Gary Whitta is on what you’d call a roll lately. After being hired to write one of the upcoming Star Wars standalone films (to be directed by Godzilla helmer Gareth Edwards), it was announced today that he’d be adapting Mark Millar‘s graphic novel Starlight for Twentieth Century Fox. The comic, written by Millar and illustrated by Goran Parlov, hit stores in March under the Image comics banner and is intended to be a six-part miniseries (issue number five arrived last month). Millar has called the material a mash-up of Flash Gordon and The Dark Knight Returns.

We already knew that Fox was tackling the project and that Simon Kinberg, the comic gatekeeper over there, would be producing. But Whitta’s hire is significant in that he’s highly in demand and his involvement signals faith in the material all around. Hit the jump for more.

THR broke the news of Whitta’s involvement. Here’s the official synopsis for Starlight:

Forty years ago, Duke McQueen saved an alien world from destruction. Back on earth, nobody believed his story. Now his kids are grown, his wife has passed on, and life has little to offer. Until the day a strange boy from the world he once saved makes an appearance, coaxing Duke to join him on one last adventure. Can Duke handle the leap from has-been to hero?

Have any of you guys had a chance to read Millar’s graphic novel? I’m curious how different it is in a tonal sense from his more well known stuff like Kick-Ass. If it’s a legit space opera, I imagine Whitta will be emerging from his prior commitment with just the right mindset to nail it on the head. If it’s not like that, it will be interesting to see how Whitta’s sensibilities apply as well.