Hack/Slash Comics Series Heads For TV

After years not getting anywhere near its occasionally-announced movie adaptation, Tim Seeley's Hack/Slash is now being developed as a TV series. Rights-holders Relativity have shifted it to their television arm, where the script is currently being put together by action-movie regular Skip Woods.

Seeley's brainchild has been haphazardly published by first by Chicago's Devil's Due and then by Image Comics since 2004. The premise is that Cassandra Hack, once the Final Girl in a horror scenario, took that experience and put it to some good use. She now travels the US, in various states of undress, hunting and killing slashers, backed up by the mysterious thug Vlad, who wears a gas mask and carries meat cleavers as his weapon of choice.

The stories have generally been original to the comic, but there have been celebrity cameos from Child's Play's Chucky and HP Lovecraft's Reanimator Herbert West. It's not what you'd call highbrow, but it's smarter than you might think: Hack is a more complicated heroine than her T&A badass image conveys from a cursory inspection.

As a potential movie the project has passed through the hands of Marcus Nispel (Conan The Barbarian), Todd Lincoln (The Apparition) and Fredrik Bond (Charlie Countryman). New writer Woods' CV is action-heavy if not top quality: he was behind X-Men Origins: Wolverine, A Good Day To Die Hard, The A-Team and both Hitman films. He also has Kane And Lynch in the works.

There's no word yet on where Hack/Slash will end up: whether on network television, cable or a streaming platform. Relativity are apparently intending a series on the stronger side, taking The Walking Dead as a touchstone (although there's obviously a bit of a Buffy vibe too), suggesting that a home that allows for some extreme violence is in order. The series is currently "out to directors".