Publisher BOOM! Studios (“Lumberjanes,” Once & Future”) signed a first-look deal for live action and animated series with Netflix.
The current alliance means Ross Richie, BOOM! CEO-founder, and Stephen Christy, president of development, will double as executive producers on all shows with the streamer.
However, the two companies have a history.
They teamed for BOOM!’s “Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance,” which debuted on Netflix in 2019. Season one is currently available to stream. In addition, the two are collaborating on the upcoming “The Unsound,” based on a graphic novel by Cullen Bunn and Jack T. Cole. David F. Sandberg (“Shazam!”) is set to direct.
Brian Wright, vice president, original series at Netflix, stated: “BOOM! characters are innately special, they’re colorful, diverse and varied, and their stories have the power to ignite something in all of us.”
Richie added: “We generate 20-plus new original series a year … BOOM!’s unique partnership model of controlling the media rights to our library benefits creators by positioning them to be packaged with high-end directors, screenwriters and producers.”
On the feature film front, BOOM!’s has a first-look deal at 20th Century Studios/The Walt Disney Company until January 2021. The studio will release BOOM!’s supernatural thriller “The Empty Man” in August.
Separately, Netflix announced it will develop an original series based on a Korean zombie webtoon. The streamer is partnering with director Lee JQ (“Beethoven Virus,” “Intimate Strangers”) to produce “All of Us Are Dead.”