‘God Country’ Movie Finds Director in ‘Sweet Tooth’ Showrunner Jim Mickle

Legendary has found a director to shepherd its adaptation of God Country. Jim Mickle, the co-creator and showrunner of Netflix’s hit fantasy series Sweet Tooth, has been tapped for yet another comic adaptation as the director of God Country, based on the acclaimed Image Comics series from writer Donny Cates and artist Geoff Shaw.

Deadline reports that Jim Mickle is partnering with Legendary and AfterShock Media to helm the studio’s feature adaptation of God Country, which centers on an old man with dementia who comes in contact with a sword of an ancient god after a tornado levels his West Texas town. The sword restores his memory and grants him god-like powers, but naturally makes him the target of the gods and otherworldly creatures who are eager to take back the weapon.

God Country has been gestating at Legendary for a few years now, with the project first announced in 2018. Cates is still set to pen the screenplay adaptation of his own Image Comics miniseries, while Lee Kramer and Jon Kramer from AfterShock Media are set as producers along with Jim Mickle and Linda Moran.

Mickle is well-versed in adapting comics to the screen, recently co-writing and directing Sweet Tooth, which is based on the Vertigo comic series by Jeff Lemire. Sweet Tooth, which is produced by Team Downey, debuted on Netflix this past weekend to critical acclaim and strong word-of-mouth, likely making Mickle seems like a strong choice to Legendary. Mickle has several other movie and TV credits to his name, helming the films In the Shadow of the Moon, Cold in July, and We Are What We Are. He co-created the TV series Hap and Leonard for Sundance TV and AMC.

What is God’s Country About?

Published in 2017, the six-issue series immediately won acclaim within comics circles and catapulted Cates to fame, granting him work on Marvel Comics titles like Cosmic Ghost Rider, Venom, Doctor Strange, and Thanos.

Here’s the synopsis for God Country (via GoodReads):

In GOD COUNTRY, readers meet Emmett Quinlan, an old widower rattled by dementia. Emmett isn’t just a problem for his children–his violent outbursts are more than the local cops can handle. When a tornado levels his home–as well as the surrounding West Texas town–a restored Quinlan rises from the wreckage.

An enchanted sword at the eye of the storm gives him more than a sound mind and body, however. He’s now the only man who can face these otherworldly creatures the sword has drawn down to the Lone Star State…

I haven’t read the miniseries, but the premise feels like it shares some DNA with Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, which is a novel I liked even if the TV series adaptation fell short. Hopefully, God Country will avoid the pitfalls of adapting such an ambitious, mythic story and stand out among the glut of comic book adaptations soon to hit the big and small screen.

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