Guy Ritchie is a major filmmaker in many ways. He's got the big Christmas release Sherlock Holmes coming up, he found success with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and he used to be married to Madonna, for Christ's sake.

But now he's gotten a gig that's pretty much the signifier of Major Director status-- the comic book movie. According to Variety Ritchie will direct Lobo, a live-action adaption of the DC Comics series about a seven-foot tall, bright blue alien bounty hunter. But probably not the kind of seven-foot-tall blue person you've been seeing in Avatar.

Production is set to begin early next year, meaning this will be Ritchie's follow-up to Holmes. Having not read the comics I have no idea what to expect, but I am bizarrely intrigued by the notion of Ritchie operating in space. Will everyone still have a cockney accent? Will there be handguns? He'd just better take advantage of that final frontier.