Nicolas Winding Refn's The Button Man Finds A New Writer

The adaptation of John Wagner's comic series Button Man: The Killing Game has surely taken its sweet time to get made. We've heard talks about a movie dating back as far as 2009, but the project got its first stroke of luck last summer when it was announced that Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn was attached to helm. We haven't heard much about the project since, as the Danish filmmaker has been busy working on the upcoming Only God Forgives with Ryan Gosling and Kristin Scott Thomas, but today we learn that the engine is now revving and the wheels are finally starting to roll.

Deadline has learned that screenwriter Matt Cook has been hired to take a new crack at the script for Button Man, which was originally drafted by Hilary Seitz and Barry Levy. The new writer doesn't have any produced films on his resume, but his script By Way of Helena was featured on the 2009 Black List and is currently set up with Mandeville Films with Australian filmmaker/actor Kieran Darcy-Smith set to direct.

From the same mind that brought you Judge Dredd, the story follows a hired gun named Harry Exton who is thrown into competition with some of the world's most dangerous killers when a group of millionaires decide that they want to play a game. Unwilling to play, Exton realizes that there is no real escape and must both fight for his life and go after the organizers. Button Man debuted in 1992 and ran for four series.

The new report doesn't mention when the project could end up before cameras.