Hivemind, the company behind The Expanse, has announced that it is partnering up with William M. Gaines Agent, Inc., the proprietors of EC Comics, for a number of film and television projects based on the hugely influential comic book publisher’s groundbreaking legacy and library, beginning with a Weird Fantasy TV show.
A lynchpin of the EC line during the publisher’s creative watershed, Weird Fantasy was a sci-fi anthology series which produced dozens of seminal stories that intersected razor-sharp social commentary with epic science fiction, high adventure and dark fantasy by some of the most celebrated comics creators to ever work in the medium.
The TV series will draw upon this legacy, featuring stories that explore “socially conscious themes of racial and gender equality, anti-war advocacy, nuclear disarmament and ecological preservation.”
“The EC library is a timeless literary achievement that deserves to stand alongside the works of Stephen King, Philip K. Dick, and H.P. Lovecraft,” said producer and Hivemind Co-President Dinesh Shamdasani. “Weird Fantasy is a truly historic property that shattered many barriers, and our goal is to make the television series just as fearless and forward-thinking as the stories that inspired it.”
In addition to Weird Fantasy, Hivemind is also set to produce a featuyre film based upon the life of former EC Comics publisher William M. Gaines, which will “follow Gaines’ transformation from a staid, New York publishing impresario into a counterculture hero, guardian of artistic freedom, and champion of the First Amendment as his darkly humorous journey through the troubled birth of the comic book industry reveals the Red Scare-era witch hunt that nearly doomed an American art form, through the subsequent founding of Mad Magazin and eventual rise of Marvel Comics in EC’s wake.”
The EC projects join a growing slate at Hivemind, which includes Amazon’s The Expanse, along with the upcoming Netflix series The Witcher starring Henry Cavill, and the Guillermo del Toro-produced feature film Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. The company also recently secured the TV rights to the Image Comics series Gideon Falls.
