Oblivion Song: Jake Gyllenhaal to star in Robert Kirkman adaptation

Two years ago, it was announced that an adaptation of The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman’s sci-fi comic book series Oblivion Song was in the works at Universal Pictures. That version of the adaptation apparently had trouble getting off the ground, because the rights have now been acquired by New Republic Pictures – and Jake Gyllenhaal has to signed on to star in and produce the feature film.

Gyllenhaal will be producing Oblivion Song through his company Nine Stories, which has a first-look deal at New Republic. Kirkman will also be producing the film through his company Skybound Entertainment, alongside Riva Marker, David Alpert, Bryan Furst, and Sean Furst.

Written by Kirkman and illustrated by Lorenzo De Felici, Oblivion Song tells the following story:

The premise is that 300,000 people in the city of Philadelphia were on a land mass that basically switched places with a land mass in a different dimension that eventually came to be known as Oblivion. Our story takes place 10 years after this incident and follows a scientist, Nathan Cole, who invented technology that allows him to pass between dimensions. He was tasked with leading a strike team that would go into Oblivion and rescue people, but as they started catching fewer and fewer people, the government eventually shut the program down and stopped funding it. Because his brother is still left in Oblivion, Nathan kind of keeps his equipment running on like a tape-and-chewing-gum budget, and keeps going into Oblivion every day to try and find more and more people until he hopefully finds him.”

Issue #33 of Oblivion Song reached store shelves today. The series will be coming to its planned end with the publication of issue #36.

Kirkman had this to say about the adaptation deal:

We couldn’t be more excited to find such great partners in New Republic and Nine Stories. Both companies have a tremendous reputation for premium storytelling at the highest level, and we can’t wait to see Jake bring this character to life on the big screen. We are so fortunate to have assembled a team that is as passionate about this comic as we are.”

Marker provided the following statement:

When faced with a cataclysmic event that permanently alters our lives, what would we choose to save? Just as Kirkman did with ‘The Walking Dead’ and ‘Invincible,’ in ‘Oblivion Song,’ he’s created the potential for a franchise that is profoundly entertaining, and the perfect opportunity to explore big questions we’re reckoning with globally.”

New Republic’s Brian Oliver and Bradley Fischer said Oblivion Song is “a rare combination of spectacle, originality, and masterful, multivolume storytelling”.

I haven’t read an issue of Oblivion Song, but the concept sounds interesting and it will be cool to watch Gyllenhaal deal with this sort of subject matter.