Could Locke & Key Find a Home at MTV?

Steve Barton   |  

Sep 8, 2011

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In what sounds a lot like a wishful thinking kind of story, the rumor’s out there that the television adaptation of Joe Hill’s Locke & Key graphic novel could possibly be heading to MTV. But before you get too excited, note that while MTV programming chief David Janollari “likes” the show, he has yet to meet with the “Locke & Key” producers.

Deadline is the source of this latest news, and here’s how they break it down:

After Fox passed on the pilot written by Josh Friedman and directed by Mark Romanek, the companies behind it, 20th Century Fox, K/O Paper Products, and DreamWorks TV, shopped it to other networks with Syfy expressing interest but ultimately passing. The studio, faced with mounting costs of keeping the production alive, decided to pull the plug on the thriller, letting the actors’ options expire on June 30 while signing Friedman in an overall deal. (Friedman has already set up a new project at Fox with a put pilot commitment.)

Then IDW, the publisher of the Locke & Key comic, organized a screening of the pilot at Comic-Con in July, followed by a panel discussion with executive producers Friedman, Alex Kurtzman, and Roberto Orci. And last month a trailer for the show, presumably cut by Fox in the run-up to the upfronts, leaked online and went viral (video below). Also last month a DVD of the pilot was given to Janollari. A supernatural thriller would be a major departure for MTV, whose current scripted slate consists primarily of high school shows. and many caution that the budget to mount a Locke & Key TV adaptation is likely to be prohibitive for a basic cable network as evidenced by Syfy’s decision not to pursue the project after crunching the numbers.

Locke & Key revolves around Nina (Miranda Otto) and her three children, Tyler (Jesse McCartney), Kinsey (Sarah Bolger), and Bode (Skylar Gaertner), who survive an unspeakable horror and attempt to rebuild their lives at Keyhouse, their family home in Lovecraft, Massachusetts. It is a mysterious New England mansion with fantastic and transformative keys hidden inside its walls that are also being sought by a hate-filled and relentless creature with ties to the Locke family’s past who will stop at nothing to accomplish his sinister goals.

So there you have it, kids! It sure would be sweet to have “Locke & Key” end up on the airwaves after all — MTV or otherwise. Keep it here for more as it comes!