Amazon's 'Eight Billion Genies' Adaptation Gets 'Extremely Positive' Update From Charles Soule

Prime Video and Amazon Studios as a whole have become a bit of a home for comic book adaptations outside of the titans of Marvel and DC. Between Invincible and The Boys, the streamer hosts the two most popular mature superhero adaptations on television. That's just the beginning of the Amazon platform's plans, though, with adaptations of more Image Comics series on the way, including Stillwater, featuring The Conjuring: Last Rites breakout star Ben Hardy, and Sex Criminals, led by Imogen Poots and John Reynolds. Perhaps forgotten among the series of in-development titles is the Eight Billion Genies movie, which Prime Video picked up at the height of its popularity in mid-2022.

Created by Marvel Comics veteran Charles Soule and Ryan Browne, Eight Billion Genies ran for eight issues from 2022 through 2023, asking one simple question: What if everyone on Earth suddenly had a genie that could grant them one wish? From there, chaos ensues as people race to make their fantasies reality, while others grapple with their ever-changing world and what to use their wish on. Filled with drama, heart, and pure insanity, it primarily centers on a group of strangers who just so happen to be in a small Michigan bar when the genies arrive. Amazon Studios quickly snapped it up in an ambitious deal with hopes of making a cross-media universe, starting with a film and moving to series and more. It wasn't until 2024, though, that reports surfaced of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's Point Gray banner coming aboard to produce, alongside a writer in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Oscar winner Rodney Rothman, and since then, things have been mostly quiet.

That was until FanX Salt Lake City, where Collider's Maggie Lovitt asked Soule in an interview about the status of Eight Billion Genies. Not only did he confirm Point Gray's involvement, but he shared that Rothman is several drafts deep into the development process. Soule and Browne, who are executive producers on the film, recently read it over the summer and are now in a holding pattern, but from the sound of it, hopes on all sides are that these genies begin shipping out sooner rather than later.

"The latest update on Eight Billion Genies is that Amazon Studios has been developing it as a film with Point Gray as the producer. So that's Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and those guys. They have been working very hard on it. Rodney Rothman wrote a phenomenal script that Ryan and I got to read in June. Actually, we read the latest draft, which I think was the — I don't know — it's several drafts in, so it's very polished. It's a hell of a script, and now we're just waiting to see what happens next. So, everything so far has been extremely positive. The talent behind the scenes on it is, you know, it's like your dream come true. So I don't know. We all love Eight Billion Genies. Everybody on both sides, whether it's Amazon or Point Gray or, obviously, Ryan and myself and I think we'd all love to see it on a screen sometime soon."

The 'Eight Billion Genies' Script Evolves Its Source Material

+2

Having seen Amazon's success in adapting other comics, especially fellow Image series Invincible, Soule feels comfortable having his and Browne's series in their hands. However, it will never not feel "extremely surreal" in his mind to see his work come to life, and he expects the same feeling with Eight Billion Genies. He reflected on his experience watching the serial killer Muse, whom he created with artist Ron Garney in their Daredevil run, be adapted to Disney+'s Daredevil: Born Again with such stunning accuracy to the comics that he almost felt uncomfortable.

"Ron and I created this character named Muse. We did a big run on Daredevil together, which essentially was basically one-to-one adapted for the Daredevil: Born Again show. And so we both got to go to the set. We got to see the way the props people put together Muse's lair. Like, it is very surreal because it's lived in your head, and then it lives on the page, but it really is mostly living in conversations with Ron, and then to see other people interpreting it was wild. It was weird, but then you get this real sense of, I don't know... You feel like you're being honored, almost because of how respectful they were when they did it. They didn't, you know. Muse looks like Muse. His lair looks like his lair. It was amazing. David Mack, who's another incredible artist friend, did all of Muse's, like, art pieces in the show. Which, I mean, David Mack's incredible. The fact that they got him to do that. I don't know. It felt great, but it's also always a little bit weird, to be honest."

However, Rothman's plans for Eight Billion Genies aren't as one-to-one as that. "Reading the scripts for Eight Billion Genies is like, well, this is the story that Ryan and I made, but it's also not," Soule continued. For him and Browne, there was an undeniable feeling that they were letting go of their baby and letting someone else apply their vision so drastically that it no longer felt like theirs. While that was a scary experience, he's still a fan of the direction Rothman is taking, applying experience not just from the Spider-Verse, but also from 22 Jump Street and beyond.

"Rodney, who's incredible, did a great job. He made choices, and you have to make choices when you're adapting to another medium, and it's fine. But it felt like, you know, like Through the Looking Glass a little bit, like this is our thing, but it's also not our thing, and so there's a little bit of a letting go you have to do, but also it's kind of awesome. I mean, Rodney, who won an Oscar, right, for writing screenplays. We could do a lot worse."

Eight Billion Genies remains in development at Amazon Studios. Stay tuned here at Collider for more on the film adaptation as news comes out. You can watch Lovitt's full conversation with Soule below.