Virgin Comics, a collaboration between Virgin Books and India-based comics publisher Gotham Entertainment, announced on Aug. 27 that it is closing its New York offices and will reorganize its operations, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Citing "the current macro-economic downturn," the company, under CEO Sharad Devarajan and president Suresh Seetharaman, said it hopes to restructure the business and consolidate its operations in Los Angeles.

The partnership between Sir Richard Branson, Deepak Chopra and director Shekhar Kapur was launched in 2006 with a series of comics inspired by Indian/Hindu mythology. It later moved into a line known as Director's Cut, which attempted to lure filmmakers into the comic world in the hopes of subsequently getting the books set up as film projects.

Some of the contributors to the line include Guy Ritchie, John Woo, Nicolas Cage, Ed Burns and musician Dave Stewart. A feature adaptation of Ritchie's comic The Gamekeeper is currently in development at Warner Brothers.

Despite the slick look of the comics, the titles have suffered low sales and Virgin remains a marginal publisher in the comic-book arena. The future of the film projects is unclear, though the company did say it would not remain idle.