Over the past few years, Constantin Film has proven quite effective at the box office, producing a number of movies based on such popular licenses as The Mortal Instruments and Resident Evil. Now, it’s giving television a try with these franchises, according to Variety.
The German production studio has confirmed that both Mortal and Resident will be getting TV series spin-offs. Executive board chairman Martin Moszkowicz confirmed the news this weekend in Cannes, during the launch of the company’s newest TV show, Shades of Guilt.
The company dabbles quite a bit with television development, but this is the first time that major franchises will be utilized, offering a new goal for it to reach. “We are increasing our TV activities substantially both in Germany and internationally,” said Moszkowicz, also emphasizing that fictional products will retain a huge focus.
When it comes to the development of such series, “we are moving rapidly,” he said. “Constantin has a lot of feature film brands and we are moving them into television. For instance, we own the rights to the book series The Mortal Instruments and we just hired a showrunner in Los Angeles, and our offices in Los Angeles and Canada are starting production next year on at least two or three international shows.”
That showrunner is none other than Ed Decter, who worked on such previous shows as Unforgettable, The Client List and In Plain Sight.
This is a new move for Mortal Instruments, especially following the news that the second film in the series, City of Ashes, was shelved due to the lackluster box office performance of last year’s release City of Bones.
Meanwhile, Resident Evil will continue to invade theaters, as a “final” chapter of the series is in the works for next year, with lead star Milla Jovovich returning. There’s no word yet if she’ll be involved with the show.
