Comics On The Small Screen

Television is changing its face and format. Many alternatives for TV already exist for TV appropriate content, like Netflix and Amazon, who are also developing original series like Bosch and The After. The video game platform Playstation, by Sony Entertainment, will be used to exhibit an adaptation of Powers, the comic series by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming.

Xbox will be used as an original content platform by Microsoft to enter in this new market. Xbox Entertainment Studios will adapt the romance comic, Gun Machine, by Warren Ellis, and Winterworld, by Chuck Dixon and Jorge Zaffino, by IDW, as a TV series. The new content will be distributed through the Xbox Originals program.

Aside from these two programs, another ten series are in development by Xbox Entertainment Studios.

Gun Machine will be executively produced by Warren Ellis, together with Brett Conrad, from The Killing and Sons of Anarchy. The story takes place in New York and follows a string of crimes involving a bizarre assassin.

In Winterworld, the world is frozen solid, stuck in an eternal winter, and the survivors organize themselves in tribes who are fighting over the little resources left over. The production team includes Ted Adams(CEO of IDW), David Ozer, Rick Jacobs, and Dave Alpert.

The other series in development include: Deadlands, based on an RPG by Shane Lacy Hensley; Extraordinary Believer, a product of the Robot Chicken team; Fearless is a project of an Australian producer, and a comedy, currently without a set title, from the comedy team JASH(founded by Sarah Silverman, Michael Cera, Tim an Eric, and Reggie Watts).

(Original article: Histórias de Warren Ellis e Chuck Dixon serão adaptadas para TV pela XBox Entertainment, by Sergio Codespoti, on April 29, 2014. Reprinted and translated with permission by UniversoHQ)

Television is still a big place to see comic book series adapted, but it is no longer the only venue. SyFy channel announced today at their close-up presentation they will be adapting four comic book programs for TV. Frank Miller’s Ronin (DC Comics miniseries, 1983) is being produced by Warner Horizon Television and DC Entertainment. The ronin is a samurai from the 13th century looking for his nemesis in today’s world. Pax Romana, a 2007 miniseries written by Jonathan Hickman for Image Comics has Stephen Scalia (Warehouse 13) and David Alpert (The Walking Dead), and Hickman acting as executive producers. It tells the story of a time traveling group that needs to go back in time to Ancient Rome to prevent a third World War. Clone, written by Juan Jose Ryp for Skybound Entertainment/Image Comics, will be produced by Alpert and Robert Kirkman(creator of The Walking Dead). It will be written by David Schulner (Dracula). Clone is about Luke Taylor, a doctor who just discovered he is part of a cloning project. Letter 44, by Alberto Alburquerque for Oni Press, will go into production by Universal Television and Universal Cable Productions with Jonathan Mostow (Terminator 3) as writer, producer and director. Letter 44 is about a new president who is bequeathed a letter with information regarding aliens in an asteroid belt that NASA astronauts are currently investigating. Stay tuned to Culture of Comics for more information!