‘Blue Beetle’ Movie in the Works at DC, Warner Bros.

By Dave McNary

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – and Warner Bros. are developing the superhero movie “Blue Beetle,” based on the Mexican-American comic book character Jaime Reyes.

The studio has tapped Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, who wrote Universal’s “Scarface” remake , to pen the “Blue Beetle” screenplay. Zev Foreman is executive producing the film for Warner Bros.

The original Blue Beetle character, which debuted in 1939, had superpowers derived from a sacred scarab. He first manifested himself as Dan Garrett, a police officer who fought crime with superpowers. The second version of Blue Beetle was Ted Kord, Garrett’s student who continued costumed crime-fighting, but had no superpowers.

Reyes was created by Keith Giffen, John Rogers, and Cully Hamner, and made his first appearance in a 2006 comic, when he discovered the Blue Beetle scarab — which came alive, grafted itself to the base of his spine, and provided him with a suit of extraterrestrial armor. Reyes worked with Kord’s former teammate and best friend, Booster Gold, and was inducted into the Teen Titans. The “Blue Beetle” series of comic books was launched in 2011 and canceled after 17 issues in 2013.

Warner Bros. launched the DC Extended Universe of movies in 2013 with “Man of Steel,” followed by “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” “Wonder Woman,” “Justice League,” and the upcoming “Aquaman.”

If the “Blue Beetle” project becomes an actual movie, it would mark the first DC standalone film with a Latino lead. Dunnet-Alcocer is represented by WME and Michael Schenkman at Bloom Hergott. The news was first reported by The Wrap.