Ed Brubaker's Noir Graphic Novel Coward to be Adapted for Film

Ed Brubaker is adapting his own noir graphic novel Coward — which collects the first five issues of the "Criminal" series of comics, originally published in 2006 — for film. David Slade (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse) is on board to direct.

Coward is the story of Leo, a professional pickpocket who is also a legendary heist-planner and thief. But there's a catch with Leo: he won't work any job that he doesn't call all the shots on, he won't allow guns, and the minute things turn south, he's looking for any exit that won't land him in prison. But when he's lured into a risky heist, all his rules go out the window, and he ends up on the run from the cops and the bad men who double-crossed him. Now Leo must come face-to-face with the violence he's kept bottled up inside for 20 years, and nothing will ever be the same for him again.

"Coward was just a great modern story," Slade said. "It harkens back to an era of crime stories where there's really a gritty reality to it, but there's a kind of underworld haze of noir. It's not like we have to reinvent the material, to figure it out, because it already works."

(Source: Variety.)