Today's Film News: By the Hammer of Thor!

By Katey Rich

We've seen God knows how many takes on Hercules and his fellow Greek myths, but as is the vogue these days, it's time for a comic-book spin on the whole thing. Peter Berg (Hancock) will direct Hercules: The Thracian Wars, an adaptation of the five-issue comic book by Steve Moore that debuted this year. Variety says that Spyglass Entertainment and Universal will co-finance the film.

Here, I'll just tell you the concept of Bryan Singer's upcoming producing project, Capeshooters, and you can guess the source material: Two paparazzi follow a group of superheroes who have discovered that one of their leaders is actually a villain. You'll have to check the Variety piece to see if you're right, since I can barely bring myself to type the C-B word in these items anymore. Aren't there regular books, without pictures, we can base movies on anymore?

Oh look! Here's a real, live adaptation of a book with absolutely zero pictures. Moritz Berman and Peter Graves, the producers of the upcoming Terminator: Salvation among others, have optioned the rights to The Seven Sins: The Tyrant Ascending, a crime thriller by Jon Land. The owner of the book's rights, Fabrizio Boccardi, is a Las Vegas entrepreneur who plans to build a casino with the same name as the one in the novel, which has to eventually be protected from terrorist attacks. Happily The Hollywood Reporter doesn't mention any further plans to make life imitate art.

And finally, the bad news keeps coming in the world of independent film financing. Netflix's Red Envelope Entertainment, which funded indie projects with promise of exclusive DVD and online streaming rights for the DVD rental service, has shut down. The Hollywood Reporter says the company's reason for closing was that it was in competition with Hollywood studio partners-- which means, it seems, the independent film pie is getting even smaller for anyone but the biggest players.