Locke and Key Poster - P 2013
IDW is trying its hand at a TV adaptation of beloved comic book Locke & Key.
Five years after Fox teamed with prolific producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci as well as Steven Spielberg and Amblin, the comic book publisher will try its hand again at the drama — with series creator Joe Hill attached to pen the script.
Locke & Key follows the Locke family as they encounter magic beyond belief and evils beyond redemption. More than a million copies have been sold worldwide, with the title adapted in dozens of languages.
Joe Hill will pen the script for the project, which is being developed in-house before being taken out to potential networks/cablers. IDW’s Ted Adams and David Ozer as well as Circle of Confusion’s David Alpert (The Walking Dead) and Rick Jacobs will executive produce alongside Hill. IDW Entertainment, via its recent push into scripted with Circle of Confusion, plans on developing the project as a straight-to-series model and will retain worldwide rights.
“I love this story,” said Hill. “The seven years I spent working on Locke & Key was the happiest creative experience of my life and there still isn’t a day when I don’t think about those characters and miss visiting with them. The six books of the series are very like six seasons of a cable TV series, and so it feels only natural to bring that world to the little screen and to see if we can’t scare the pants off viewers everywhere.”
Fox previously attempted to bring the comic to life during the 2010-11 broadcast season, with Josh Friedman penning the script. Produced by 20th Century Fox Television, the drama went to pilot with Mark Pellegrino, Miranda Otto, Jesse McCartney, Sarah Bolger and Nick Stahl attached.
While the fan-favorite project was passed over, it was eventually screened as a one-off at Comic-Con 2014. Kurtzman and Orci subsequently set up a feature trilogy based on Locke & Key at Universal in 2013.
