Metal Hurlant Chronicles was originally a French magazine, created and illustrated by the famed illustrator Jean “Moebius” Giraud and Philippe Druillet back in the 1970’s.
The idea was to have an anthology magazine series which would take submissions for stories similar to Amazing Tales magazine and their ilk. The publication was similar to the American Tales from the Crypt, except it focused on science fiction and fantasy stories. Some issues would feature spaceships and aliens, the next might showcase magic and dragons. Each issue was completely different, but the magazine managed to maintain a common thread of abstract narrative, along with the genius of Moebius’ illustrations.
French Director Guillaume Lubrano has been working on trying to get a television version of the magazine into development since late last year.
Finding no purchase in France – where television has pretty-well stagnated – he’s concentrating on trying to sell the show in the US.
We haven’t heard much about the project lately, but during Comic-Con San Diego, Lubrano gave an interview with CBR, in which he updates readers on the progress.
The director has not yet found an American television outlet for the shows, but he remains undeterred. Without a network willing to take the risk and back his show, he’s financing elsewhere, and has begun work on a short run of 26-minute episodes. “The several channels we approached in the beginning asked us to work in a format that would not be too risky for them,” he explained. When those deals fell through, Lubrano continued to develop the series with the 26-minute runtime in mind. “It was something we could handle. If it had been 52 minutes, it would have been harder to find funds to do the series.”
Lubrano also discussed his desire to stick with the source material, saying:” “I don’t want to feel when I watch an episode that what I just saw was for five minutes what I read in the comic books and for forty minutes, something else. I want people who don’t know the comics to go back to them and see what they saw [on TV]. … If I want to add a sequence, I asked [the original writers], ‘Does it make sense with the way it was thought originally for the comic book?'”
As the show hasn’t been picked up yet, there are no release dates, but the series is already in limited production, and we can expect to hear more about it next Spring when it comes time for pilot pitching again.
