While Matt Damon’s (‘Elysium‘, ‘Contagion‘) acting career has taken off over the years and Ben Affleck (‘Argo’, ‘Batman vs. Superman’) has become an amazing director in his own right, the two were at their best when they were young and working together on ‘Good Will Hunting’. Now the two are back together again and this time to produce the upcoming Vertigo Comic, ‘Sleeper’ for Warner Brothers. Vertigo is DC Comic’s off branded line for their darker work that doesn’t take place in the mainstream DC Universe.

What’s interesting is that we don’t just have the pair lined up to produce but also Shawn Ryan (“The Shield”) and David Wiener (“The Killing”) are already hard at work on a screenplay! There isn’t a director or cast set to work on the film quite yet, but I’m sure we’ll be seeing both of those announced in the near future. You might question why two writers known for working on shows about detectives might be working on a new comic adaptation? Well let’s take a look at what the series is about shall we?

SLEEPER is the critically acclaimed graphic novel series written Ed Brubaker and illustrated by Sean Philips, the Eisner Award-winning creative team of Criminal, which tells the story of agent Holden Carver, a reluctant double agent without hope of rescue.

Tao–the criminal mastermind whose organization Carver has infultraited–had Carver’s only lifeline, spymaster John Lynch shot, leaving him in a coma. Tao’s cut off every means of escape, and he’s persuaded Carver to join him…for real this time.

What the graphic novel’s synopsis leaves out though is that Holden was also fused with an alien artifact that makes it so he can’t feel pain and actually allows him to pass the pain he should be feeling to others though direct skin contact. Oh, and while he’s stuck in the midst of this criminal organization where he has to continue playing the role he’s found himself stuck in, he also falls for one of their members who goes by the name of ‘Miss Misery’, only in comics can a name like that work.

If this at all sounds familiar it’s because back in 2008 Warner Brothers had initially setup the project where Sam Raimi (‘Oz: the Great and Powerful‘), Josh Donen and Tom Cruise (‘Oblivion‘) were all attached at one point or another.

So what do you think about the potential of the film? Does it have a strong enough premise for you? The mixture of noir action comics worked quite well for ‘Sin City’ and I’m curious how Affleck and Damon would work the story.

Source: Variety