You might not have heard of ‘Descender,’ but the upcoming comic book series is apparently causing quite a stir—while the first issue of the new sci-fi series doesn’t hit stands until March, Sony has already secured the rights to bring Jeff Lemire’s story to the big screen. They’re really not wasting any time with this one, are they?

Coming Soon reports that Sony has made a deal to adapt ‘Descender’ into a feature film, based on the upcoming comic by New York Times bestselling author Jeff Lemire and artist Dustin Nguyen, whose work you’ve seen in various Batman comics. Lemire and Nguyen released a statement, describing the “competitive situation” around their new comic book series, indicating that Sony wasn’t the only studio interested in the project.

The upcoming series from Image Comics is a sci-fi space opera which focuses on a young robot boy living in a future where androids have been outlawed, and his struggles to find a place for himself in the universe while avoiding bounty hunters. In this future, massive robotic planets called The Harvesters appeared seemingly out of nowhere, destroying entire planets and civilizations. Out of fear, the citizens of the galaxy blamed their robot companions for somehow causing The Harvesters to arrive. All robots and androids were outlawed, and bounty hunters called Scrappers were assigned to seek out and destroy what remained of them.

The little robot boy at the heart of the story is named TIM-21, and he might hold the key to understanding how and why The Harvesters appeared.

Based on the plot details, ‘Descender’ definitely sounds like cinematic material, with shades of Steven Spielberg—you’re probably immediately thinking of ‘A.I.,’ for obvious reasons, but let’s hope it’s a bit better than that. No writer or director has been hired just yet, but Lemire and Nguyen are remaining involved, and are attached to executive produce.

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