Spielberg bringing Locke & Key to the small screen
One of the finest graphic novels to emerge in recent times has to be the exceptional Locke & Key by Joe Hill (Stephen King’s son). As is the case for pretty much every comic ever written, the film rights for Locke & Key are hot property and a film project by Dimension was announced not long ago.
Vulture is reporting however, that the ever busy Steven Spielberg, via DreamWorks TV, is buddying up with screenwriting titans of the small screen, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Transformers, Fringe) as well as writer/executive producer Josh Friedman (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) to realize Joe Hill’s deliciously dark comic book franchise as a TV show.
The comic book centres around three unfortunate kids, who, after their father is killed, end up moving to a spooky New England mansion. Infant astro-projection, murder and transgender ghosts soon invade the narrative to startlingly cohesive and gripping effect. Indeed, Locke & Key’s subject matter lends itself much more readily to a teen TV drama than most comic books do and so long as the casting and direction are right, the atmosphere and emotional impact of the comic should be achievable on a modest budget.
Could this be a sleeper hit in waiting? We think so, or at least, there’s no good reason why not. There’s always the danger that beautiful little gems like this can get butchered on their way to the tube or celluloid (see every comic book film ever made except The Dark Knight pretty much), but given the talent attached to this and the quality of the raw material, we’re buoyant about the whole thing. Let’s just hope it gets an after 09:00 PM slot so all of the series grittier moments don’t get cut in favour of reaching a PG 13 audience.
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