- As the development news continues to trickle in, I'm growing quietly confident that NBC are serious about making a good adaptation of Hellblazer, aka CONSTANTINE. In addition to hiring writers like David Goyer and Daniel Cerone (who worked on Dexter during its heyday), they've just announced that Neil Marshall (The Descent) is helming the pilot—and therefore setting the visual tone of the show. Marshall has recently started getting a toehold in the US TV biz, after his successful "Blackwater" episode of Game of Thrones and helming the pilot of Starz's pirate drama Black Sails. If NBC can just cast this thing appropriately (make Constantine an Englishman) and ensure a style befitting the '80s comics (something along the lines of their other show, Hannibal), this could become very good indeed. [via /Film]
- Boardwalk Empire's Michael Pitt has joined the cast of NBC's serial killer drama HANNIBAL, playing sadistic paedophile Mason Verger. Fans of the Thomas Harris books and previous movies will know that Verger was the only surviving victim of Lecter, after he was convinced to slice off his own face while attempting to hang himself. The character is best-known for his appearance in Ridley Scott's Hannibal, played by an unrecognisable Gary Oldman. Pitt's character will naturally be introduced before his horrific disfigurement, late in the second season. Verger's twin sister, Margo, who has been abused by her brother for years, will be played by Katharine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps, Freddy vs Jason). Jeremy Davies (Lost, Justified) has also joined the show, which returns 28 February. [via EW]
- I really love the concept behind The CW's new pilot, iZOMBIE. It's based on a short-lived Vertigo comic-book from 2010, about a gravedigger called Gwen who's actually a zombie that eats brains, and is friends with a female ghost from the 1960s and a gay "were-Terrier". The twist is that, by eating brains, Gwen inherits the memories of those she feeds on, and this inspires her to solve the mystery of those who were murdered. In the proposed CW pilot, Gwen is being rewritten as a medical coroner, and her supernatural friends are now her boss and a detective (although possibly they'll still also be a ghost and/or were-Terrier?) Rob Thomas (Veronica Mars) is behind iZOMBIE's development, which certainly bodes well. I just love the core idea as a supernatural procedural. [via io9]
