Universal has picked up the film rights to the popular horror graphic novel series Locke & Key. The studio has set Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Bobby Cohen to produce the film.
Created by horror novelist Joe Hill, son of Stephen King, and artist Gabriel Rodriguez, the series tells the story of three siblings who move to the family’s ancestral home in Massachusetts after the gruesome murder of their father. There, they discover a set of magical keys that give their wielders various powers and abilities which they have to keep from falling into the hands of a demonic creature known as Dodge. Collected volumes of the series have appeared on the New York Times bestsellers list.
The studio has not set any creative personnel onto the project yet, though I suspect that they will start interviewing writers soon.
The comic series had previously been developed for a series for the Fox Network, but the network passed on the produced pilot last season. Before that, the project was being developed as a feature film at Dimension, though their attempt fell apart in 2010 when the rights expired.
