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While he’s brandishing a sword at the box office to fight for Narnia now, Ben Barnes will soon be stepping out of the chain mail and into the picture frame. He’s signed on to play the title role for a new adaptation of the Oscar Wilde novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray.”

Horror fans, science fiction fans, and literati can come together finally – recognizing the story as one featuring a young man that sells his soul for eternal youth and becomes a psychopath in the process. And it will all come together with that raucous British wit that is so popular with the kids these days.

The Hollywood Reporter is Hollywood reporting that the adaptation will be made by Barnaby Thompson and Oliver Parker. Hopefully, the picture won’t be so British that we don’t get it here in the US. Also hopefully, it won’t involve a lot of quiet, knowing looks or Kiera Knightly. Maybe we can find a middle ground between Gray’s appearance in The League of Extraordinary Gentleman and Pride and Prejudice.

Now that I think of it, Pride and Prejudice could have used a drug-experimenting psychopath killer who never aged. Although, I can’t say for sure that it didn’t have one since I fell asleep for about three hours’ worth. Can anyone tell me if Mr. Darcy ends up brutally stabbing an artist to death?

Digressions aside, the park remained not knocked out of this weekend for Barnes’s Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. The movie opened with a solid $56.6 million – but far below the $80 million expectations placed on it by trackers. The sequel failed to match its prequels opening weekend numbers. Sort of bad news aside, Narnia will most likely haul in a decent pile of cash, and it looks like one of its own has already found his next project.