Marvel Studios is ramping up pre-production on its adaptation of the teenagers-with-super powers comics series The Runaways, with cameras set to roll next March.
This marks the first concrete revelation of Marvel’s plans after the release of The Avengers in 2012. Marvel also has several other post-Avengers projects in development, including Ant-Man, Iron Fist, a potential third Iron Man film and possible spinoff films for any character that has already appeared or will be appearing in any current or upcoming film. Additionally, there are plenty of other rumored adaptations of comics like Black Panther and Dr. Strange that the studio has not commented on officially.
Production Weekly has reported via their tweeter feed that the film will be shooting in Los Angeles under the fake title Small Faces.
(And for those of you not up on your classic 1960s and 70s rock, Slash Film reminds us that Small Faces is the British band that had a hit with the song – ready for it? – “Runaways.”)
Sitting the director’s chair for the film will be Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist helmer Peter Sollett, working from a script currently being finalized by British screenwriter Drew Pearce, who created the superheroes-in-their-off hours comedy series No Heroics for the BBC.Casting is currently underway.
The comics series was created by writer Brian K Vaughn and artist Adrian Alphona. A superhero spin on the idea of teen rebellion, the series focuses on a group of teenagers who discover that their parents are a supervillain cabal known as The Pride and that they have their own powers they can use to stop them. Vaughn took a pass at a screenplay for the project in 2008. In addition to his acclaimed comics work with his original series Y: The Last Man and the recently concluded Ex Machina, both of which are currently in feature film development, Vaughn has served as a writer/producer for seasons four and five of Lost.
