Ronnie Screwvala, Vasan Bala to adapt American superhero comic The Phantom; film will go on the floors in 2020

After backing Vicky Kaushal-starrer  The Immortal Ashwatthama , Ronnie Screwvala is reportedly moving on to producing another superhero film, which will revolve around the narrative of American adventure comic strip The Phantom, reports Mirror. The superhero character is a crime fighter and operates from the fictional African country of Bangalla. The film will be directed by Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota helmer Vasan Bala. The report adds that Bala had been playing around with the idea of developing a feature based on Phantom. Screwvala immediately came on board after he heard the filmmaker’s idea of it. The film will hit the floors in the latter half of 2020 and both Bala and Screwvala have obtained the official screen adaptation rights for it. Vasan has even reportedly begun his research on the story. [caption id=“attachment_7831191” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Ronnie Screwvala and Vasan Bala will collaborate on an adaptation of American superhero series The Phantom[/caption] Phantom had started off as a daily newspaper strip on 17 February, 1936. The character has gained considerable popularity from then on, having been adapted for television, film and video games. The odd part of Phantom is the fact that he possesses no specific superpowers but is instead completely reliant on his intelligence, strength, and myth of immortality to combat evil. Ronnie’s The Immortal Ashwatthama is touted as an action-based superhero flick set in modern times with Kaushal playing the titular role. Aditya Dhar who has been in the US for the last five months working on the film’s script and meeting VFX studios revealed that the film will begin production in mid-2020. He will reunite with his Uri: The Surgical Strike  actor in this film. Dhar said that he has carefully planned Kaushal’s appearance for the film and that it would involve the actor gaining and losing a lot of weight throughout the film. He also stated that Kaushal’s appearance for the film would come across as a surprise for fans.