Idris Elba-David Leitch Pic ‘Bang!’ In Works As Netflix And Dark Horse Entertainment Extend Partnership

Matt Grobar
·3 min read
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Netflix and Dark Horse Entertainment have inked a multi-year, first-look film and TV deal extending their creative partnership, at the same time announcing the launch of development on two new projects—a film titled Bang! and a series called Mind MGMT.

In the former spy thriller, based on the comic series by Matt Kindt and Wilfredo Torres, a terrorist cult sets out to start the apocalypse with a series of novels meant to brainwash their readers, with the world’s most celebrated spy then being sent to track down and kill the author responsible. Idris Elba (The Harder They Fall) will star in the film, written by Kindt (Ninjak vs the Valiant Universe) and Zak Olkewicz, which reunites the latter with director David Leitch following their work on Sony’s actioner Bullet Train. Mike Richardson and Keith Goldberg will produce for Dark Horse, along with Leitch and Kelly McCormick for 87 North, and Elba.

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Mind MGMT is a series adaptation of the comic book series by Kindt in which a young woman stumbles onto the top-secret Mind Management program. Her ensuing journey involves weaponized psychics, hypnotic advertising, talking dolphins, and seemingly immortal pursuers, as she attempts to find the man who was MIND MGMT’s greatest success – and its most devastating failure. But in a world where people can rewrite reality itself, can she trust anything she sees? Curtis Gwinn, the Emmy-nominated writer-producer best known for his work on Stranger Things, will exec produce the series, along with Dark Horse’s Richardson and Goldberg.

Netflix most recently collaborated with the film and TV production arm of the storied Dark Horse Comics on the third season of The Umbrella Academy, which in its first four weeks reached the Netflix Global Top 10 in TV in 91 countries, with 283.55M hours viewed. A third, previously announced project that the companies are developing together is the drama series Revenge Inc., focused on a secret, underground company that specializes in revenge. Matthew Arnold is serving as showrunner for that project and exec producing alongside Richardson, Goldberg and Chris Tongue. Also in the works is the feature Lady Killer—an action-thriller about a 1950s housewife leading a secret life as a highly-trained killer for hire. Blake Lively will produce and star in that pic, based on the comic series by Joelle Jones and Jamie S. Rich.

Previous Dark Horse Entertainment releases include the Netflix film Polar, starring Mads Mikkelsen; the Netflix animated series Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles, returning later this year for its second season; and the animated film Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness, which recently spent four weeks on the Netflix Film (English) Top 10.

Elba is represented by The Artists Partnership in the UK, WME, M88 and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole; Leitch by CAA and Johnson Shapiro; Olkewicz by CAA, 3 Arts and Felker Toczek Suddleson; Gwinn by WME, 3 Arts Entertainment, and Lev Ginsburg; and Kindt by Rothman Brecher Ehrich Livingston.

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