Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez' Locke & Key was an outstanding comic series - one of the best of the past decade, in this writer's opinion - and for some time now one network or another has been keen to adapt the property for television. Fox came closest back in 2011, producing a full-blown pilot produced by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, but the show never made it past that stage. It was kind of a bummer!

Well, now - thanks to the good folks at Hulu - we might just be getting another shot. Here's the news, via Deadline:

Hulu has given a pilot order to Locke and Key, a one-hour horror/ fantasy drama adaptation of the IDW comic by Joe Hill (The Fireman) and artist Gabriel Rodriguez (Little Nemo). The project comes from Hill, Carlton Cuse (Bates Motel, The Strain) and IDW Entertainment, with Doctor Strange helmer Scott Derrickson set to direct.

Yes, Doctor Strange's Scott Derrickson will direct another Locke & Key pilot for Hulu, from a script written by Hill himself and uber-producer Carlton Cuse in his corner. This is great news.

For those of you unfamiliar with Hill and Rodriguez' series, here's a fairly accurate plot synopsis:

Locke & Key revolves around three siblings who, after the gruesome murder of their father, move to their ancestral home in Maine only to find the house has magical keys that give them a vast array of powers and abilities. Little do they know, a devious demon also wants the keys, and will stop at nothing to attain them.

Pairing Derrickson with this property, particularly in the wake of Doctor Strange, is a pretty savvy move: Locke & Key deals with a lot of metaphysical weirdness (doorways that open onto other planes of reality, mindbending shenanigans involving keys that can literally open people's heads and see what makes them tick, vengeful spirits lurking around wells, what have you), and I think Derrickson will be a great fit for translating that stuff to screen. Of course, he'll have to get that far with it first: this is only a pilot commitment, and - if I remember correctly - it took a little while for those bizarro elements to work their way into the comics.

Oh, well! For now, let's just be happy that Hulu's interested in seeing a test run, and cross our fingers that Derrickson and company put something together that pleases the company...and the series' many fans.

Stay tuned for more on Hulu's Locke & Key as it becomes available.