Variety is reporting that Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights, The Kingdom, Hancock) has signed on to direct and produce a film based on the Hercules: The Thracian Wars, a five-issue comic book series by Steve Moore published by Radical Comics (see “ICv2 Interviews Barry Levine, Part 1”).  Ryan Condal is writing a screenplay based on Moore’s take on the ancient hero.

The Hercules film will be produced by Spyglass Entertainment, Berg’s Film 44, and Radical Entertainment.  According to Variety Spyglass and Universal will finance the film.  Radical’s Barry Levine told Variety that the deal happened because all parties wanted to make a film that was true to the comic: “What resonated for them was that this was character driven, about a character who’s more man than god, with conflicts and redemption." 

Radical has already placed another of its properties, Sam Sarkan’s Caliber, a gun-toting reworking of the Arthurian Excalibur legend, with John Woo’s Lion Rock with Woo set to direct the adaptation (see “ICv2 Interviews Barry Levine, Part 1”).

According to Variety Radical also recently closed a deal with a privately-held Singapore company that provides funding, including money for in-house script development of Radical’s comic book properties.