StrangeHaven optioned for TV and Film
Los Angeles production company David Lancaster Productions aka LaninCo has optioned Gary Spencer Millidge's critically acclaimed and award-winning comic book series StrangeHaven for a potential TV series and motion picture. Writer and co-producer Barry R. Nolan has been working on a series treatment and pilot script for a potential TV show based on the property.
"These are very exciting times for me, but it's not going to change my life just yet," said Strangehaven creator Millidge, "as I realize any TV or movie will take some time to develop. But Barry and David Lancaster have been working very hard on developing the concept for other media and any successful translation to the screen could have tremendous benefits for the comic book itself. ... I would get a kick out of seeing characters that I had created on the screen, but I certainly have no aspirations of becoming a Hollywood screenwriter or producer. I'd rather leave that to the experts and simply utilize any financial benefits to enable me to concentrate on developing my comics career."
Millidge is currently working on the long-awaited Strangehaven #13, delayed in part by the development of the movie treatment, as well as a badly damaged thumb caused by a freak soccer accident.

Turner Network Television and Warner Bros. Television To Produce Witchblade Limited Series
On the heels of the ratings success of the recent two-hour original film Witchblade, Turner Network Television (TNT) announced 12 October that it has ordered 11 episodes for a limited series based on the best-selling Top Cow comic book of the same name.
Yancy Butler (Drop Zone, Hard Target), David Chokachi (12 Bucks), Eric Etebari (The Murder in China Basin), Anthony Cistaro (Angel) and Will Yun Lee (What's Cooking) will reprise their roles for the series, which is slated for a summer 2001 premiere. Witchblade is produced by Top Cow Productions, Inc. and Halsted Pictures in association with Warner Bros. Television. Ralph Hemecker (Millennium, The X-Files) returns to direct, with Dan Halsted (Any Given Sunday, The Virgin Suicides) executive-producing for Halsted Pictures and Marc Silvestri executive-producing for Top Cow Productions.
Witchblade is the story of a New York detective, Sara Pezzini (Butler), whose search for justice brings her into contact with an ancient, intelligent, living weapon so powerful it can battle Earth's darkest evil forces. Chokachi portrays Pezzini's partner, Jake McCartey. Cistaro stars as Kenneth Irons, a billionaire obsessed with possessing the Witchblade, and Etebari stars as Ian Nottingham, Iron's enigmatic henchman. Lee stars as Pezzini's slain partner, Danny Woo.
Source: TBS, Inc.

Black Bull to Publish New Garth Ennis Title
Gareb Shamus, the Chairman of Black Bull Entertainment has announced that the company will publish Just A Pilgrim, the next comic book title by Garth Ennis, the acclaimed writer of Preacher for Vertigo along with the top-selling Punisher for Marvel Comics. Ennis reunites with the inker of Punisher and original Marvel Knights co-editor Jimmy Palmiotti who joins Black Bull Entertainment as a freelance editor specifically for this new project. The creative team is completed by artist Carlos Ezquerra, one of the co-creators of Judge Dredd, who has most recently collaborated with Ennis on Adventures In The Rifle Brigade, and colourist Paul Mounts.
Just A Pilgrim is set in the near future when the sun unexpectedly starts to enlarge and die millions of years ahead of schedule, drying the Earth's oceans and sending civilization into chaos. A group of desperate refugees struggle to survive the post-apocalyptic environment that is riddled with pirates and bizarre monsters created by the enhanced solar radiation of the enlarged sun. The group encounters the mysterious Pilgrim, an extremely devoted religious man who will lead them.
"He's a man of enormous beliefs, of enormous faith," Ennis said "Almost a religious maniac...the old fire and brimstone preacher kind of thing."
To support the launch of the Just A Pilgrim five-issue mini-series, Black Bull Entertainment will produce a special limited preview that will precede the February 2001 launch of the first issue.

Teen Superman flies at WB Net
Superman is set to return to the small screen, this time as a teenage Clark Kent for the US WB Network, in an initial 13-episode season from Warner Bros. TV and Tollin/Robbins Productions.
The still-untitled series will focus on a 15-year old Clark Kent, when he's beginning to discover his superhero powers along with grappling with the general teen angst brought on by adolescence and high school. The project will be executive produced by Mike Tollin, Brian Robbins and writer-producers Miles Millar and Al Gough.
According to Hollywood Reporter, the deal for the show came together with lightning speed during the past few days after Fox Broadcasting Co. and the WB began vying for the property. Superman also has been a regular presence on the WB's Kids WB! children's block during the past three years in the cartoon series The New Batman/Superman Adventures.
WB Network entertainment president Susanne Daniels told Hollywood Reporter she was "blown away" by the vision Millar and Gough, Tollin and Robbins and Tollin/Robbins president Joe Davola sketched out for the next-generation look at the enduring Superman franchise and its classic characters, including Lex Luthor, Lois Lane and Kent's adoptive parents in a darker-styled Smallville, USA which will be "a cross between the way it is portrayed in the [1970s] movies and Twin Peaks, " Daniels said. "There's deadly crimes going on in Smallville, and that's how Clark will get his first taste of crime-solving."
Daniels said there has been no substantive discussion yet of who will play the teenage Kent, but she's leaning toward bestowing the "S" emblem on a newcomer.