'Sweet Tooth': Robert Downey Jr. To Executive Produce Netflix Adaptation Of Vertigo Comic

Robert Downey Jr. and his Team Downey production company are heading to Netflix.

Downey Jr. and his wife and producing partner Susan Downey are set to executive produce a live-action adaptation of Sweet Tooth, a Vertigo comic series about human/animal hybrids set in a post-apocalyptic world. Jim Mickle, who's behind shows like Hap and Leonard and movies like In the Shadow of the Moon, will serve as a director and will be a co-showrunner alongside Beth Schwartz (The CW's Arrow). Get all of the details below.

Netflix has announced that a Sweet Tooth TV series is in the works, and it will be comprised of eight one-hour episodes. The show, which was once destined for Hulu before finding its home at Netflix, is based on the comic from author/artist Jeff Lemire, who has become one of the most acclaimed and accomplished comic writers working today. For us, one of the most fascinating things about this news is that Lemire's comic is a pretty dark piece of storytelling – which is a far cry from how Netflix is describing the tone of this adaptation. Here's how they characterize the show:

Sweet Tooth is the broad appeal, family-friendly, storybook adventure of Gus — part deer, part boy — who leaves his home in the forest to find the outside world ravaged by a cataclysmic event. He joins a ragtag family of humans and animal-children hybrids like himself in search of answers about this new world and the mystery behind his hybrid origins.

The cast includes: Christian Convery (Beautiful Boy, Tiger Rising, Playing With Fire), Nonso Anozie (The Laundromat, Zoo, Game of Thrones), Adeel Akhtar (Les Misérables [TV series], Victoria & Abdul, The Big Sick) and Will Forte (The Last Man on Earth, Saturday Night Live), with James Brolin (Life in Pieces, Amityville Horror, Westworld) as the voice of the narrator.

Based on their previous work, co-showrunners Jim Mickle and Beth Schwartz seem like they'll complement each other nicely here. Mickle has a bit of a dark streak, as seen in movies like Cold in July and Stake Land, so he may be able to bring a hint of the edge that is present in the original comic. And Schwartz, who has credits on Hart of Dixie and DC's Legends of Tomorrow, should be able to provide a bit of levity and heart to the characters, rounding things out into that family-friendly zone Netflix is hoping to hit.

Lemire doesn't seem to be involved with the series, but he did hint today that a new Sweet Tooth comic is in the works: