As announced on MTV Geek, Top Cow Productions, Inc. is proud to announce that the winners of Pilot Season 2010 is William Harms and Jerry Lando’s 39 MINUTES.
39 MINUTES beat out ASSET by Top Cow publisher Filip Sablik and David Marquez, CROSSHAIR by Top Cow founder Marc Silvestri, Jeff Katz and Allan Jefferson, FOREVER by Brad Ingelsby and Thomas Nachlik and 7 DAYS FROM HELL by Bryan Edward Hill, Rob Levin and Phil Noto.
39 MINUTES turns a heist story on its head when a group of ex-soldiers turned bank robbers’ decide to hit up small towns leaving a path of destruction by killing everyone who gets in their way. As the clock’s ticking, the only man who can stop them just happens to be in prison and refuses to help.
“All of the books in this year’s competition are really good,” said Harms. “I’m excited and humbled that 39 MINUTES came out on top.”
Fans rushed to the web, even crashing the first poll, to vote for their favorite 2010 Pilot Season one-shots. Pilot Season is an annual initiative Top Cow began in 2007 that borrows its concept from the television industry: five ‘pilots’ are submitted for consideration to be ‘picked up for a season,’ except instead of TV executives decided their fates, it’s the fans!
Now that 39 MINUTES has been declared the winner, the creative team will work with Top Cow’s editorial department to start planning out their series, which will debut in 2011.
Previous winners of Pilot Season include: CYBLADE, VELOCITY, TWILIGHT GUARDIAN and GENIUS. VELOCITY can currently be found at your local comic book shop shelves, TWILIGHT GUARDIAN (NOV100495) is available for pre-order and, along with GENIUS, will be debuting in 2011.
About Top Cow Productions Inc.
Top Cow Productions, Inc. (www.topcow.com), a Los Angeles-based entertainment company, was founded in December of 1992 by artist Marc Silvestri, who also co-founded Image Comics earlier that same year. Top Cow currently publishes its line of comic books in 21 languages in over 55 different countries. The company has launched 20 franchises (18 original and two licensed) in the industry’s Top 10, seven at #1, a feat accomplished by no other publisher in the last two decades. Its flagship franchise, WITCHBLADE, was TNT’s #1 original film of 2000 and the subsequent TV series was released on DVD on July 29, 2008. WITCHBLADE is also the first American property to be fully adapted in Japan as an original anime and manga by Studio GONZO in 2006. Top Cow’s other flagship property, THE DARKNESS, was developed into a major next-generation video game release by Starbreeze and 2K Games and achieved platinum sales status. WANTED, an Eisner-nominated miniseries published by Top Cow from 2003-2005, is now a major motion picture from Universal Pictures starring Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman. Virtually all of Top Cow’s other properties are in development as feature films, live-action television, animation or video games. Top Cow has also successfully licensed and merchandised its franchises into toys, statues, clothing, lithographs, puppets, posters, magnets, shot glasses, lighters, lunch pails, wall scrolls, mouse pads, die-cast cars, calendars, Christmas ornaments, Halloween masks, trading cards, standees, video games and roleplaying games.
