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Netflix's next sci-fi TV hit? Scott Snyder's 'Nocterra' in the works from 'Westworld' producer

The comic takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where a strange darkness turns people into feral monsters.

By Josh Weiss
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You might want to start hoarding flashlights because Scott Snyder and Tony Daniel's best-selling Nocterra series published by Image Comics is becoming a television show at Netflix, SYFY WIRE has confirmed.

The Hollywood Reporter was one of the first outlets to break the news on the small screen project, which hails from Westworld producer Roberto Patino (who enjoys an overall deal with the streamer) and James Wan's Atomic Monster production company. Wan will produce alongside Michael Clear and Rob Hackett.

The book takes place in post-apocalyptic world where a strange darkness turns any living being it touches into a feral monster known as a "shade." Ten years after the sun was blotted out and the planet plunged into a state of eternal night, heroine Val Riggs ferries people and goods across the inky landscape in a hulking eighteen wheeler tricked out with bright lights.

When her radio dispatcher and brother, Emmett, is infected by the darkness, Val sets out to find a fabled illuminated city that may hold a cure and explanation for what happened to the sun all those years ago.

“Netflix is an extraordinary champion of intentional and inclusive storytelling, and I’m so eager to use this opportunity to tell bold stories that properly represent the Latinx community in entertaining, exhilarating and powerful ways," Patino, who is forming his own production banner, Analog Inc., said in a statement provided to THR. "I couldn’t be happier to call Netflix my new home, and I can’t wait to hit the ground running with Nocterra and my boundary-pushing friends and partners at Atomic Monster.”

“The passion, vision and world-building that Roberto Patino brings to all his projects is incredibly exciting. Coupled with his undeniable voice, style and deep commitment to uplifting inclusive voices and point of views in his storytelling make for a powerful combination that we are thrilled to embrace and share with our members around the world,” added Alex Sapot, head of deals at Netflix.

SYFY WIRE got an exclusive look at Nocterra last summer ahead of Snyder and Daniel launching a Kickstarter campaign for a 72-page Collector's Edition of the book, which raised nearly $220,000.

"I was pretty terrified of the dark as a kid, and when my own son started having the same fears, the idea just occurred to me," Snyder told us. "What if tomorrow, night just never ended, and this new darkness, what if any living thing that stayed in it too long was transformed into something monstrous, a 'shade.'" It's one of those ideas you have and you just know it's got everything you love to do. It marries the character driven, horror storytelling of WYTCHES with the widescreen action of my recent DC writing, and Tony, his art has that same energy. It's big and bombastic, but his character work is masterful."