The film adaptation of Charles Burns’ dark coming-of-age masterpiece, “Black Hole”, has been dead for some time, but it seems there might be some new life in the project. THR reports that David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club) is set to direct (as he was perviously) under Brad Pitt’s company Plan B.

For those that don’t know, “Black Hole” takes place in a Seattle high school where a strange new sexually-transmitted infection is spreading like wild fire. The STI has varying affects on its hosts, some grow tails, some grow extra mouths, and some turn into heinous creatures. It’s my favorite comic book of all time, so it’s definitely worth checking out.

“Black Hole” has been in development hell for many years now. At one point Alexandre Aja was set to direct based on a script from Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman. That script got tossed when Fincher came on board years ago, and we don’t know who’ll write at this point.

From THR:

Some of those complex films are Andrew Domink’s Blonde, based on the Joyce Carol Oates novel about Marilyn Monroe; “history lit via a talking dog” story The Last Family of England, with Taika Waititi (Eagle vs. Shark) directing; and The Operators, based on Michael Hastings’ book that is called a “behind-the-scenes portrait of our military commanders, their high-stake maneuvers, and the politcal firestorm that shook the United States.”

And then there’s Black Hole, a “complex film” that needs “a little push” if ever there was one. This is a story with weird sex between teens, and weird physical mutations in those teens, and then weirder sex thanks to those mutations. Oh, and there’s an ugly, creeping sense of dread and alienation — the whole thing is a great representation of the sense of being an outsider, even with respect to other outsiders. If it works on screen it could be tremendous, but the adaptation won’t be easy.