Director Nicolas Winding Refn is currently busy in post-production on his Drive follow-up, Only God Forgives, but apparently he’s eyeing a graphic novel adaptation as a future project.  Deadline reports that Refn is in talks with DreamWorks to direct Button Man, based on the graphic novel Button Man: The Killing Game by John Wagner and Arthur Ranson.  The story centers on “a hired gun who’s offered a fortune to take part in a game organized by bored millionaires that sets trained killers against one another in a fight to the death.”  When the protagonist becomes disgusted and decides he wants out, he realizes that his only escape may be to kill the millionaires who are funding the competition.  Hit the jump for more.

The premise does bring to mind shades of The Hunger Games, but if studios are going to cheaply reach for projects that have similar plots in order to lure audiences, I’d much rather have a guy like Refn at the helm.  Drive was one of the best films of 2011 and the director’s earlier filmography is just as impressive.  Deadline reports that the deal isn’t officially closed yet, but the story sounds right up Refn’s alley and I’d love to see what he does with a studio film.

Refn recently confirmed that he plans to make the horror movie/sex thriller I Walk with The Dead his next film after Only God Forgives.  Financing has already been secured for the pic and he’s poised to reunite with Drive star Carey Mulligan.  Moreover, Refn and Ryan Gosling continue to develop a remake of Logan’s Run at Warner Bros.  I’m assuming the development status of Logan’s Run and Button Man will determine which film goes first once Refn finishes up I Walk with the Dead.  Though Button Man certainly sounds like an intriguing project, I’m really itching to see Refn and Gosling’s take on Logan’s Run as soon as humanly possible.