Comic books are hot properties to adapt to TV and film these days, particularly when you can step outside the superhero genre and mine some interesting projects. It was announced today that Warren Ellis is partnering up with Gale Anne Hurd, who has produced a lot of genre TV and film over the years including The Walking Dead, for an unspecified prjoect with Universal Cable Productions.
“I’ve been strongly drawn to television over the last few years, and working with brilliant and determined collaborators like Gale and the UCP team, I’m delighted at the opportunity to add my voice to the new, novelistic TV form that’s evolved so dramatically,” said the Ellis. “There are very few writers who have been able to so completely influence a medium as Warren has with comic books,”
In addition to that, a couple of specific comic properties are now being developed for a TV series run. NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment unit has optioned Night Mary, which was published by IDW Entertainment and created by Rick Remender and Kieron Dwyer. Universal Cable also optioned the rights to the 1930s-based Five Ghosts property, which was created by Frank Barbiere and Chris Mooneyham and funded on Kickstarter.
Five Ghosts: Meet Mary Specter, a misunderstood teenage girl trained to be a lucid dreamer. Mary’s father runs a sleep disorder clinic where Mary enters the ghastly dreams of severely disturbed people in an attempt to help them. When a patient is revealed to be a serial killer, the nightmare world and the waking one become intertwined, putting Mary in real jeopardy. Set in a world where the boundaries between dreams and reality are tenuous, Night Maryis a very dark and terrifying trip into psychological horror.
Night Mary: After a tragic encounter with an artifact known as “The Dreamstone,” infamous treasure hunter Fabian Gray is possessed by five literary ghosts and granted access to their unique abilities.