'God Country' Movie Based On Acclaimed Graphic Novel In The Works At Legendary

Legendary has started seeing God (Country). The acclaimed graphic novel written by Donny Cates and illustrated by Geoff Shaw is being developed into a film by the studio, which teams up with AfterShock Media on the project. The God Country movie screenplay will be penned by Cates.

Legendary has announced a deal with AfterShock Media to develop a God Country movie. This marks the second collaboration between Legendary and Aftershock after the two previously teamed up to develop a film based on the comic Animosity.

Cates is set to pen the screenplay for God Country, based on his own Image Comics miniseries which centers on an old man with dementia who comes in contact with a sword of an ancient god after a tornado levels his West Texas town. The sword restores his memory and grants him god-like powers, but naturally makes him the target of the gods and otherworldly creatures who are eager to take back the sword.

Published in 2017, the six-issue series immediately won acclaim within comics circles and catapulted Cates to fame, granting him work on Marvel Comics titles like Cosmic Ghost Rider, Venom, Doctor Strange, and Thanos. I haven't read the miniseries, but /Film's Jacob Hall highly recommends God Country, which he calls "really good and really moving and written by Texas-based writer Donny Cates, who infuses it with a Texas charm that won me over and makes it feel genuinely unique."

Among the many comic book adaptations set to be adapted to the big screen, God Country sounds like it's the most unique. It's not a superhero story, nor a tongue-in-cheek riff off an established genre, but a good old fantasy story. Its story reminds me of American Gods, which received its own polarizing adaptation from Starz. But while God Country has the potential to be bogged down by world-building and CGI monsters, I appreciate a story that centers around an unlikely protagonist (a widower with dementia!) and follows a relatively straightforward road movie story.

No release date or director has yet been announced for God Country.