Syfy has found a star for their upcoming Happy! series. According to Deadline, Christopher Meloni (Wet Hot American Summer, Man of Steel) will take the lead role in the upcoming television<> adaptation of the 2012 Image Comics miniseries by Grant Morrison and Darick Robertson. The offbeat tale blends comedy and violence and will see Meloni play Nick Sax, a hitman who winds up teaming with a little girl’s imaginary friend (a flying blue unicorn named Happy) to save the girl’s life.
“Meet Nick Sax,” reads the official synopsis of Happy!, “a corrupt, intoxicated ex-cop turned hit-man, adrift in a stinking twilight world of casual murder, soulless sex, eczema and betrayal. With a hit gone wrong, a bullet in his side, the cops and the mob on his tail, and a monstrous child killer in a Santa suit on the loose, Nick and his world will be changed forever this Christmas. By a tiny blue horse called Happy.”
Plans to adapt Happy! were announced before the miniseries even concluded, although the original plan was to bring the property to the big screen with RZA aiming to make the film his directorial followup to The Man With the Iron Fists.
Meloni is also set to serve as executive producer on Happy!, which has been given the pilot green light at Syfy. Grant Morrison is adapting his own comic alongside Crank’s Brian Taylor. The pair will also serve as executive producers.
A Universal Cable Production, Happy! will also be produced by Bill Butler
