NBCU, Tom Hardy work up drama duo

NBCUniversal International Studios and actor Tom Hardy’s prodco are working to adapt a new crime thriller book series, and a graphic novel about a silent alien invasion.

NBCUIS has a first-look agreement with Hardy Son & Baker, the prodco Hardy formed with Dean Baker in 2012. Through this deal the companies are working to adapt Adam Hamdy’s Pendulum and graphic novel graphic novel series Trees.

Hamdy, a writer who has been working with UK prodcos to develop original drama series, will work with NBCUIS to create the television series and will be an executive producer. Hardy Son & Baker will be the lead producer.

Pendulum is a forthcoming book trilogy about an everyman who is targeted by a serial killer, beginning a “dangerous journey through a digital underworld”.

“It was immediately clear to us that Pendulum’s narrative would appeal to audiences internationally given the book is a thrilling, high-concept ride about the nature of our digitally connected society,” said Tom Coan, senior VP, scripted programming at NBCUIS. “We are thrilled to have Adam on board to adapt the book and look forward to taking the project to buyers.”

Hardy Son & Baker is also adapting Trees, which comes from author Warren Ellis and illustrator Jason Howard.

The books are set in a world ten years after the arrival of vast alien presences on Earth, which stand like trees and do not communicate directly.

Image Comics publishes the novels, with Ellis and Howard’s Howard’s representatives, Angela Cheng Caplan of Cheng Caplan Company and attorney Joel VanderKloot of Nelson Davis LLP, negotiating the agreement with NBCUIS.

“Warren is one of the top names in comics and a best-selling author who has a terrifically subversive perspective on story,” said Coan. “It’s that unique sensibility that sits at the heart of Trees, where he has turned the alien invasion genre on its ear. In addition to being inventive, Trees is simultaneously epic and intimate; a combination that lends itself very well to international television.”

Hardy Son & Baker is currently is post-production on Taboo, a forthcoming drama for BBC One in the UK and FX in the US.