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This story first appeared in the Oct. 17 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.
Watch out: Demons are TV’s latest “It” monsters.
As NBC launches the demon hunter drama Constantine on Oct. 24, The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman is adapting his well-received new exorcism comic book Outcast with Fox International Channels for Cinemax. (The project also marks the first TV pilot that Kirkman plans to write himself.)
“People said zombies are the new vampires when The Walking Dead was starting, so if we can change the narrative to ‘demons are the new zombies,’ that will be very exciting,” said Kirkman ahead of the June launch of the comic, which has sold more than 173,000 units through its first three issues.
See more ‘The Walking Dead’s’ Most Shocking Deaths
At the same time, NBC is teaming with Amblin TV to develop The Possession of Maggie Gill, and Lifetime has ordered former Walking Dead showrunner Glen Mazzara‘s Damien, a follow-up to the 1976 film The Omen, straight to series.
“TV is doing horror well these days. Exorcisms have actually been used in documented cases of demonic possession,” Mazzara tells THR. “That’s why they’re so frightening; they’re grounded in our reality.”
The push comes after a wave of exorcism-themed films including The Grudge, The Last Exorcism, The Exorcism of Emily Rose and The Rite Exorcist: The Beginning cashed in at the box office.
Email: Lesley.Goldberg@THR.com
Twitter: @Snoodit
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