Late Wednesday afternoon, it was officially announced that Universal Pictures had optioned IDW's highly-regarded Locke & Key comic for development as a major motion picture.
For those who may just be hearing of the series for the first time, Locke & Key is a property created by New York Times best-selling author Joe Hill and Eisner nominated artist Gabriel Rodriguez. The comic follows siblings who move to their family's ancestral estate after their father's death, and there they discover magical keys that unlock long-buried secrets and give their users supernatural powers. The collected editions have made multiple appearances on the New York Times bestseller lists, garnered several nominations (and one win) at the comic industries annual Eisner Awards, and won two British Fantasy Awards for Best Graphic Novel.
Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Bobby Cohen are slated to produce the film, along with Ted Adams, IDW Publishing's CEO and Publisher. Kurtzman and Orci were also involved in the previous screen adaptation of Locke & Key, a pilot filmed for Fox TV (who ultimately decided not to pick it up for production as a series) – that pilot was screened to rapturous receptions at a few comic conventions, which presumably helped raise the property's profile with other studios, and paved the way for this new development deal. Universal's EVP of Production Jon Mone and Creative Executive Jay Polidoro will oversee the project, and Ben Kim will handle development for K/O Paper Products.
Hopefully this new crack at adapting the property will lead to a more widely-viewed interpretation than the Fox TV deal… And as the same producers shopped the original pilot around, perhaps it will even see the light of day eventually – it would make a fascinating bonus feature for any eventual DVD and Blu-Ray release of this new production.