Sam & Twitch

Kevin Smith is developing a Spawn spin-off series for BBC America

Kevin Smith’s TV fortunes have been pretty up and down of late. Sure, he’s drawn decent reviews for his work directing episodes of CW superhero shows like Supergirl and The Flash. But Smith also seems to be struggling with getting his own shows off the ground: There was that Buckaroo Banzai TV series that never made it to light, and a Mallrats adaptation that failed to get traction with networks. But maybe the third time will be the charm, with Deadline reporting that the Clerks auteur has been attached to a new comic book-based series from BBC America.

According to the network’s head, Sarah Barnett, Smith is currently attached to write, direct, and executive produce a new series for the network, based on Todd McFarlane’s Sam And Twitch. A spin-off of McFarlane’s violent Spawn comics, the series is a sort of police procedural, following two detectives operating in a world where sentient Hell armor and John Leguizamo murder clowns lurk around every dark corner. The show is still in early development, but Barnett expressed enthusiasm for it, calling it “kind of frightening and sort of gallows humor,” and “procedural, but in a very modern, contemporary way.”