EXCLUSIVE: Levantine Films, the film/TV production company behind the Gurinder Chada-directed Blinded By The Light, has acquired small screen rights to Rodney Barnes’ and Jason Shawn Alexander’s best-selling graphic novel series Killadelphia: Sins of the Father. Levantine has partnered with Barnes on his adaptation for a television series which Levantine and Barnes will produce. The Image Comics series was first released in November of 2019 and the trade paperback’s coming in June.
Done in crime horror noir style, the death of revered detective James Sangster Sr. brings his estranged son James Jr., a Baltimore street cop, back home to Philadelphia to bury him. Jr. discovers his father’s journal which details his last case where a series of mysterious murders possibly supernatural in nature and he follows the clues, which is a trip down a macabre rabbit hole filled with horror and mystery.
The screenwriter and producer’s past credits include the critically acclaimed animated series The Boondocks, Chris Rock’s TV series Everybody Hates Chris, Marvel’s Runaways, Hulu’s Wu-Tang: An American Saga, and Starz’s American Gods. Barnes is currently an executive producer and writer for the HBO Showtime series which chronicles the professional and personal lives of the 1980s Showtime Lakers during the team’s wild and fast-paced golden years.
Eisner Award-nominated artist Jason Shawn Alexander is best known for his work on Todd McFarlane’s Spawn graphic novel and his own critically acclaimed series Empty Zone. In addition to Killadelphia, Levantine Films last year acquired the feature film rights of the novel A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi. Levantine is also developing a feature project that Armando Iannucci will direct.
Barnes is represented by Artists First and Darrell Miller at Fox Rothschild. Jason Shawn Alexander is represented by WME.