Adrian Askarieh, the producer of the Hitman action movies, has optioned the movie rights to Spencer & Locke, a comic that has been described as being Calvin & Hobbes by way of Quentin Tarantino.

Created by writer David Pepose and artist Jorge Santiago Jr., the comic tells of a detective whose former grade-school crush is found brutally murdered. The detective’s only recourse is to turn to his strange partner, who happens to be the imaginary pet tiger from his childhood.

The comic — which takes the classic idea of a childhood imaginary pet friend (smartly rendered by Bill Watterson with his acclaimed Hobbes comic strip that ran in the 1980s and 1990s) and puts it through a Frank Miller-like lens — hails from publisher Action Lab, with the first issue released in April.

Askarieh plans to package the project, then submit it to Constantin Film, the company behind the Resident Evil franchise, under the producer’s newly inked two-year first-look deal.

"I was hooked from the very first issue,” said Askarieh. “There is something darkly visceral and uniquely cinematic about what David and Jorge have created.”