freaks-of-the-heartlandIn the ongoing pursuit of trying to make everyone forget that the M in MTV stands for Music, we’ve just learned that the network has purchased the rights to develop Dark Horse Entertainment’s ‘Freaks of the Heartland’ for the small screen! The film and TV distribution arm of Dark Horse Comics have been developing quite the portfolio over the last year of projects and this seems to be a good fit with MTV as they have had an increase in horror on the channel. Universal Cable Prods is also in on the production end of things with David Gordon Green (‘Pineapple Express’,’Red Oaks’) who will also be directing the series depending on his availability when it moves forward.

The series is being written by Geoff Davey and Peter Sattler and will be based on the graphic novel that was penned by the always talented Steve Niles (‘The Disciples‘,’30 Days of Night‘) with artwork by Greg Ruth.

The original graphic novel is described as:

Trevor Owen has a younger brother who lives in the barn behind the house, too monstrous to be let into the house. The boy’s only six years old, but he towers over his older brother and possesses monstrous strength. For years, Trevor has looked after his baby brother, keeping him from the light, but now that’s all about to change. His family’s profane secret is about to be revealed, uncovering the horrible truth of the small midwestern town the boys have grown up in.

The secret is revealed though when the town’s sheriff discovers the younger brother Will and in the struggle that follows accidentally kills Trevor and Will’s father. The boys are framed for the murder and go on the run and they soon learn that more children had ended up like Will with the Sheriff having already killed them.

While I’m not quite as excited to hear about this as ‘Harrow County‘ coming to Syfy, the graphic novel was a fantastic piece of work. I’m just not sold on MTV being the right network to do it justice. I suppose though with adding ‘Teen Wolf’, ‘Scream’, and the single season of ‘Death Valley’ that MTV might be trying to slowly transition into being MonsterTV.

Are you looking forward to a small screen adaptation of ‘Freaks of the Heartland’? Do you think that MTV is the right network for the series? Share your thoughts below!

Source: Deadline.

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Stuart Conover is an author, blogger, and all around geek. When not busy being a father and husband he tries to spend as much time as possible immersed in comic books, science fiction, and horror! Would you like to know more? Follow him on Twitter!