HBO Max has ordered a pilot for Dead Boy Detectives, based on a pair of characters that first appeared in DC Comics’s classic Sandman series. The project is housed at Berlanti Productions with The Flight Attendant creator Steve Yockey writing the pilot script.
If the project goes to series, the hour-long show will center on the adventures of the ghosts of two dead English school boys – one who died in 1916 and one who died in more modern times – who rather than move on to whatever after life awaits them decide to hang about on Earth solving supernatural mysteries.
The characters were created by writer Neil Gaiman and artists Matt Wagner and Malcolm Jones III and debuted in 1991’s The Sandman #25 as part of the on-going “Seasons Of Mist” storyline. They later appeared in a handful of other comics put out under DC’s Vrtigo imprint including The Children’s Crusade, Death: At Death’s Door and Vertigo Anthology before getting their own, albeit short-lived, solo series in 2014.
A television adaptation of The Sandman has been set up over at Netflix, with filming on season one having just wrapped last month. It is not known if the characters will appear there as well.
