Following news earlier this week that Fox has a Batman-inspired “Gotham” television series in the works comes word, via The Hollywood Reporter, that DC Comics’ John Constantine is also headed to the small screen. David S. Goyer (Batman Begins, Man of Steel) and Daniel Cerone (“The Mentalist”) will provide the script for an NBC pilot, “Constantine.”
Created by Alan Moore, John Constantine, a roguish magician/detective/conman, first appeared during the author’s run on “Swamp Thing” in 1985, receiving his own series, “Hellblazer,” under DC’s Vertigo imprint in 1988. That book ran for 300 issues before it was relaunched in DC’s “New 52” continuity as “Constantine” with a younger take on the antihero. It appears that the new series will serve as the primary basis for the pilot.
The Constantine character was also brought to the big screen with a 2005 film directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Keanu Reeves. Earlier this year, Guillermo del Toro confirmed that he was working on a script based on DC’s “Justice League Dark,” (tentatively titled Dark Universe) that would include John Constantine as a character. As to how that film winds up being affected by these new television plans remains to be seen.
