Jessica Jones scribe Brian Michael Bendis’ comic series Scarlet is being eyed for adaptation by Cinemax. The writer let slip plans for a TV adaptation while at the ATX Television Festival today, saying:
“I do a book called Scarlet which is soon to be announced that’s also in our universe of television. Not announced yet, but HBO… the team around it… will be announcing as soon as all are on the same page.”
It’s a relatively fresh development, with Deadline updating their initial report to correct and confirm several details. Most importantly, the fact that it’s not HBO proper, but its sister channel Cinemax. That’s where The Walking Dead scribe Robert Kirkman found a home for his other comic Outcast, a dark, moody series about possession, that’s been receiving pretty solid reviews thus far. Bearing that in mind, Cinemax seems a promising home for a property that even Bendis says is a tough sell:
“Scarlet is a list of things you can’t get made. Here’s a female lead who’s killing cops because her world is broken.” But “when it was sold it was sold to people who were actively looking for that, so that put us in a good place. So stay tuned.”
Now that we’re in a world where series like Jessica Jones are huge successes without compromising their source material, surely TV watchers everywhere will welcome more ass-kicking females? For the uninitiated, the comic revolves around a young woman named Scarlet Rue – often compared to The Punisher – who refuses to take any more injustice and kickstarts a modern revolution.
It sounds to us like Cinemax is onto a winner with Scarlet, don’t you think?