WETA Workshop’s Pukeko Pictures has announced plans to develop Image Comics’ “sass & sorcery” comic Rat Queens into an animated series.  Pukeko Pictures will work with Heavy Metal to develop Rat Queens.  According to Variety, the partners plan to develop the property into a 30-minute show before shopping it to the networks and digital platforms.
 
Rat Queens is a dark comedy created by Kurtis Weibe and Roc Upchurch that revolves around four beer-guzzling fantasy heroines, Hannah the Rockabilly eleven mage, Violet the hipster dwarven fighter, Dee the atheist human cleric, and Betty the hippy smidgen thief, who make their livings fighting all sorts of monsters.  The first Rat Queens graphic novel collection, Rat Queens Vol. 1: Sass & Sorcery was released in April and retailers in hip markets tell ICv2 that the both the comic and the graphic novel have developed considerable sales momentum.
 
Heavy Metal also has a hand in developing Weibe’s other Image comic Peter Panzerfaust, which is being developed as a live-action TV series with Life on Mars creator Matthew Graham working in conjunction with BBC Worldwide (see "'Chew' Back in TV Development").