Netflix is working on an adaptation of a comic book from the frontman of the band My Chemical Romance,
Gerard Way. The first issue of Way’s Dark Horse comic,
The Umbrella Academy,
was released in 2007. Since then, there was some talk of a movie at
Universal, but the story, which is set in 1977, is now in development as
a series at Netflix with Way and
Jeremy Slater (Fox’s
The Exorcist) involved.
Way and artist
Gabriel Bá‘s story is about a family
of superheroes who possess strange powers. The comic is set in 1977 and
is about a millionaire inventor – who’s really an alien in disguise –
who adopts seven super-powered children to form a team. Nine years
after they parted ways, they have to team up to save their world, an
alternate universe in which John F. Kennedy was never assassinated.
According to
Slash Report,
an official announcement for the series might get made by Netflix at
Comic Con. This year, the streaming giant will have a presence in Hall H
with
Bright and
Death Note.
Here’s the official synopsis for
The Umbrella Academy from Dark Horse:
In an inexplicable worldwide event, forty-seven extraordinary children
were spontaneously born by women who’d previously shown no signs of
pregnancy. Millionaire inventor Reginald Hargreeves adopted seven of the
children; when asked why, his only explanation was, “To save the
world.” Conceived and written by Gerard Way (of My Chemical Romance),
Umbrella Academy features interior art by Eisner-award winner Gabriel
Ba, and is a multiple Eisner-award winner itself, as well as a New York
Tiimes bestseller!
There’s some kooky stuff in the comic and hopefully Netflix and all
involved will preserve that. For example, the leader of the group,
Spaceboy, has his head is attached to the body of a Martian gorilla.
Last year, Slater, who wrote the pilot, told
Collider he did not want to “sand down some of those weird edges”:
I was really adamant about taking the job, but the only way I was going
to do it was if I could make it weird and make it true to the spirit of
the book. There’s a lot of weird shit in The Umbrella Academy, and it
would be very easy to sand down some of those weird edges and make it
more familiar to American audiences. I’m fighting very hard to not let
that happen. We’re shopping around the pilot, at the moment. We’re
trying to find the right home for it and trying to find someone as
excited as we are.
Apparently, Netflix is as excited as they are. The initial six-issue
limited series won a 2008 Eisner Award for Best Limited Series. Since
then, a few notable writers have worked on the project, including
Mark Bomback (
War for the Planet of the Apes) and
Dodgeball director Rawn Thurber. Universal developed the movie after signing a three-year production deal with Dark Horse, which led to
R.I.P.D. Way is involved in the Netflix series, which will use Slater’s script.
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