“The Batman” spin-off series about Arkham Asylum in HBO Max brought Antonio Campos as its new author, Variety learned exclusively from sources.
Sources also say that Campos will direct and serve as showrunner/executive producer for the series, should his version of the show ultimately go ahead.
However, Campos is now the third writer brought onto the DC project since being originally announced in July 2020 with a series commitment. At that time, the show was supposed to be about the inner workings of the Gotham PD and set in the same world as Matt Reeves’ “The Batman,” with writing and executive producing by Terence Winter. But the news broke in November of the same year that Winter had left the show about creative differences. Creator of “Giri/Haji” Joe Barton was then brought on boardbut when the project moved away from the police department to focus instead on the infamous asylum, Warner Bros. also parted ways with Barton.
Representatives from Campos, HBO Max and Warner Bros. declined to comment.
Reeves serves as executive producer of the Arkham Asylum show under his 6th & Idaho banner along with the company’s Daniel Pipski and Adam Kassan. Dylan Clark will also serve as executive producer with co-executive producer Rafi Crohn of 6th & Idaho. Warner Bros Television is the studio. Reeves is currently under an overall contract with WBTV.
The Arkham Asylum show does not have an official login line at this time, but Reeves described it previously like “like a horror movie or a haunted house that is Arkham”. It is the second known spin-off series from “The Batman”, with Colin Farrell set to reprise Penguin role in his own standalone show.
Campos is no stranger to HBO Max, having previously worked with the streaming service on the critically acclaimed true-crime limited series “The Staircase.” Campos was the writer, director, executive producer and showrunner of this project, which starred Colin Firth and Toni Collette as Michael and Kathleen Peterson respectively. It debuted on HBO Max in May 2022.
In addition to “The Staircase,” Campos’ previous television credits include producing and directing several episodes of USA Network’s hit crime anthology series “The Sinner,” including the pilot and Season 2 premiere. He also directed an episode during the first season of the Marvel-Netflix series “The Punisher”. On the feature film side, he wrote and directed films such as “Simon Killer” and “Afterschool”. His film “The Devil All the Time”, based on Donald Ray Pollock’s novel, was released in 2020. The cast included Robert Pattinson, Tom Holland and Riley Keough. Campos co-wrote the film with Paulo Campos.
He is replaced by CAA, Entertainment 360 and Nelson Davis LLP.
