EXCLUSIVE: Legendary Television has optioned Grass Kings, the Eisner Award-nominated graphic novel series published by Boom! Studios and created by writer Matt Kindt (Mind Mgmt) and artist Tyler Jenkins (Peter Panzerfaust), for series development. Grant Wheeler & Ben Freiburger are attached to adapt the rural mystery story that follows the rise of the Grass Kingdom, an off-the-grid Alaska haven for outsiders that faces dark threats as it grows.

The project was brought into Legendary by VP of Television Eric Brassard. Wheeler and Freiburger will executive produce along with the Boom! Studios tandem of Ross Richie and Stephen Christy. Matt Kindt, Tyler Jenkins, and Averie Huffine are Co-Executive Producers on the project.

Wheeler & Freiburger are the team behind YouTube Red’s Lifeline, the Dwayne Johnson science fiction series Lifeline. Boom! has the Disney/Fox feature film The Empty Man now in post-production and The Woods in development at UCP/Syfy. UCP also has Matt Kindt’s comic book series Mind Mgmt in development.

Boom! Studios began publishing Grass Kings as a comic book series in 2017. The saga was collected and reprinted last year in three hardcover editions. The synopsis of Grass Kings : “A rural mystery series that follows Robert Pike as he creates a separatist society among the island homesteads of Alaska to insulate himself against the loss of his murdered daughter. With help from the fellow outcasts and misfits that join him, Robert will grow an off-the-grid community into his ideal civilization. But as his kingdom grows, so does the list of adversaries that threaten to tear down what he’s created. Only with the help of his family can Robert hold the demons within, and without, at bay.”

Wheeler and Freiburger are repped Gersh. Boom! is repped by UTA and Matt Saver. Kindt is repped by APA.