Legendary Pictures has acquired the rights to Warren Ellis’ Gravel comic book series, which is published by Avatar Press. Ellis created the character of “combat magician” William Gravel, a S.A.S. commando who is also skilled in the occult arts, in 1999. Avatar Press collected the early appearances of the character (including all the Strange Kiss and Strange Killings mini-series) in Gravel: Never a Dull Day, a mammoth 576-page volume published in August of 2008. Avatar began publishing a new series, Gravel, in December of 2007. A first Gravel trade paperback collection, Gravel Vol.1: Bloody Liars, was released in March and a second volume, Gravel Vol.2: The Major Seven is slated to debut in December.
According to Variety, Ellis will write the first draft of the screenplay for Gravel and “serve as executive producer on the project.” Ellis has Red, which will star Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman, in pre-production at
