Bane and Deathstroke Movie in the Works at DC Studios From Writer Matthew Orton

“Captain America: Brave New World” writer Matthew Orton has been tapped to write a Bane and Deathstroke movie for DC Studios, according to an insider with knowledge of the project.

No director is currently attached to the forthcoming film.

Deathstroke

Deathstroke was created by Marv Wolfman and George Perez. He is a mercenary and assassin who first appeared in the “New Teen Titans” #2 back in 1980. Wizard magazine rated him the 24th greatest villain of all time.

In 2009, Deathstroke was ranked as IGN’s 32nd greatest comic book villain of all time. Deathstroke, also known as Deathstroke the Terminator or simply Slade, is known to be the greatest assassin in all of DC Comics.

Deathstroke was meant to be a one-off villain for the Teen Titans, his story being that he took over a contract to kill the team after his son succumbed to his own superhuman enhancements. Instead, he was so well-received that he ended up evolving into one of the Titans’ most frequent adversaries.

The character became so popular that in 1991, DC gave him his own series, in which he fought Batman for the first time. In the four-part “City of Assassins,” Deathstroke takes on more of an antihero bent as he uses brutal, Punisher-esque tactics to go after a Gotham City mob boss. His hunt puts him on a collision course with Batman, whom Deathstroke defeats in combat. The two later form an uneasy alliance to root out a masked assassin who killed one of Commissioner Gordon’s men.

Under a previous DC regime, “The Raid” helmer Gareth Evans was in discussions to write and direct a standalone “Deathstroke” film, but the deal never materialized. Deathstroke was set to be played by Joe Mangianello in the Zack Snyder line of DC films before those were retooled and ultimately came to an end. He served as the Titans’ lead villain in the “Teen Titans Go” animated series, as well as playing a major villain against Green Arrow on the CW’s “Arrow.”

Bane

Created by Chuck Dixon, Graham Nolan and Dennis O’Neil and debuting in 1993, Bane in the comics world is a powerful crime lord who spent his childhood and early adulthood in a South American prison, sentenced by proxy to life imprisonment for the actions of his father, a revolutionary leader.

Surviving his brutal upbringing to become “King” of the prison, Bane was eventually forced to undergo testing of a drug called “venom.” Venom gave him incredible strength and other abilities, but at a high price: He must take the drug every 12 hours or he’ll become debilitated.

Bane eventually escaped the prison and traveled to Gotham City, wearing a costume that made him look, essentially, like a hulked-out luchador wrestler — but his mask helps conceal his means of injecting venom. He’s best known for the 1993-1994 “Knightfall” storyline, in which he breaks Batman’s back after breaking Gotham’s villains out of Arkham Asylum and Blackgate Prison.

The first live-action portrayal of Bane came in 1997’s “Batman and Robin,” in which he was played by pro wrestler Robert “Jeep” Swenson. The “Knightfall” storyline was later loosely adapted for the 2012 film “The Dark Knight Rises,” with Tom Hardy as Bane. The portrayal gave rise to the trope of Bane with his muffled voice, following criticism of director Christopher Nolan’s choice to not give the character clearer lines in the sound mix.

Orton is repped by WME, Grandview and Johnson Shapiro.

The Hollywood Reporter first reported the news.

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