A SCOTS comic book team is inviting fans to visit their Killtopia – after optioning the TV rights to a US studio.
Dave Cook’s Japan-set series has been compared with sci-fi classic Blade Runner and follows a bounty hunter and his robot sidekick through a futuristic megacity to save his sister.
The graphic novel series, with art by Craig Paton, was inspired by Japanese video games and fears about the possible sell-off of the NHS.
It now looks set for a TV adaptation thanks to a deal with Californian studio Voltaku – and could ultimately become a video game itself.
Cook, a former video game journalist, told the Sunday National: “I’ve always wondered what it would be like to play a game based on this comic. We are on that path now.
“When Killtopia launches, it’s going to look like nothing that’s been seen on TV before.
“Our world is garish and vibrant, where hype, fandom and pop culture rule the day, which is the perfect launching pad for big stories.
“I’ve always wanted to see something so colourful and abstract depicted in a 3D world.”
Published by Scottish indie firm BHP Comics, Killtopia is set to become an eight-episode series written by Phil Gelatt, who helped make the Netflix series Love, Death & Robots and the Tomb Raider game franchise.
Ireland’s Oscar-nominated Ruairi Robinson, who directed Liev Schreiber in The Last Days on Mars, will helm the project, with artwork contributed by the team behind the Avatar sequels and Tron: Legacy.
The series will be created using a specialist animation engine developed by Epic Games, the makers of smash-hit shooter game Fortnite.
Charles Borland, Voltaku CEO, said: “When we option a project, it doesn’t have to stop with a movie or a TV series any more.
“We can take our 3D production assets and build a game, VR/AR experiences, marketing materials, digital goods, basically anything we want, at Lion King or Avatar-like production levels.”
While there is a booming scene for indie comics in Scotland, a deal of this kind is rare and Glasgow-based BHP says it is “thrilled”.
Founder Sha Nazir said: “We’re very excited to see where the project goes.”
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