Chris Meloni - Getty - H 2016
Getty ImagesChris Meloni is headed to Syfy.
The Law & Order: SVU alum is set to star in the cabler’s adaptation of Grant Morrison’s graphic novel Happy!, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
Ordered to pilot in September, Happy! centers on Nick Sax (Meloni) — an intoxicated, corrupt ex-cop turned hit man — who is adrift in a world of casual murder, soulless sex and betrayal. Once a rock-star detective for a major metropolitan police force, Nick lost it all. Now he’s a broken, down-and-out hired killer that makes just enough money to support a steady diet of booze, drugs and sarcasm by carrying out hits for the mob. After a hit gone wrong, Nick’s life is forever changed by a tiny, relentlessly positive, imaginary blue-winged horse.
Meloni also will executive produce the pilot.
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Based on the New York Times best-selling graphic novel from Morrison (Batman, The Invisibles) and Darick Robertson, Morrison and Brian Taylor (Crank, Gamer) will write the pilot, which Taylor will also direct.
Morrison and Taylor will exec produce with Neal Moritz, Pavun Shetty and Toby Jaffe of Original Film (The Fast and the Furious). Meloni’s longtime manager Bill Butler also is attached as a producer. The project hails from Universal Cable Productions.
Happy! is Meloni’s latest small-screen role since leaving SVU in 2011. He currently stars on WGN America’s slavery drama Underground and is set to direct a season-two episode. The actor also is returning for the upcoming second season of Netflix’s Wet Hot American Summer. Meloni will next be seen on the big screen in the untitled Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn mother-daughter comedy due out in May. He is repped by Industry Entertainment and Gersh.
Meloni is the latest impressive get for UCP, which also has the USA Network drama pilot The Sinner starring Jessica Biel in her first TV role in nearly a decade.
