingard continues to cash in on the success of Godzilla vs. Kong. After that movie performed better than expectations at cinemas during the pandemic, the director has signed on to a host of projects. His latest is an adaptation of Robert Kirkman‘s comic Hardcore that’s in the works at Universal Pictures.
Wingard will co-write the script alongside Will Simmon, based on an initial treatment from Kirkman himself. Hardcore was created by Kirkman and Marc Silvestri, and issue #1 was released in 2018. It follows Agent Drake and the Hardcore Program in a reality where any person can be turned into a human drone to get to targets that normal soldiers can’t.
Drake is their best soldier, but his skills are put to the test when he gets stranded in a body with only 72 hours to discover who’s hijacked the Program. A tall task when the enemy could be literally anyone.
It sounds a little like a military action version of The Thing, and anything that’s somewhat like The Thing should be worth checking out. It’s clear why Universal commissioned an adaptation of the comic, as it should fit into that prestige action genre currently led by John Wick pretty well.
As mentioned, this is far from the only project Wingard has in the works. He’s already set to direct a live-action ThunderCats movie at Warner Bros. as well as a Face/Off remake for Paramount. But just last month he also signed on for another MonsterVerse movie with Legendary.
The question obviously becomes: how is he going to fit all these into his schedule? Well it seems likely that Legendary simply wanted Wingard signed on for another MonsterVerse project in the wake of Godzilla vs. Kong‘s success, and wanted that deal in place now before he becomes more expensive, even though that unknown film probably isn’t imminent.
The other three projects are a bit trickier to parse. It’s possible Wingard ends up stepping away from one of them, but it likely won’t be the ThunderCats movie, as that’s been a passion project of his for years. We’ll wait and see whether he can juggle all these movies in what would likely be a hectic back-to-back-to-back-to-back schedule. He might need a lot of caffeine.
#Peace.Love.Hardcore
