With quite a few feature film adaptations of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” already on the way from various studios, it now looks like the small screen is prepping for multiple takes on the modern Prometheus. Deadline today brings words that Dean Koontz’s Shelley-inspired series of novels are being developed for TNT with the father/son team of James V. Hart and Jake Hart adapting a pilot screenplay.
The first book in Koontz’s series, subtitled “Prodigal Son,” was released in 2005 and is officially described as follows:
Every city has secrets. But none as terrible as this. His name is Deucalion, a tattooed man of mysterious origin, a sleight-of-reality artist whos traveled the centuries with a secret worse than death. He arrives as a serial killer stalks the streets, a killer who carefully selects his victims for the humanity that is missing in himself. Detective Carson OConnor is cool, cynical, and every bit as tough as she looks. Her partner Michael Maddison would back her up all the way to Hell itselfand that just may be where this case ends up. For the no-nonsense OConnor is suddenly talking about an ages-old conspiracy, a near immortal race of beings, and killers that are moreand lessthan human. Soon it will be clear that as crazy as she sounds, the truth is even more ominous. For their quarry isnt merely a homicidal maniacbut his deranged maker.
The elder Hart has previously worked on a big screen iteration of Shelley’s tale, producing Kenneth Branagh’s 1994 adaptation.
In development by Lionsgate Television and 1019 Entertainment, the Koontz version of “Frankenstein” follows in the wake of an announcement last year that NBC was looking at their own “Frankenstein” pilot.
