A couple of weeks ago we got wind of the news that the adaptation of the graphic novel Locke & Key would be a TV series instead of a movie. The adaptation comes courtesy of producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, as well as Steven Spielberg.

Kurtzman and Orci recently made a huge deal with 20th Century Fox TV, who will also produce the Locke & Key series along with Dreamworks TV. I previously speculated that Fox would pick up the series (it would be pretty silly for them not to) and that's reportedly what's happened.

Deadline reports that Fox has handed a series commitment to Kurtzman and Orci for the Locke & Key series, which will be written by Josh Friedman, writer of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Spielberg's War of the Worlds. The report doesn't state how much of a commitment Fox has given - is it as little as a pilot or as much as a full season? The fact that there's already mention of a possible summer (2011?) run for the series is a strong sign that Fox is looking to commit to this project for at least one season.

I haven't read the graphic novel but it sounds like Locke & Key will need to be pretty big in scale and length with some impressive special effects to successfully translate it to the small screen. I imagine that's partly why they chose to make a TV series instead of a movie, as this way they'll have more time to tell the story (episode-after-episode is a lot better for a storyteller than a two-hour movie).

In case you're not familiar with it, the plot of Locke & Key is as follows:

It tells the story of Nina Locke and her three children, Tyler, Kinsey, and Bode, who survive an unspeakable horror and attempt to rebuild their lives at Keyhouse, their family home in Lovecraft, Massachusetts. It is a mysterious New England mansion, with fantastic and transformative keys hidden inside its walls that are also being sought by a hate-filled and relentless creature with ties to the Locke family's past who will stop at nothing to accomplish his sinister goals.

Locke and Key graphic novel

Things are moving swiftly with Locke & Key, so I wouldn't be surprised if we start hearing word soon of who will be cast in the lead roles, as well as seeing some concept art and so forth to give us a hint of what we can expect from this particular comic-to-TV-series adaptation.

Will this show be a success and garner a strong following (a la Fringe) or will it fail to catch on and get canceled (a la Flashforward)? It's way too early to tell at this point but it's always fun to speculate :-) .

Source: Deadline