March 24, 2015 Ever since AMC found massive success with “The Walking Dead”, it seems that every cable network has been eager to obtain the rights to their own “third party” comic book based show. Now, another well known Image Comics series is set to be adapted to the small screen in the near future. According to an exclusive report offered by the Hollywood Reporter today (March 24), Legendary Television is set to produce a TV series based on Greg Rucka and Michael Lark’s hit comic, “Lazarus”.
After what was stated as being “a competitive bidding war”, Legendary TV and producer Matt Tolmach gained the rights to “Lazarus” and will work alongside the series’ creators to produce a pilot with the expectation of bringing it to a network (or Netflix) as a scripted TV series. Greg Rucka himself is expected to write the pilot, with Michael Lark and Matt Tolmach co-producing it. This is hardly Tolmach’s first go around with comic book properties; he helped produce the first two “Amazing Spider-Man” films for Sony.
Greg Rucka and Michael Lark are comic book creators who have seven Eisner awards between them (five and two), respectively. Greg Rucka is best known for comic book runs on “Wonder Woman”, “Punisher”, “Cyclops”, and “Gotham Central” as well as co-creating series such as “Whiteout” and “Queen & Country”. Rucka worked on the film version of “Whiteout” while “Queen & Country” has been optioned by Fox Studios. Michael Lark, meanwhile, has drawn for such series such as “Daredevil”, “Captain America”, “The Winter Soldier”, and “Gotham Central”. The duo united to create “Lazarus” in October 2013 and the series continues to sell over 15,800 copies an issue (at $3.50 an issue), making it one of Image’s best selling titles.
“Lazarus” takes place in a near future dystopia where the societies of the entire planet are ruled by sixteen super wealthy families. This is clearly different from the real world, since the societies of the real world are ruled by roughly a thousand super wealthy families. At any rate, every one of these sixteen fictional families has a genetically modified and virtually immortal enforcer called a “Lazarus”, and the series’ lead is one of them – a woman named Forever Carlyle. The series examines themes such as morality and love as Forever performs no end of actions to defend her family at all costs. One can imagine the part of Forever Carlyle being a star vehicle for one talented (and athletic) actress and the premise of the series transitions well to a TV budget. It will remain to be seen which network “Lazarus” will land on, but expect sales for the individual issues and trade collections to rise no matter what.
Courtesy of: http://www.examiner.com/article/greg-rucka-and-michael-lark-s-lazarus-is-the-latest-comic-adaptation-to-hit-tv
