June 30, 2015 Producers Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald have brought in former AMC executive Owen Shiflett as new head of television. He will shepherd TV development and production under Parkes + MacDonald’s first-look deal with Universal TV. One of the first projects Parkes, MacDonald and Shiflett are exploring is a TV drama adaptation of RASL, the black-and-white science fiction noir comic book by award-winning Bone creator Jeff Smith.
Parkes+MacDonald are closing a deal for the rights to RASL, which would mark the first time a Jeff Smith property has been optioned for television. (Wigram Productions acquired the feature rights to RASL 4 years ago.) The sought-after comic “was a motion picture pitch, which we felt was more potent as TV project in its merging of it sci fi, fantasy, and social commentary with strong characters and themes,” Parkes said.
RASL, a New York Times bestseller and the 2014 Eisner Award winner for best graphic novel, centers on a scientist turned art thief who tries to escape his past by hiding in multiple dimensions and building a new life. Smith and Vijaya Iyer of Cartoon Books are attached to produce along with Leslie Hough. Evan Hayes is co-executive producer.
“I have been a fan of Jeff Smith since reading and falling in love with his magnum opus Bone,” Shiflett said. “Thankfully television has finally caught up to the sensibility Jeff brings to his comics.”
Courtesy of: http://deadline.com/2015/06/rasl-series-parkes-macdonald-owen-shifflett-head-tv-1201462143/
