Mattson Tomlin has lined up yet another project. After co-writing ‘The Batman’ with director Matt Reeves, Lionsgate has picked up his spec script based off of the horror graphic novel ‘Memetic.’
The premise is below:
“All hell breaks loose when a mysterious meme goes viral on a college campus, making anyone who sees it turn obsessive and violent. As the meme spreads and grows out of control, a ragtag group of students must risk everything in order to survive the viral outbreak and try to stop it.”
Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s production company Point Grey is onboard the film.
Tomlin is currently writing a ‘Mega Man’ film for the newly branded 20th Century Studios. Video game characters are having a resurgence on the big screen with properties like ‘Detective Pikachu’ and ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ being made recently. ‘Mega Man’ reunites him with directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, who helmed the upcoming Netflix movie ‘Power,’ scripted by Tomlin.
James Tynion IV, who wrote the graphic novel, also has a Batman connection. He will take over the current run of Batman comics for DC.
‘Memetic’ is definitely a timely story for todays time. Memes are becoming a form of communication, like emojis. Pair that with violence on campuses, which happens entirely too often nowadays, and you have a very relevant story. Stories with fantasy elements always have some sort of relevance to the time they are being told. To tell a horror story using memes and school violence makes sense.
With ‘The Batman’ currently filming, hype for one of Tomlin’s works is sky high. Mega Man is a popular video game character that deserves a big screen adaptation, and Tomlin just wrote the pilot for Amazon’s comic book adaptation of ‘Fear Agent.’ While ‘Memetic’ might be the smallest property of his recent projects, it still has Boom! Studios behind it, which owns the largest amount of comic properties outside of DC and Marvel.
No word on a release date, director, or a cast, as this is in the very early stages. But, this is definitely something to look forward to in the future.