The name Da Vinci usually conjures up an elderly intellectual white bearded man straight out of the Renaissance era but if David Goyer, Starz and BBC Worldwide Productions have their way, you may be changing your mind about that image. Get ready for a younger, romantic, bolder Da Vinci as Starz announced today via a press release that it has given ‘Da Vinci’s Demons’ a straight to series order with production to start next year!

‘Da Vinci’s Demons’ is a new series written by David Goyer who has had much success in the sci-fi genre penning blockbusters such as ‘Blade’, ‘Batman Begins’, ‘The Dark Knight’ and has written the screenplays for the anticipated ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, ‘Man of Steel’ and ‘Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance’ movies.

It is being described as a historical fantasy that will follow the untold story of a 25 year old Da Vinci during his boisterous youth in Renaissance Florence. He is an artist, inventor, swordsman, lover, dreamer and idealist. With his free thinking intellect and talents that are almost superhuman, he struggles to live within the confines of his own reality and time and begins to not only see the future, but invent it.

Here’s a snippet of the press release where Goyer and Carmi Zlotnick from Starz describes the series as:

“…a show about secret histories, genius, madness, and all things profane. And I’m particularly excited that I get to do it on premium cable, where the story can be as dark and challenging and irreverent as it deserves to be.”

“Da Vinci was the original Renaissance man,” states Goyer, “– a near-mythic figure that has world-wide appeal.  After working with characters like Batman and Superman, it made a strange kind of sense for me to dive into the facts and legends swirling around his origins”

“David has reimagined some of the most iconic superheroes of all time,” states Carmi Zlotnick, Starz media managing director, “and is again building an extraordinary prism through which to rediscover the world’s greatest genius and most mysterious man. If modern day has Tony Stark, the Renaissance had Da Vinci. This is a story we believe will captivate the imaginations of audiences around the world”

‘Da Vinci’s Demons’ is the first of many projects under the multi-year agreement Starz signed with BBC Worldwide Productions and is an exciting project for both companies. David Goyer will serve as the show runner with BBC Worldwide Productions’ head executive Jane Tranter as executive producer along with Julie Gardner who is best known as the executive producer for such shows as ‘Doctor Who’, ‘Torchwood’ and ‘Torchwood: Miracle Day.’

‘Da Vinci’s Demons’ is set to premiere for an 8 episode series on the Starz channel sometime in 2013.