After 20 years of development hell and false starts, Charles Burns’ Black Hole is finally making its way to the screen, courtesy of Netflix. Even better, the streamer has hired the perfect filmmaker for its series adaptation of Burns’ seminal graphic novel, which follows a group of Seattle teens who undergo strange physical mutations after contracting a sexually transmitted infection. Per Variety, Netflix has given a six-episode series order to Black Hole, based on the acclaimed graphic novel by Charles Burns. Set in 1970s Seattle, the story follows a group of teenagers whose bodies undergo radical, disturbing changes after they contract a sexually transmitted infection known as “The Bug.” The original comic-book run comprised 12 issues, published between 1995 and 2005, and became a massive cult hit, inspiring a wave of adaptation attempts from filmmakers including David Fincher and Alexandre Aja. Fincher’s adaptation is one of the great what ifs of his career, but Netflix has arguably found someone even better for the job: Jane Schoenbrun, the visionary filmmaker behind I Saw the TV Glow and We’re All Going to the World’s Fair. Schoenbrun shared the news on her personal X account, reposting Discussing Film’s tweet and describing the adaptation as a “lifelong dream project.” The filmmaker will write and direct all six episodes, with Plan B on board to produce.

Schoenbrun, who most recently released the surreal 2024 psycho-drama masterpiece I Saw the TV Glow, is one of our most compelling and visionary modern filmmakers. One of few artists who could be seen as a successor to David Lynch, Schoenbrun’s work is provocative and probing, transforming intensely personal stories into movies that are deeply relatable. Black Hole really fits in her wheelhouse, and I can’t wait to see how she translates Burns’ story into a series. Here’s the official logline, courtesy of Netflix:
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’s Long Road to the Screen

Fantagraphics

Black Hole became a cult hit, thanks in part to Burns’ arresting black-and-white illustrations. Included throughout the graphic novel edition are portraits of the various teen characters, in which Burns captures the surrealist body horror of their condition: lumps, boils, and receding lips on otherwise clean and happy young faces. The style and tone of Black Hole are so distinctive, and it’s easy to see why so many filmmakers were drawn to adapting the graphic novel. In 2006, less than a year after the final issue was published and the same year his remake of The Hills Have Eyes hit theaters, French director Alexandre Aja signed on to direct an adaptation of Black Hole, based on a screenplay by Pulp Fiction scribe Roger Avary and fantasy author Neil Gaiman. The following year, future Rupert Sanders released an 11-minute live-action short based on the graphic novel, as a sort of proof of concept, on his website. Sanders went on to make his feature debut six years later with Snow White and the Huntsman, and his subsequent films – Ghost in the Shell and 2024’s The Crow – might make fans of Black Hole feel grateful that he wasn’t given the greenlight for a proper big-screen adaptation. David Fincher came on board in 2008, scrapping Avary and Gaiman’s script (of course) as the project moved over to Paramount. But Fincher ended up ditching the project by 2010, when he moved on to another adaptation: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Since then, Black Hole has remained in development limbo, with indie filmmaker Rick Famuyiwa briefly signing on to direct an adaptation produced by Brad Pitt’s Plan B back in 2018. Any one of those adaptations might’ve been great, or at least interesting, but Schoenbrun’s involvement and Netflix’s investment in a six-episode series – giving the novel its proper due – is the most exciting possible outcome.

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