Add Tom Hiddleston To Ben Wheatley & Warner Bros Circling Frank Miller & Geof Darrow’s ‘Hard Boiled’ – Update

UPDATE: Deadline hears that while all the deals have to be made on Hard Boiled, Warner Bros is looking for Ben Wheatley to develop the action film as a potential vehicle for The Avengers and The Night Manager star Tom Hiddleston. We should know soon how all this works out.

PREVIOUS EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros is negotiating to acquire the Frank Miller and Geof Darrow comic book Hard Boiled, with the studio poised to set Free Fire‘s Ben Wheatley to adapt and direct. The film will be a co-production between Solipsist Films and Hollywood Gang, produced by Stephen L’Heureux, Bernie Goldmann and Gianni Nunnari. Solipsist did Miller’s Sin City, and Hollywood Gang did Miller’s 300.

Miller’s got those credits and Darrow also is widely considered one of the great artists of his generation, and the third big brain on the Matrix films, which he helped the Wachowskis design. Hard Boiled debuted in 1990 and focuses on insurance investigator Carl Seltz, who learns that he’s really a homicidal cyborg tax collector codenamed Nixon. A fellow robot informs him that he’s the last hope for their race to escape their programmed slavery.

WME and Independent Talent Group-repped Wheatley has heat from Free Fire, the raucous actioner that stars Armie Hammer, Sharlto Copley, Brie Larson, Sam Riley and Cillian Murphy. A24 acquired after the pic following its Toronto bow. It will be released March 17.

Couldn’t confirm Hard Boiled with Warner Bros, and there has been prior talk of adaptations, but I hear this is going to make. Here’s the trailer for Wheatley’s Free Fire:

Related stories

'Fantastic Beasts' Climbs To Magical $145.5M Overseas - Intl Box Office Update

'Fantastic Beasts' Gobbles Up Teen Girl, Vinny Paz & 'Billy Lynn'...But Is 'Potter' Spinoff Big Enough For A New Franchise?

'Fantastic Beasts' Makes $53.6M Appear In 3 Days Overseas; UK Bow Tops Most 'Potter' Pics

Get more from Deadline.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter