Horror Comic “Exquisite Corpses” Slashes to the Big Screen!
One of the hottest comics on the market is Image’s Exquisite Corpses, a brutal, hardcore slasher series centered on a deadly game played every five years on Halloween, when the wealthiest families in America unleash twelve of the world’s most dangerous killers on an unsuspecting town.
It will next be adapted for the big screen, thanks to Lyrical Media and James Tynion IV’s Tiny Onion, who jointly announced today the development of two horror films, marking a new phase of their growing partnership.
The collaboration will bring to screen Tynion’s new bestselling horror comic book series Exquisite Corpses and a feature adaptation of his short film and one-shot comic, Room Service!
Tynion, the five-time Eisner Award-winning writer behind Something Is Killing the Children, The Nice House on the Lake, and The Department of Truth, launched Tiny Onion in 2023 with a seed investment from Lyrical Media, the banner behind upcoming feature films The Death of Robin Hood and Onslaught, to serve as a cross-platform incubator for his original IP. The new films expand that relationship, formalizing Lyrical as a key producing partner across multiple mediums.
The first season of the comic book series, published by Image Comics and co-created by artist Michael Walsh, has already become a breakout hit, selling more than 500,000 copies to date. Exquisite Corpses also became the highest-selling original IP launch of the year in the comic book direct market, marking Tynion’s best debut in over three years. A companion trading card game, Exquisite Corpses: The Game, is in development to be released this summer. Lyrical Media and Tiny Onion envision the property as a franchise starter with expansive potential across live-action film, animation, and video games, and are currently packaging the feature with A-list talent. Tynion will produce the feature film for Tiny Onion, with Michael Walsh joining as executive producer, and Alexander Black and Arlen Konopaki are producing for Lyrical Media with Jon Rosenberg from Lyrical Media as an executive producer.
Room Service is a feature adaptation of Tynion’s Kickstarter crowdfunded short film, co-created by artist Elsa Charretier and director PK Colinet, about a sinister hotel service that allows its clients to commit their ideal murder scenarios. In addition to the short film, Tynion and his collaborators released a prequel one-shot comic, published by Image Comics. Tynion will co-write the feature script with filmmaker Colinet.
Exquisite Corpses and Room Service join an aggressive development slate for both James Tynion IV and Tiny Onion. In October, it was announced that Blumhouse Productions had optioned Tynion’s bestselling comics horror franchise, Something is Killing the Children, to adapt both for film and for an animated television series with Tynion attached to produce alongside the series publisher BOOM! Studios. In December, Tiny Onion announced its expansive development slate in animation, including an adaptation of Tynion’s Image Comics series W0rldtr33 at Netflix, an adaptation of his BOOM! Studios series The Woods, and an original adult animated comedy series developed with production company Irony Point, Tipsy Dragon.
Lyrical Media is currently in post-production on Adam Wingard’s Onslaught and Michael Sarnoski’s The Death of Robin Hood starring Hugh Jackman, Jodie Comer, and Bill Skarsgård, both of which will be distributed by A24 this year.
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