Alien Legion is heading to the big screen, helmed by Deadpool director, Tim Miller.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. picked up the rights to the former Marvel comic book series, which has been described as “the French Foreign Legion in space”.
The goal is reportedly to build “a homegrown space opera franchise” with Miller, who also directed Terminator: Dark Fate, on board to helm the adaptation.
The comic is set in the far future and follows the story of Force Nomad, a ragtag military unit of soldiers of fortune assembled from the dregs of three galaxies. This intergalactic peace-keeping force operated much like the French Foreign Legion, taking in soldiers of fortune without asking too many questions.
Notably, the humanoid Torie Montroc joined the Alien Legion after being coerced by his wealthy family to join the outfit and complete a tour of duty in order to claim his inheritance. He was joined by alien soldiers Captain Sarigar, Jugger Grimrod, Tamra, and Meiko among others.
Alien Legion was originally created by Carl Potts, Alan Zelenetz, and Frank Cirocco under Marvel’s Epic Comics imprint in 1983 and ran until 1990. However it eventually returned at Titan Comics in 2014 with a new series, Alien Legion: Uncivil War, that was co-plotted by Potts and Alien Legion writer, Chuck Dixon.
It’s not the first time Alien Legion has been eyed for an adaptation, either. Potts wrote a TV screenplay based on Alien Legion as far back as 1995, which was picked up by MGM the following year. Back to the Future scribe Bob Gale wrote the pilot, but it was soon canned. Dimension Films then picked up Alien Legion in 2000, but this too was canceled.
Then, in 2009, Jerry Bruckheimer and The Walt Disney Company optioned the big-screen screenplay, written by Potts, and handed it over to Game of Thrones showrunner David Benioff for a rewrite. Three different versions of the script were written before Benioff exited the project. At that point, Tim Miller declined the project due to creative differences with Disney.
Now, however, it looks as though he’ll finally get the chance to take a run at Alien Legion. Don Murphy and Susan Montford of Angry Films will produce alongside Aaron Ryder.
Want to read more about upcoming comic book movies? Check out the first trailer for Sony’s Madame Web and find out who’s writing the upcoming Supergirl: World of Tomorrow.
Image credit: Carl Potts / alienlegion.com
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
