CCI: Dreamworks Snaps Up Oni's "The Dammed" & "Courtney Crumrin"

It's only Wednesday night, but things are already starting to heat up and the deals are coming fast and furious at Comic-Con International in San Diego. Movie casting news with the "Watchmen" film finally filling most of its major roles, feature film directors deciding to make a graphic novel adaptation their next project, in the case of Guy Ritchie and a "Gamekeeper" feature and graphic novels getting snapped up by major studios. All of these announcements, and so much more, serve to help make Comic-Con the unique event it is. One of the major studio acquisition announcements already coming out of the Con concerns two graphic novel titles from Portland-based Oni Press.

This evening during Preview night at Comic-Con, CBR News got the heads up that Oni's titles "The Dammed" and "Courtney Crumrin" had today been aquired by Paramount-based Dreamworks Pictures for producers Walter Parkes and Laurie McDonald. Also producing with Parkes and McDonald is Eric Gitter of Closed on Mondays Entertainment, Oni Press' film production arm. These latest projects join Oni's other titles already in development around Hollywood including "Scott Pilgrim" and "Leading Man" at Universal.

In addition to its titles being produced by the studios, Oni is also venturing out on its own and producing a bigscreen adaptation of its "Seasons of Dust" graphic novel with actor Tim Blake Nelson set to direct. "Courtney Crumrin," an ongoing series written and illustrated by Ted Naifeh, revolves around a charming misfit who discovers magic in her uncle's library after she's uprooted by her social climbing parents and forced to move to a new city.

"The Damned," a supernatural horror-thriller series written by Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt, concerns rival gangs who are forced to team-up to fight an ever more dangerous foe: a pack of evil roaming demons. No word yet on writers or directors for these two films but as fast as these titles were snapped up, perhaps those details will be forethcoming during the next four days of the Con.

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