‘Black Panther’ and ‘Creed’ director Ryan Coogler will serve as a producer on Legendary Pictures’ film adaptation of the best-selling and critically-acclaimed Image C0mics series ‘Bitter Root’. Set in New York City during the 1920s, ‘Bitter Root’, by former ‘Power Man and Iron Fist’ team David F. Walker, and Sanford Greene, with Chuck Brown, chronicles the exploits of an African American family of monster hunters, mixing “hoodoo magic, African-American culture of the Jazz Age, and the noir possibilities of post-WWI New York City.” Only five issues of the comic have been published (the last being in March), but it was nominated for a 2019 Eisner Award for Best New Series and a 2019 Ringo award for Best Series. Coogler will produce, alongside his wife Zinzi Evans, and Sev Ohanian.
Bitter Root is set in 1924 against the vibrant backdrop of the Harlem Renaissance where a family of once-great monster hunters is the only line of defense that can protect New York City from an unimaginable evil that is approaching — an invasion by hideous monsters that were once human beings before they were transmogrified by a supernatural force feeding off of prejudice, spite, and bigotry. By all appearances, the Sangeryes family is not up for the challenge. After generations of tracking, trapping, and curing the monsters, the few surviving members of the Sangeryes line are dispirited and divided over their traditionally merciful tactics. The family must overcome the wounds of the past to have any hope of thwarting the supernatural invasion.
Comic book creators Walker, Greene, and Brown will serve as executive producers on the film, along with Big Machine’s Sean Owolo. Legendary’s Jon Silk and Disney Hall will oversee the project.
The film adaptation was first announced in March. There have been no announcements of anyone on the creative side of things yet. Perhaps with Coogler signed on, the ball will really get rolling.
Have you read the comics? How do you think ‘Bitter Root’ will work as a live-action film?
Source: Deadline