Joe Flanigan announced at a convention in the UK this weekend that he’s taken a role in a new scifi series called the Metal Hurlant Chronicles. He said (according to a @FlanInfo Twitter report) that he’ll be filming in November, after he goes to the Marseille Halfway Convention. He said, “It’s cool, like Blade Runner, but more bad guys.”
Variety has published two articles about the project so far, here and here. The first describes the show as being based on the 1980’s French graphic novel series that was called Heavy Metal in the US. The live-action series is a multi-national Euopean production that’s been sold as a TV series to more than 20 territories, although not yet to the US. Distribution in the US is still under negotiation. There is a plan to produce two seasons of 12 episodes each.
Each episode will be shot in English and French. Perhaps Joe’s ability to speak French (to some degree!) helped him get the role!
The second article announces early casting decisions, naming Joe as “starring” in the show. From the article:
CANNES — Scott Adkins (“The Expendables 2”) and Michael Jai White (“Black Dynamite”) have joined the international cast of sci-fi TV series “Metal Hurlant Chronicles.”
Rutger Hauer (“Blade Runner”), Joe Flanigan (“Stargate Atlantis) and James Marsters (“Buffy”) will also star in the TV show’s first season.
It’s not clear if Joe will be a regular or a guest star in one or more episodes. At the convention he only mentioned filming during the month of November (in Belgium), and in the past he’s said he doesn’t want to work far from his home in Malibu for long periods.
By the way, Joe tweeted the attached picture late last week, showing the stenciled tattoos he wore for Six Bullets, which he just finished filming in Romania. By the way, IMDB shows the name of that movie has changed to The Butcher.
Thanks to @FlanInfo for gathering all the Metal Hurlant information from the convention and the ‘net!
Metal Hurlant has a FaceBook page, in French. So far no mention of Joe that we can see.