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Sylvain White ("Stomp the Yard") has been set to direct "The Losers," an adaptation of the DC-Vertigo comicbook about a band of black ops commandos who are set up to be killed by their own government. They barely survive and set out to get even.

The James Vanderbilt-scripted project had been developed as a Warner Bros./Legendary Pictures co-production, but it heads toward an early 2009 production start with Dark Castle Entertainment taking the position of financier.

WB will distribute in a scenario similar to that for the recent release of Guy Ritchie's "RocknRolla."

Dark Castle's Joel Silver is in the process of joining Weed Road's Akiva Goldsman and Kerry Foster as producers.

Andy Diggle and his artist collaborator, Jock, created �The Losers� for DC Comics imprint Vertigo in 2003. Diggle and Jock each hold an equity stake in the comic�s characters. Gregory Noveck, who oversees DC Comics film transformations, will be involved in a producing capacity.

White, who last directed the Screen Gems hit "Stomp the Yard," takes on "The Losers" as his next project as he continues to develop an adaptation of the Frank Miller graphic novel "Ronin" for WB; "Static" at Columbia Pictures; and "Castlevania," a live-action adaptation of the Konami vampire videogame. "Castlevania" got close to a production start through Rogue Pictures and Crystal Sky Entertainment but was derailed because the script needed work and the WGA went on strike.