Jeff Lemire has a lot of comic book film and TV properties on the horizon and we look into what we can expect from them.
Canadian comic creator Jeff Lemire is a made man on the shelves. His creator-owned series have been nominated for awards while his work for Marvel and DC is regarded as some of the best from the big two in the last decade. Now four of his original series are being adapted for television.
As of writing this, there is no definitive timetable for if and when these projects will go into production. Being optioned for TV or film is not a guarantee that we will see a pilot, and some of these projects were first reported more than 2 years ago. But Lemire’s track record as an engaging storyteller has fans waiting with bated breath for more information.
Sweet Tooth – Netflix
An eight-episode miniseries based on Sweet Tooth was announced in May with Robert Downey Jr.’s production company, Team Downey, heading the project.
https://twitter.com/RobertDowneyJr/status/1260299100492201985?s=20
Jim Mickle (Stake Land, Cold in July) is tapped to write and direct with Beth Schwartz (Arrow, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow) on board as an executive producer. The show will follow the story of Gus, played by Christian Convery (Playing With Fire), a young boy/deer hybrid as he ventures away from his home in the woods for the first time.
Nonso Anozie (Artemis Fowl) will co-star as Jepperd – a mysterious hunter that discovers Gus in the woods and promises to bring him to The Preserve, a safe zone for human/animal hybrids. The pair must navigate a post-apocalyptic version of Nebraska after a sickness of apocalyptic proportions has ravaged the human population.
Will Forte and James Brolin are also set to appear.
Sweet Tooth debuted for DC Comics Vertigo in 2009. DC announced Sweet Tooth: The Return in August. Lemire will team with artist Jose Villarubia (Promethea) in what DC is calling a “bold re-imagining of the Sweet Tooth mythology.” The first issue is slated to release on Nov. 3.
Gideon Falls
Sticking with the theme of partnering with Hollywood heavyweights, Jeff Lemire’s Gideon Falls will be produced by James Wan’s production company Atomic Monster. Wan himself is no stranger to comic books as he directed Aquaman and his production company is set to produce a HBO Max animated spin-off.
Gideon Falls features two parallel tales that converge over an otherworldly black barn. Norton is a mental health patient living in a modern city, Gideon Falls. Along with his therapist, Dr. Xu, Norton searches the city’s trash for pieces of the black barn and answers to the mystery. Meanwhile, Father Wilfred arrives in a small, rural town after the death of its last pastor, but it seems the pastor may not be as dead as he thought. He is led to the black barn in the middle of the night, thrusting him into the middle of a puzzling conspiracy theory. The small town, Gideon Falls.
Very few details are available about the sci-fi horror series as of yet, but the ongoing comic series by Lemire and artist Andrea Sorrentino will conclude with its 27th issue in December. Gideon Falls is an Eisner Award winning comic by Image Comics that has been running since 2018. It was quickly optioned by Hivemind in June 2018, just four months after the release of issue #1.
Essex County – CBC
In January, Jeff Lemire took to Twitter to stir up some excitement about one of his first announced TV adaptations, Essex County. Lemire posted a photo of a script, presumably for the pilot episode.
The collection of short stories was picked up for the Canadian Broadcast Network in 2015. The show has been discussed as a potential miniseries, which would make some sense based on the format of the graphic novel.
Essex County is a collection of three stories: Tales from the Farm, Ghost Stories, and The Country Nurse which was published by Top Shelf beginning in 2008.
Black Hammer
Perhaps one of Jeff Lemire’s most ambitious comics, Black Hammer has spawned a budding universe ripe for spin-offs and even a crossover with DC’s Justice League. In 2018, it was announced that Legendary Entertainment would develop Black Hammer for live-action films and television. The projects would act as a shared universe.
Black Hammer is about a team of superheroes displaced from their home in Spiral City to a small farm on the outskirts of a small town. The team blends in as a normal family, hiding their identities and extraordinary abilities from the world around them. All while trying to find their way home.
There is no word on casting or a director, but Lemire and Black Hammer artist Dean Ormston have weighed in on some dream castings of their own. Lemire opined to Forbes that Ron Perlman (Hellboy) would be an ideal fit for the lead role of Abraham Slam, a Captain America type head of the household. Ormston added Famke Janssen to the mix as Madame Dragonfly, a mystical sorceress.
A pilot script is still in the works.
Debuting in 2016, Black Hammer is an ongoing series published by Dark Horse.
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