Exclusive: Regency in Talks to Develop THE DARKNESS Comic Adaptation with Producers David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman; Len Wiseman Would Also Produce

The Top Cow comic series The Darkness is getting the big screen treatment.   Sources tell us that Regency is nearing a deal to obtain the feature film rights to the comic with producers David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman (The Fighter, The Muppets).  Moreover, Total Recall director and “godfather” of the Underworld series Len Wiseman would produce the film.  Mandeville’s David Manpearl will also be involved and Top Cow’s Marc Silvestri and Matt Hawkins will be Executive Producing.

Created by David Wohl, Marc Silvestri, and Garth Ennis, the mythologically dense comic first appeared in 1996 and centers on an ageless power called “The Darkness.”  The primordial force has been at war with its equal and opposite, The Angelus, since creation, and takes root in male hosts.  Awakened at the host’s 21st birthday, The Darkness allows its host to create and control anything he desires, including sentient beings.  Hit the jump for more.

The current wielder of The Darkness is a former hitman for the mob who develops a slight control over the force.  He wrestles with his strong set of morals and his carnal nature, trying to keep from wholly giving into The Darkness.  That’s not to say that he doesn’t do a fair amount of killing and evil-doing in the meantime, though.  Read a full synopsis below (via Top Cow).

Before time was time, the Earth was formless and void and darkness stretched over the surface of the deep. Then God said “Let there be light.” And there was light, and God saw that it was good. So, being the guy that he is, he decided to meddle some more and separate the light from the darkness. And the darkness? The Darkness resented it. In that moment, a bitterness and spite was born that would fester and grow for centuries, distilling itself to raw, seething perfection. Ages would pass before The Darkness found a vessel worthy to inherit its boundless hatred. The vessel was mankind, God’s most favored of all his creations.

The Darkness found fertile ground for its chaotic lust in the bloodline of a family thought barely human by its fellow man: the Estacados. Each new generation inherited the gifts of The Darkness, spreading misery and unyielding chaos across the kingdoms of man. When each bearer conceived an offspring the curse of The Darkness would betray its host, leaving him to die as it bound itself to the newly innocent life, like wolves to a slaughter of defenseless lambs.

Each new vessel was steered to its inevitable ruin by The Darkness. Murderers and thieves. Rapists and warlords. The Darkness thrived upon the death and devastation spread by its host and its unsuitable appetite only grew with each new generation.

In our generation, The Darkness took root in Jackie Estacado, an orphan, as all the bearers before him, raised by pimps and thieves–The Franchetti Crime Family. Like those who walked in the shadow of The Darkness before him, Jackie’s powers manifested on his 21st birthday. In that moment he was both blessed and cursed. The elemental force of chaos granted Jackie a limitless power, access to an otherworldly dimension and control over the demons that dwell there. He could do anything now and just as the men who did so before him, he was sure to pay the direst of costs.

His newfound powers served Jackie well as a mob enforcer, dealing death with effortless finesse, as The Darkness grew thick and fat. Despite Jackie’s best efforts however, tragedy and death dogged him at every turn until the very things that he loved and valued were ripped away from his grasp. He had become an enemy of all that he ever loved. An enemy of the very heavens. An enemy of his family. An enemy of the only woman he had ever loved. And an enemy of himself.

While tragedy is the burden of The Darkness, Jackie has faired better than any host who had come before him. He has defied The Darkness even at his weakest moments. He has developed more control over his carnal nature than any who came before him. Jackie’s charisma, ambivalent attitude and desire to maintain control over his own life are not just those traits which set him apart from his forefathers cursed by The Darkness; they are also the very things which may one day save his soul.