Midnight, Mass

[phantomstranger]

I actually read this comic, it was pretty good:

NBC Orders Live-Action Midnight, Mass.
Tuesday August 18, 2009



© Vertigo/Courtesy comics.org
This sounds very cool: NBC has given a script commitment for a live-action drama based on the 2002 comic book series Midnight, Mass. from DC Comics' grittier, mature-readers Vertigo division.

The basic story of with io9 calls1 "The Greatest Monster-Hunting Comic Of All Time" involves a coastal town in Massachusetts that has a long history of supernatural happenings, where a young woman is starting a new job as assistant to Adam and Julia Kadmon, the glamorous, world-famous First Couple of paranormal investigators. (Sounds like Hart to Hart meets the Winchesters2, but it's really not. Well, not exactly.) Eight issues of the title were put out in 2002-2003, written by John Rozum (who also worked on Xombi3, the X-Files comics, and other mainstream DC titles like Daredevil and Flash) with art by Jesus Saiz and Jimmy Palmiotti; there was a six-title follow-up in 2004.

Reuters says4 that Warners has been trying to develop the property without success for a while; Rozum himself5 says this is the second try for a TV series based on what he calls a "troubled" series. In the first, faintly ominous sign of executive meddling6, word is the title will be shortened to Midnight – presumably to disassociate the show from the Catholic overtones of the name.

What's really promising is that Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts (both on whom wrote episodes of, and helped produce, shows like Pushing Daisies7, Wonderfalls, and John Doe) are writing the script. A lyrical spin on the supernatural thriller is often extremely effective, so I'm looking to hear more about this one.

Other Vertigo titles have been adapted in the past: for example, there was a failed 1992 version of Human Target on ABC starring Rick Springfield. (Fox is giving that title another shot, though: a new adaptation starring Mark Valley of Fringe8 launches in January.)

So what's up with weirdness and small-town Massachusetts9, anyway?

Looking forward to this