HOLLYWOOD – Imagi Animation Studios, the Hong Kong- and Los Angeles-based group behind "TMNT," has acquired all rights to screenplay "Fluorescent Black."

          Script, by sci-fi writer and short film maker Matt Wilson, will first be adapted as a graphic novel to be illustrated by Nathan Fox with text by Wilson . Story is a futuristic biopunk actioner set in Singapore and the Malaysian peninsula.

"Adapting Fluorescent Black first into a graphic novel primes the property for the target audience for the film," Galen Walker, Imagi's VP of development and producer of "TMNT," said.

          Book is skedded for completion by mid-2008 and will feature on the cover of July 2008 edition of Heavy Metal magazine. Imagi has not detailed its plans for movie adaptation of the property.

          Hong Kong stock market listed company is currently in production on two $40 million movies – "Gatchaman" and "Astroboy" – both adaptations of superhero comics licensed from other publishers. "Black" is first time outfit has set its own material into development and comic book sphere.

          “We believe this project has the potential to become a huge cult phenomenon," Galen Walker, Imagi's VP of development and producer of "TMNT," Walker said.