Determined to adapt at least one supernatural crime thriller comic-book thing, Showtime has signed a deal to develop a drama based on The Damned, Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt’s limited-edition series for Oni Press. The story concerns a man named Eddie whose demonic curse always brings him back from the dead, but kills whoever happens to touch his corpse, which is a good reason not to go around touching corpses. In the comics, Eddie gets caught up in a gangster war in Prohibition-era Chicago—which will be updated to a more modern setting here—where the gangsters also happen to be demons.
David Hayter is handling the writing duties, having previously worked on comic-book adaptations X-Men, X2, and Watchmen—and whatever you feel those films’ faults may have been, they were inarguably comic-book adaptations, you have to admit that. Of course, The Damned is just one of several crime-related comics-inspired ideas Showtime has put its name on lately, having also staked a claim on developing Chew and most recently 100 Bullets without necessarily committing to any of them yet. If they keep dog-earing them like this, at some point people are going to stop loaning Showtime their comics.