Martial arts action superstars Michael Jai White, Scott Adkins and Darren Shahlavi have all been pretty busy making headlines in recent months, with White filming Thai actioner Skin Trade as preparation continues for Black Dynamite 2, while Adkins‘ eighth pairing with director Isaac Florentine brings them for Close Range, and new reports have announced Shahlavi‘s starring role opposite Jean-Claude Van Damme in Ernie Barbarash’s next thriller, Pound Of Flesh. That said, all three can be seen sharing screentime together in the first and second series installments of the internationally produced English-language science fiction fantasy series, Metal Hurlant Chronicles, which until only this week, earned its audiences largely in French-speaking territories beginning a little less than a year and a half ago.
PARIS– Syfy has acquired the first two seasons of French science-fiction/action skein “Metal Hurlant.”
Helmed by Guillaume Lubrano, the English-language show was produced by We Prods., and is co-produced by Belvision and Nexus.
“Metal Hurlant” is based on the French sci-fi and fantasy comics anthology published in the U.S. as “Heavy Metal” and created by comic artists Jean Giraud (a.k.a. Moebius) and Philippe Druillet in 1974.
“Metal Hurlant” became a hugely popular sci-fi phenomena in the 1980s and inspired the 1981 animated film “Heavy Metal.”
A flurry of international thesps, including John Rhys-davies (“The Lord Of The Rings” ) Michael Biehn (“Terminator”) Jimmy Jean-Louis (“Heroes”), Scott Adkins (“Expendables 2″), James Marsters (“Buffy”), Michael Jai White (“Black Dynamite”) have joined the cast of the second season, which will premiere on French pubcaster France 4.
Syfy will launch the series’s first season in April.
Skein has now sold to approximately 80 territories.