Antoine Fuqua is negotiating with Relativity Media to direct an adaptation of Afterburn, a sci-fi comic series that centers on treasure hunters and takes place one year after of the earth’s surface is incinerated by a solar flare. Gerard Butler is negotiating to star. Despite his bad reputation that has more to do with his choice of roles than actual acting chops, Butler is a talented and versatile actor, but Fuqua’s potential involvement might serve as a problem. While the director has shown talent, directing Denzel Washington to a Best Actor Oscar in 2001 among other things, he has preferred to stay within the realm of crime-dramas, so his capability of handling a sci-fi adaptation remains to be seen. No release date has been set, but Deadline reports that Toby Jaffe, Tobey Maguire, Neal Moritz, and Jenno Topping are on board to produce. Additionally, Christian Gudegast (A Man Apart) will be rewriting the script originally written by Matt Johnson (Into the Blue).
