Variety is reporting that Jessica Jones is on her way to her own television show, courtesy of The Twilight Saga screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg. AKA Jessica Jones has been put into development at ABC with Marvel TV overseeing as a potential project for the upcoming fall season.
Jessica Jones was created by writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Michael Gaydos in the 2001's Alias, the comic which launched Marvel's mature readers imprint, MAX. The series followed the exploits of one-time superhero-turned-P.I. in the Marvel Universe, and ran for 28 issues before ending in 2004. The character is currently seen in the pages of the Bendis-penned New Avengers.
Rosenberg is said to have been drawn to the project thanks to Jessica's flaws as well as her biting sense of humor, which fans of the character should be all-too familiar with.
No stranger to comic fans, Marvel's head of television Jeph Loeb and Chief Creative Officer/Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada will both be onboard as executive producers, with Bendis consulting.
Marvel also has Hulk in development as a series for ABC, and Cloak and Dagger for ABC Family, but, this adaptation of the series may be the first live action Marvel television show we see in this new era of a Disney-owned Marvel. Between these new live action projects in development, the number of animated series either airing or in production, and the much talked-about Spider-Man musical, Marvel is making big strides at getting their characters out there across all media.
The project was in development a few years ago at Fox as Alter Ego with Michael Green (writer on Smallville, Heroes, and the upcoming Green Lantern film) adapting, but never materialized for reasons unknown.
This is also not Rosenberg's first foray into comic-to-small screen adaptations, having served as a writer/producer on the short lived Birds of Prey series on the WB in 2002. More recently, she wrote/produced on Showtime's Dexter.
This would certainly qualify one of the big announcements that Bendis has been tweeting about the last few days, and explains his super-secretive trip to Northern California (where Rosenberg resides) earlier this week. Hopefully more news on the project will surface in the new year once the television development season kicks into high gear. With Powers seemingly inching closer and closer to a greenlight at FX, and the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series on its way from Disney XD, 2011 could be a big year for Brian Michael Bendis on television.
For now, those of us with our Alias Omnibuses on the shelf can hope that ABC is flexible when it comes to anal sex scenes in a series' pilot episode. And, if you like great comics but have somehow not read this series, do yourself a favor and pick up the Alias Ultimate Collection Volume 1 and Volume 2 right now.
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Headline: “Alias’ Jessica Jones Is Headed To The Small Screen”
Reaction: YAAAAAAAY
First Para: “…Jessica Jones is on her way to her own television show, courtesy of The Twilight Saga screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg…”
Reaction: This.
what?! anal sex?!
Yeah agreed. Alias deserves better than anyone associated with Twilight.
That’s awesome! What a great book Alias was.
I wonder how they’ll deal with her interacting with the rest of the Marvel U.
Could be interesting. Folks by the way, yes she wrote Twilght, it’s a huge success and she’s probably made some fat cash off of it, don’t act like you wouldn’t do the same thing.
“I’m an artist, I believe in story.”
“Here’s a million bucks.”
“… Bella who? Sparkles? Sure no problem. Lots of scenes with no shirt, you got it, you got it.”
She’s a writer that doesn’t happen to be a big name so sometimes you can’t choose your projects. Perhaps Twilight has given her that name and now she can. And look at her credits you’ll see a ton of TV and alot of good shows. This is fine.
She also co-exec-produces Dexter, The O.C., and Party of Five, as well as having written multiple episodes of Dexter.
That means nothing to me, as I don’t watch the show, but y’know, some of you guys seem to like it. She’s done more then Twilight, at least.
I’ve never read Alias – good, right? It sounds like a gender-flipped Powers…
@JurassicAlien:
Nobody called her a sellout. They called her a bad writer.
@muddi900 I had the exact same reaction. “Yes, finally HBO/Showtime/Starz had the good sense to… wait, ABC? Oh.”
I think even more than the writer, the studio is going to ruin the potential of this show by making it into some “fun, chic show about the life of a private investigator in a world of superheros!” It will probably have a bunch of feel good one shots of her helping reunite family’s or something.
Interesting news. I also have been really interested in reading this series, but the omnibus & the two ultimate collections are really hard to find. Hopefully Marvel will come out with a brand new collection or just a reissue of the ultimate collections and/or omnibus & then I can catch up on the hype.
How can this work ? One of the most intersting things about Alias was her status as a former superhero and her connection to the Avengers. Will that be highlited in the series ? Will she be a detective in the Mega community and will they show Marvel characters ?
@muddi900 – His point is the property she had to work with was bad from the get-go; she didn’t write Twilight, just the screenplay. She may indeed be a good writer, but she couldn’t salvage what was already damaged goods.
I had the same reaction to the Melissa Rosenberg part of the announcement as most of you, but seeing that Dexter is one of the most recent entries on her resume, I’m more interested. Dexter and Alias have the same, ominous tone, so this so far is OK with me. Sure, it could tank and the addition of shirtless teenage werewolves could derail the entire thing, but for now, I’m optimistic.
Now i understand why they can’t call the show Alias but AKA Jessica Jones is a pretty terrible name. Best bet would probably be drop the AKA. But this show would be a good fit for ABC as they need something to fill the superhero void left by Heroes and No Ordinary Family (has that been cancelled yet?).
This obviously won’t follow the comic super closely, but if they capture the character just right, it could be a great TV show. The characters are certainly the strength of that series.
I hope nobody gets butt-hurt if this never makes it to television.
One of the quirks of being a MAX book was that (at least at first) the book couldn’t really use any of the “name” heroes prominently. This’ll be like that, only much moreso.
I hope this is good/successful enough to bring more people to the book. Maybe even get a little something new going for the character.
Oh I’m sure you could display anal sex as long as the camera is above the action.
Boy, that single panel has sure gotten a lot of mileage in the last ten years.