Syfy Picks Up French Anthology Series Metal Hurlant Chronicles

By Nick Venable | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

metal hurlantWith the advent of season-long anthology series like American Horror Story and True Detective, not to mention the slew of horror anthologies peppering the cinematic landscape, it’s high time for this approach to make its way back to television. Now, if it takes Syfy spearheading the movement to bring short-form sci-fi storytelling to our eyeballs, then so be it. The network has acquired the rights to the first two seasons of the French series Metal Hurlant Chronicles, and we can look forward to seeing Scott Adkins kicking everyone’s asses up to their faces later this spring.

It’s somewhat strange that no one has snatched the show up by now, considering it’s filmed mostly in English and looks right up the over-produced alley of networks like Starz or Cinemax. But Syfy it will be. So long as they had nothing to do with its creation, this isn’t bad news in the slightest.

Mostly filmed in Romania, Metal Hurlant Chronicles is based on Jean Giraud and Philippe Druillet’s cult comic/magazine Heavy Metal. The series was created by Guillaume Lubrano, who filmed a would-be pilot that got picked up by We Prods a couple of years ago. Each of the episodes adapts previously published stories, and though each one stands alone in terms of narrative, they’re all connected to the titular Metal Hurlant, which is an asteroid passing over the Earth as each story is told.

The series boasts a cast of awesome B-list actors who are sure to ham up some interesting stories. You can expect to see the likes of the previously mentioned Adkins (The Expendables 2, Michael Jai White (Spawn), Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner), Michelle Ryan (Bionic Woman), Michael Biehn (The Terminator), James Marsters (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Joe Flanigan (Stargate Atlantis), David Belle (District 13), Dominique Pinon (Micmacs), Kelly Brook (Piranha 3D), Jimmy Jean-Louis (Heroes), and John Rhys-Davies (The Lord of the Rings). And more!

It seems impossible that this series could outshine the 1981 animated Heavy Metal, which took its subject matter to strange extremes. This all looks like straightforward storytelling, albeit with just as cartoonish an approach. Check out one of the teasers for the second season, which is set to air in France later this year.

And now give a listen to the almighty presences of White and Adkins discussing the first season.

Syfy plans to air the series’ first season starting in April, with no word on when the second season will follow.