100 Bullets, published under DC Comics' Vertigo imprint, will see the silver screen, potentially with Tom Hardy in the lead, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
New Line Cinema's adaptation already has a script from Christopher Borrelli (The Vatican Tapes), with actor Tom Hardy ready to produce under his Hardy, Son & Baker production company. Hardy will be overseeing early production with "an eye to star."
While Warner Bros. motors on in the crafting of its interconnected DC Comics universe, its sister studio New Line has taken custody of the intellectual property under the umbrella of Vertigo Comics, DC's "mature readers" imprint. Vertigo has produced some of the company's biggest juggernauts, past and future — The Sandman, Fables, Watchmen, V for Vendetta and Y: The Last Man — and now 100 Bullets is set to be the next big screen adaptation to come from the imprint.
Written by Brian Azzarello (Wonder Woman, The Dark Knight III: The Master Race) and drawn by Argentine artist Eduardo Risso, each early issue of 100 Bullets followed a new character as they were approached by the mysterious Agent Graves. Graves would offer them the opportunity to take revenge on someone who'd done them great harm, in the form of 100 rounds of untraceable ammunition, a hand gun and documents containing extensive information on their foe. The story would then follow what each person did with these items. By the end of its 100-issue run, the noir comic had expanded to encompass a wide ranging conspiracy involving the secret society at the heart of the last several hundred years of Western civilization.
In addition to 100 Bullets, as previously reported, New Line is also shepherding a film based on Vertigo's The Sandman, with Joseph Gordon Levitt as producer, to screens.