John Constantine has enjoyed success in both graphical novel form and on the big screen (via the 2005 film starring Keanu Reeves). Now, the small screen waits as NBC has given the green light for a pilot featuring the character.
The TV version is rumored to be based on the latest iteration of the character from the “ New 52 ” series of comics that saw DC re-launch many of its most popular franchises in an attempt to make them more accessible to the general public. As an interesting footnote, the characters appearance was initially based on the singer Sting. So much so that it caused concerns of possible legal ramifications. Its creator Alan Moore once said, “One of those early notes was they both wanted to do a character that looked like Sting. I think DC is terrified that Sting will sue them, although Sting has seen the character and commented in Rolling Stone that he thought it was great. He was very flattered to have a comic character who looked like him, but DC gets nervous about these things.”
As mentioned above, the character was created by legendary Alan Moore (of The Killing Joke and Watchmen fame) and first appeared in a Swamp Thing comic from 1985. He later went on to enjoy success in his own series entitled Hellblazer . It’s a good time to be a Constantine fan, as a new film by Guillermo del Toro called Dark Universe (which is based on Justice League Dark ) is also in the works and will in-fact include the Constantine character as well. No word yet on how or if this will affect either the film or the TV show.
The pilot will be written by David S. Goyer (who also wrote the latest entry into the Superman franchise and Batman Begins ) and Daniel Cerone (of The Mentalist ).