EXCLUSIVE: The Revenants, a Belfast-set horror-comedy comic, is set for the TV treatment.
Paula Crickard’s UK-based production outfit Atelier 11 has optioned the IP, which follows to Northern Irish brothers battling zombies, curses and personal baggage, all while trying to keep their own comic book shop afloat.
Atelier 11 is working with the comic’s creators, the Flanagan family, to create a series with a “distinctly Northern Irish tone” that includes the IP’s “raw energy, humour, horror and authenticity,” the company noted.
The Revenants was created by Daniel Flanagan in 2015, and is published through the cult independent comic book store his family runs in Belfast, Comic Book Guys. It is set in a version of the Northern Ireland capital that has been overrun by the undead, with the Flanagan brothers forced to use whatever’s lying around their store to fight off the supernatural threats.
Atelier 11 recently launched in its current guise, as Deadline first reported in July. Working across film, television, animation, and gaming, Paula Crickard’s company is focusing on “genre with heart” and finding emerging IP such as The Revenants that have global breakout potential as franchises.
“The momentum behind The Revenants is undeniable,” said Crickard. “What the Flanagans have created is a world teeming with raw energy, humour, horror and authenticity. It’s exactly the kind of story that resonates with modern audiences while being rooted in something deeply human and hilariously local, it’s dead funny.”
Atelier 11 is being supported by the UK Global Screen Fund, which is financed by the UK Government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport and administered by the BFI.
Crickard was previously in business with Hasraf ‘HaZ’ Dulull as co-founders of Hazimation, but they parted ways earlier this year. Crickard kept the business and rebranded it as Atelier 11, with Dulull founding video game, TV and film production house Beyond the Pixels.
Dulull is now working on a TV series adaptation of his debut Beyond the Pixels game, Astro Burn.
