Though it didn’t get the mainstream attention of some other titles, Image Comics’ Undying Love was published in 2011 to a decent critical reaction. It mixed up a number of genres to good effect: John Sargent is an ex-soldier who finds himself facing down Triads and members of the Chinese criminal underworld as well as some supernatural threats after he falls in love with a vampire called Mei and seeks to protect her. But with Mei having been sired by one of the world’s most powerful vampires and everyone wanting a piece of her power… the question may be: who will protect John Sargent?
The comic was originally touted as having two planned story-arcs told over an eight issue limited series with creators Tomm Coker and Daniel Freedman having studied aspects of both Chinese and Romanian folklore. In the end, only four issues were produced (and subsequently collected in one deluxe edition). However the mix of ingredients quickly made it a target for a multi-media adaptation and there were early noises about options and imminent productions – with Piranha 3D‘s Alexandre Aja touted as director in an announcement made in 2012 . Given ‘development hell’, these did not seem to gain immediate further momentum and later that year Joe Carnahan (The Grey, Smokin’ Aces, The A-Team) appeared to be the new director of choice. Then all went quiet.
However there’s now been some significant movement made with yet another director stepping in: John Wick‘s David Leitch whose latest actioner Hobbs and Shaw will debut in late summer appears to be taking over the helming duties. There’s no news of casting, but we have fingers crossed that the project will now build up some speed.
