Last year it was announced that Oscar-nominated director Ava DuVernay will be helming a film based on DC’s The New Gods comics. To add another layer of excitement to the project, The Wrap just reported that DuVernay will be co-writing the screenplay alongside CIA officer turned comic book writer Tom King, who’s known for his work on the Batman comics.
Ava DuVernay later confirmed the news on her Twitter account. She said:
“Hey Tom King. Ready to write NEW GODS, buddy?”
https://twitter.com/ava/status/1133872711200063488
There’s no denying that King is the perfect person to co-write the script. The former CIA operative wrote a nice DC comic book series titled Mister Miracle featured multiple characters from New Gods, delved deep into their mythology and pushed the storyline in intriguing directions. The comic series won multiple awards throughout its run.
While DuVernay’s previous film, A Wrinkle in Time is a huge misfire, let’s not forget that she also received an Oscar nomination for her documentary feature, 13th. On top of that, Ava DuVernay also directed the brilliant, Oscar-nominated film, Selma. It’s going to be interesting to see what she does with this film, especially since she previously mentioned that she’s a big fan of New Gods character Big Barda. Bringing in a hardcore comic book guy like Tom King into the fold is the perfect way to go about it. The collaboration between DuVernay and King all but guarantees that the source material will be respected and translated well to a feature film screenplay.
For those who are unfamiliar, the New Gods are a race of beings who hail from New Genesis and Apokolips, and live outside of regular time and space in a mythical realm called the Fourth World. In many ways, they’re the perfect, most evolved versions of human beings. They look like us, but are stronger, faster, smarter and have far superior technology.
DuVernay has just helmed a mini-series titled When They See Us, which is set to be released this year. It is still unclear when New Gods will be gracing the big screen.
