Luke Skywalker and the Joker Team-up to Make Movie

Is Luke Skywalker himself—Mark Hamill—getting ready to direct a movie based on his own darkly satiric crime comic book?

That's the suggestion on The Wrap, which caught up with Hamill at a panel at Los Angeles Comedy Shorts Festival recently.

Hamill, who directed the 2004 documentary "Comic Book: The Movie" and has done considerable voice over work (including an acclaimed turn as the Joker in "Batman: The Animated Series"), told the audience at the Downtown Independent Theater he was ready to go on a project that he'd been trying to get off the ground for some time.

His partners, he added, wouldn't allow him to announce it yet because they wanted to wait until the Cannes Film Festival in May.

Then Hamill dropped numerous hints about the film: it's based on a comic book that Hamill wrote, it's set in the real world, and "at first glance it's a drama, but it has dark humor."

Considering that Hamill's writing career encompasses some stories for "The Simpsons" comics, an introduction to a Batman anthology and one major comic miniseries, "The Black Pearl," the clues made it clear that he's talking about the latter, five-part story, which he's said he wants to direct ever since its initial publication in 1996.

The Black Pearl is a crime thriller about tabloid journalism and sensationalism, the site reported.  Look for an announcement next month.  Gfest.