HBO has acquired U.S. rights to Leah Wolchok’s documentary Very Semi-Serious: A Partially Thorough Portrait Of New Yorker Cartoonists, with the pic premiering on the network December 7 following an Oscar-qualifying theatrical run starting November 20 in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The pic, which had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, offers a window into single-panel cartoon king The New Yorker, offering up a glimpse into the process behind their creation. The pic follows cartoon editor Bob Mankoff as he sifts through hundreds of submissions and pitches every week.

Wolchok also produced her feature debut alongside Davina Pardo. Regina K. Scully, Deborah Shaffer and the late Bruce Sinofsky are executive producers and Joanna Sokolowski co-produced. Cinetic Media repped the the deal on behalf of the filmmakers.

The Power/Rangers fan film and The Grey producer Adi Shankar is set to make his directorial debut alongside Stewart Yost on Adi Shankar’s Gods And Secrets. The “dark” drama will mine territory similar to Alan Moore’s Watchmen, exploring the darker logical underpinnings of superhero tropes. In a world in which superheroes exist, personal foibles and the resulting celebrity culture are front and center. In the story, tragedy has struck the superheroic team Guardians of Justice, and in its aftermath secrets are revealed, lives are changed, and the war to end all wars begins.

WWE’s Diamond Dallas Page, Jackson Rathbone (Twilight Saga), Kellan Lutz, Sharni Vinson and Andy Milonakis star. Created by Shankar, Jenni Powell (The Lizzie Bennet Diaries), and Shawn Deloache (New Adventures of Peter and Wendy), it’s produced by Discourse Media. Rathbone has also signed on a producer.