Gerard Way's Movie Takes Shape

04/09/09 2:36pm

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

A film adaptation of My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way's The Umbrella Academy comic book series looks to be a bit more of a reality now, since Mark Bomback (Constantine, Live Free Or Die Hard) has signed on to write the screenplay.

The film will be released through Universal, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The magazine also reports that Mike Richardson of Dark Horse Comics, which originally released the comic series, will produce the film adaptation.

Universal optioned the series last year and, although no director has signed on to the project yet, Alfonso Cuaron had reportedly expressed interest. Way told the Los Angeles Times newspaper last year that the film could be released to theatres next year or in 2011.

Way recently told MTV News that he wants the next My Chemical Romance album to be less of a "kitchen sink" record and that he thinks "it's going to get by on its musicianship and its own merits in the songs.

"It's not going to be hiding behind a veil of fiction or uniforms and makeup anymore. From the stuff we've been playing so far, [it] just feels very pure. That's the best way to describe it.

"People who were really big fans of our first record, they'll find things they're really going to love about the new material — and not because we sound like that first record at all, it's because there's a purity to it. There's less happening."

My Chemical Romance recently contributed a cover of Bob Dylan's "Desolation Row" to the Watchmen soundtrack. Here's the video: