With Chronicle, director Josh Trank put together the rare feature debut that was successful both critically (84% on Rotten Tomatoes) and commercially ($116 million worldwide on a found footage budget).  Plus, I liked the movie a lot---that's the ominous trifecta that this guy's going places.  Trank has been linked to both the Fantastic Four reboot and the Spider-Man spinoff, Venom, but another comic movie may skip to the front.  Deadline reports Trank will direct The Red Star, an adaptation of the graphic novel by Christian Gossett that producer Neal Moritz (21 Jump Street) is developing.  The script by Jason Rothenberg is set an alternate universe where the Soviet Union survived and magic is mixed with futuristic technology: "The protagonist is a Red Fleet soldier who goes up against an ex-leader who rules with an iron fist."  Since Rothenberg's script is much closer to its final state than the screenplays for Fantastic Four and Venom, The Red Star could serve as a natural follow-up to Chronicle.Hit the jump for the synopsis of volume 1 of The Red Star, "The Battle of Kar Dathras Gate."

Over the course of several generations, the once mighty empire known as the United Republics of The Red Star slaughtered millions of it's own people by the order of a single man. The man was their leader, Imbohl, a mighty sorcerer whose insanity turned his people's Utopian dreams into a nightmarish scheme driven by the desire to create his own immortality. Haunted by the ghosts of their nation's tragic past, the Heroes of the Red Star discover the true nature of their nation's struggle, abandon their duties as soldiers of the Red Fleet, and embark upon a quest to liberate their people from Imbohl's dark legacy. The Battle of Kar Dathra's Gate is a fictionalization of the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. [Amazon]

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