Female-Led Horror Comic Hack/Slash is Coming to Television

If you’ve been looking for intriguing female characters in comics, chances are you’ve come across the awesome comics homage (and deconstruction) of slasher films called Hack/Slash. Well thanks to Relativity Television, Cassie Hack will be making her way to TV!

For the uninitiated, Hack/Slash (which was first published by Devil’s Due Publishing, then later by Image Comics), created by Tim Seeley and Stefano Caselli, tells the story of Cassie Hack, a horror victim who decides to flip the script and seek revenge against horror movie slashers – some original to the comic, and some well-known to us (like Jason or Chucky).

After years in development hell as a feature film, Hack/Slash is now in early development at Relativity Television with writer Skip Woods (Hitman, A Good Day to Die Hard) at the helm. Joining Woods on Executive Producer duty is Adrian Askarieh, who first optioned the comic in 2005, and Ray Ricord. Daniel Alter and Geoffrey Yim will Co-Executive Produce.

Now, already alarm bells are going off in that, so far, there are no female names attached to this project at any level. The subject matter being what it is, it would be so easy for an all-male team to screw it up on television and have Cassie Hack be nothing but a “fighting fuck toy.” Granted, the creators of this comic are male, and they went a long way in subverting certain stereotypes. However, when you’re bringing a print property to something as mass media as television is, you have to be even more careful about the images you’re creating, and the messages you’re sending.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, their aim is to make Hack/Slash gritty and adult so that it has mainstream appeal like AMC’s The Walking Dead. PS – The Walking Dead also has Gale Anne Hurd holding it down, producer-wise, as well as women on their writing team.

Then again, out of 22 writers on The Walking Dead, only 3 are women right now (according to IMDB). So….all of y’all need to be doing better. And Hack/Slash? You need to start out better. Bring your diversity A-Game to this! Women love horror, but they also want to feel like they have a place in creating it.

(via Polygon)

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