Bendis: 'Torso movie not dead'

Celebrated comic book writer Brian Bendis has revealed that the movie adaptation of his graphic novel Torso could be back on.

Paramount originally held the rights to the crime drama before allowing them to expire in January. David Fincher was attached to direct, with Matt Damon, Casey Affleck and Rachel McAdams in line to star in the picture.

In an interview with MTV, Bendis announced that the project could be moving ahead once again. "Last December, we got the green light... and then three days later there was no green light," he said.

"Imagine you get a call, you won the lottery... [then] no, you didn't. It's much worse than never getting the call. It was a very exciting moment, and then it went away.

"The rights reverted back to [co-creator Marc Andreyko] and myself, and it all kind of went away," he added. "Now, not so much. Things are percolating back and movement is afoot behind the scenes to get it going again with all the principals, so... we'll see what happens."

The graphic novel follows a post-Untouchables Elliot Ness as he tracks the Cleveland Torso Murderer, a real-life serial killer who was active between 1934 and 1938. It was originally published as a six-issue limited series by Image Comics.