Studio 8 has acquired the rights to Richard Kadrey's SANDMAN SLIM series of novels, and are developing the property with the intention of turning it into a film franchise. Kadrey has supplied enough material for such an endeavor – as of right now there are eight Sandman Slim novels, with a ninth in the works.
The books center on a character called
James “Sandman Slim” Stark, a fast talking, hard-boiled, supernatural vigilante who escapes from Hell to avenge his girlfriend’s murder and hunt down the magicians responsible for getting him sent “downtown.”
Kel Symons has been given the task of adapting Slim's story into a screenplay.
I hadn't heard of the Sandman Slim books until the Studio 8 news, but looking into them they sound quite interesting, with the idea of a supernatural vigilante taking on magic and monsters holding a lot of cinematic promise. A Booklist review of the first Sandman Slim novel describes it as a blend of tough guy noir with RE-ANIMATOR and ARMY OF DARKNESS, which sounds like an extremely cool mash-up to me.
So far, the Sandman Slim series consists of the following novels: Sandman Slim, Kill the Dead, Aloha from Hell, Devil Said Bang, Kill City Blues, The Getaway God, Killing Pretty, and The Perdition Score.