Netflix is bringing an adaptation of Charles Burns’ award-winning Black Hole comics to television, with writer-director Jane Schoenbrun (I Saw the TV Glow, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair) set to adapt the story and direct.
Black Hole was released between 1995 and 2005 in a 12-issue run. Set in suburban Seattle in the mid-1970s, it focuses on a group of teenagers who contract a mysterious sexually transmitted disease known colloquially as the Bug. The disease causes visible physical mutations — tails, second mouths, horns, etc. — to anyone who contracts it, turning them into outcasts. The comic blends teenage anxiety, body horror, and sexual awakenings, and is narrated primarily by two high school-aged characters: popular well-to-do student Chris and neurotic stoner Keith (who has an unrequited crush on the former).
Here’s Netflix’s description of its Black Hole series, which is being produced by the streamer and Regency:
There’s an old myth that haunts the seemingly perfect small town of Roosevelt: If you have sex too young, you’ll contract the ‘bug,’ a virus that literally turns you into a ‘monster’ from your worst nightmares. Absurd, right? That’s what Chris always assumed, until, after one reckless night at the beginning of senior year, she finds herself infected. Now she’ll be cast out to the woods to live with the other infected, where a chilling, new threat emerges: a serial killer who’s hunting them one by one.
Black Hole has won multiple awards, including Harvey and Ignatz Awards for the series’ collected works. Burns himself has won multiple Harvey Awards for his inking; Black Hole (and Burns’ wider work) is recognized for its heavy use of ink and woodblock-like illustrative style.
Hollywood has tried, and so far failed, to adapt Black Hole multiple times. Directors Alexandre Aja (Crawl), David Fincher (The Social Network), and Rick Famuyiwa (Dope) have all been attached to previous unrealized incarnations of Black Hole.
Black Hole will be Schoenbrun’s first TV series. The show does not have an announced release date.
