Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky’s Eisner Award winning comic series Sex Criminals is heading to television. Fraction and his wife/fellow comic book heavyweight Kelly Sue DeConnick will adapt the fun, clever, and sexy critical darling under a new two year development deal that they signed with Universal TV, according to Deadline.
Under the pact, the married duo will adapt some of their comic books as well as original TV series concepts. They also plan to use their Milkfed Criminal Masterminds production company as a TV launchpad for other comic creators’ IP.
Fraction and DeConnick have proven themselves to be two of the comic industry’s brightest and most acclaimed talents over the last few years, so a push into television — which Fraction briefly visited when he penned an episode of Da Vinci’s Demons — could yield some highly interesting and imaginative television if things go right.
Though Sex Criminals is, at its heart, a story about two people who stop time when they f*ck and decide to rob banks, Sex Criminals shouldn’t be considered a lock to wind up on pay-cable. The title and that bare synopsis has often lead to a misconception about the book. It’s not some kind of porny adventure, so much as it is a charming love story and relationship drama that isn’t afraid of sex or reliant on it to hold people’s attention. Something like that could absolutely live on an FX or AMC as an hour long dramedy with sci-fi elements, but it would also make a killer Netflix series. One thing is certain, though: This is not going to be a CBS procedural (though in its own way, that would also be amazing).
As for the rest of Fraction and DeConnick’s creator-owned stable, the options are enticing. Could Kelly Sue’s Pretty Deadly work as a high-concept western? Fraction’s ODY-C would require a back breaking budget to match Christian Ward’s art from the series, but who knows? How about Howard Chaykin and Fraction’s Satellite Sam? Nothing says “award-winning TV” potential like an amalgamation of Auto Focus, Mad Men, and the “Future Boy” episode of Quantum Leap. Nothing besides time-freezing sex robbers, of course.
(Source: Deadline)
