Tron Scribe Jesse Wigutow Inks Deal With Sony To Adapt Sci-Fi Comic Descender

Sony Pictures has tapped Tron 3 scribe Jesse Wigutow to adapt acclaimed comic book series, Descender.

That’s according to The Hollywood Reporter, noting that after first acquiring the property almost exactly a year ago, the big-screen rendition of Jeff Lemire’s sci-fi tale is finally beginning to gain a sense of momentum. Indeed, Wigutow will be hoping for better luck with this current deal, given that he penned treatments for Relativity’s long-gestating The Crow remake along with Brian Michael Bendis’ Fire, neither of which have entered production in earnest.

Descender very much acts as a new platform for the scribe, then, and the original source material imagines a “sprawling, science-fiction space opera full of mystery and adventure. For those unfamiliar, Descender tells the heart-felt cosmic odyssey about “a little boy looking for home in a universe that hates and fears him. The incredibly lifelike artificial boy, TIM-21, may hold the secrets deep in his machine DNA to the origin of robots that have decimated entire planets.”

Blending themes associated with artificial intelligence and a space-faring adventure, Descender is a science fiction tale down to its very core. Plus, the fact that Sony picked up the film license for the IP shortly before Lemire’s series debuted in comic book store gives us an indication of the confidence that the studio has invested in the project.

Now set on its journey to the silver screen, Descender will be overseen by Palak Patel and Eric Fineman of Colombia Pictures, with producing support from Josh Bratman, Jeff Lemire himself and Dustin Nguyen, the artist that originally brought the series to life.