Joe Cornish came out of the blocks hot, with the cult favorite Attack the Block, then a co-writing gig with Edgar Wright on Marvel’s Ant-Man. While the superhero gig sorta fell through, Cornish was pretty quiet until The Kid Who Would Be King just a couple of years ago. So his output has been slim for such a fan-favorite creator, however that’s about to change as he’s lined up a new comic book project to adapt for the big screen.
Deadline reports Cornish will write and direct an adaptation of Starlight, the sci-fi comic book series by Kick-Ass, Wanted, Kingsman, and Jupiter’s Legacy creator Mark Millar. The story has a very The Last Starfighter quality to it, centering on a man who believes he went adventuring in space 35 years earlier, but nobody believes him. He settles into a quiet family life, but all of that is disrupted when his old starship arrives and he’s asked to help save the universe once more.
This is still early on, and it’s unclear when 20th Century Studios intend to release the film into theaters. Simon Kinberg, best known for the X-Men franchise, is on board as a producer.
An earlier attempt to adapt Starlight had Gary Whitta (Rogue One) on the script and Sylvester Stallone eyeing the lead role.
Cornish has a couple of other projects cooking right now, including a new series he’s developing that has Edgar Wright as a producer. There’s also been talk of an Attack the Block sequel that would reunite him with John Boyega, but we’ll see about that.