Van Helsing lives again as a TV series in development at CBS, but the premise isn’t what we were expecting.
Deadline dropped the news on June 26, stating that Jonathan Lee, the man behind Netflix and BBC’s upcoming drama series Lockerbie, is writing the show, which is reworking the famous character into a modern-day investigator.
According to Deadline and the logline that was shared, the new series is “a contemporary take on the monster hunter Dr. Abraham Van Helsing, who uses his uniquely inquisitive mind working alongside his ex, relentless FBI special agent Mina Harker, to solve New York City’s most harrowing cases.” Though we’ve yet to learn what those “harrowing cases” might be, this already sounds quite a bit like a riff on The X-Files‘ format, which is always very welcome.
At CBS, Van Helsing is planned to be another procedural project that will hopefully pay off and run for several seasons. Lee comes with some pedigree, as he’s the author of books such as The Great Mistake and is also co-creating “a limited series about a Las Vegas heist with Reservation Dogs’ Sterlin Harjo for FX” as well as adapting his third novel, High Dive, for the big-screen with Dune‘s Eric Roth. Elementary creator Rob Doherty is executive producing “alongside Carl Beverly and Sarah Timberman under their deal with Lionsgate Television,” which is the studio that’s developing the show.
This isn’t the first nor the last TV series based on the character that’s been assembled or will be coming in the near future. In fact, EastSiders creator Kit Williamson is currently developing a series based on Jason Henderson’s Alex Van Helsing novel trilogy, which features a 14-year-old descendant, with AGC Television.
Of course, it’s been a while since we’ve seen the monster hunter lead a big blockbuster movie, with 2004’s Van Helsing, starring Hugh Jackman, recently garnering some praise that would’ve been good to have back when it released.