Netflix Is Adapting The Acclaimed Comic David Fincher Couldn't Crack

Maybe fourth (or fifth) time's finally the charm. A comic series that later turned into an acclaimed graphic novel, "Black Hole," has famously topped Hollywood's wish list in terms of live-action adaptations. No lesser names than French filmmaker Alexandre Aja, Rick Famuyiwa, and even David Fincher have been attached to direct an adaptation at one point or another over the last two decades. But despite the gravitational pull of development hell, some material proves that it can just keep defying death, over and over again. That appears to be the case here, as Netflix is now teaming up with one of our most exciting talents for another crack at it.

Deadline reports that the streaming giant has become the latest to land the rights to "Black Hole," which it's already greenlit with a straight-to-series order — and it's bringing along a marquee name to take charge. Jane Schoenbrun, the director behind the 2021 indie darling "We're All Going to the World's Fair" and last year's unforgettable "I Saw the TV Glow," is now taking a stab at this story. From the premise alone, it's easy to see why "Black Hole" would inspire so much interest among the biggest names in the business. Deadline lays out the synopsis accordingly:

There's an old myth that haunts the seemingly perfect small town of Roosevelt: if you have sex too young, you'll contract the "bug," a virus that literally turns you into a "monster" from your worst nightmares. Absurd, right? That's what Chris always assumed, until, after one reckless night at the beginning of senior year, she finds herself infected. Now she'll be cast out to the woods to live with the other infected, where a chilling, new threat emerges: a serial killer who's hunting them one-by-one.

Rarely does a property and an auteur feel like a better match than this one. Jane Schoenbrun, the trans nonbinary filmmaker who excels at creating a tone and atmosphere of vaguely supernatural dread, taking on a sex metaphor about a virus literally turning teenagers into social outcasts and monsters? All unfolding over the course of several episodes in a big-budget Netflix adaptation? Yeah, sign us the hell up.

Deadline notes that Schoenbrun will take on creator, writer, and director credits with "Black Hole," backed by studios New Regency and Plan B (the latter of which has remained involved in a producer role throughout the many attempts to bring this adaptation to life over the years). The bestselling graphic novel comes from writer and illustrator Charles Burns, who published the various issues from 1995 through 2005, at which point it was also released as a complete graphic novel. Readers know that the source material is filled with vibrant (and unsettling) visuals of the afflicted teens undergoing some pretty gnarly transformations over the course of the story, lending a Cronenbergian feel to a story that has certainly feels like a companion piece to "It Follows" (among a variety of similar tales in this vein).

Schoenbrun, who goes by they/them pronouns, will next be seen taking on "Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma" — a horror film that already appears to be wading into thematically similar waters.