Tobey Maguire (“Spider-Man” films) and Neal Moritz are teaming up for Afterburn, an adaptation of a comic book published by Red 5 Comics, a company presented by ComingSoon.net and SuperheroHype.com. Rights to the film are being picked up by Ryan Kavanaugh’s Relativity Media.
Maguire would produce through his Maguire Entertainment and Moritz through his Original Films.
The book, whose first issue hit stands in January, is a sci-fi adventure set against the backdrop of a postapocalyptic Earth, whose Eastern Hemisphere was destroyed by a massive solar flare, leaving what life remains mutated from radiation and fallout. The story revolves around a group of treasure hunters who for the right price extract such objects as the Mona Lisa, the Rosetta Stone and the Crown Jewels while facing rival hunters, mutants and pirates along the way.
Red 5 Comics was created by Paul Ens, former director of Lucasfilm’s StarWars.com and Lucas Online, and Scott Chitwood, co-founder of TheForce.net and contributor to ComingSoon.net and SuperheroHype.com. The company, based in Calgary, Alberta, began publishing its first books in the fall.
Chitwood and Ens wrote Afterburn, which is drawn by Wayne Nichols. No writer for the adaptation is on board.
Maguire next appears in a cameo in Tropic Thunder and is developing a live-action adaptation of the anime classic Robotech, which he is producing.
