F.J. DeSanto has spent 20 years betting on comics nobody else was paying attention to. Now Hollywood is listening.
The producer and Head of Film and TV for Vault Comics just landed “Barbaric,” a live-action Netflix series greenlight based on the Vault book by Mike Moreci and Nathan Gooden, with writer-producer Sheldon Turner and Robert Rovner co-showrunning.
The official logline for “Barbaric” reads: “A ruthless and crass barbarian is cursed to use his violence only for good, which sends him, his talking axe and a young witch on a road of self discovery, redemption and revenge.”
He’s recently adapted Vault’s “Bleed Them Dry” as an anime for Paramount Plus with Atomic Monster. He is currently packaging and developing several of Vault’s high profile titles including “The Cemeterians”, “Nectar,” “The Autumnal,” “Excommunicated,” the forthcoming “Godfather of Hell” and Post Malone’s “Big Rig,” Vault’s best-selling title, to take to the market in the next year.
None of it happened by accident.
DeSanto cut his teeth as an assistant to the producers of “Constantine,” then co-produced “The Spirit” for Lionsgate. He ran several animated “Transformers” series for Hasbro, including one for Netflix, produced the Netflix anime “Tekken,” and co-created Vault’s “Failsafe,” which is in development at Netflix. Having worked extensively in Japan, he was also the first person to speak on manga and anime at the Smithsonian Institution.
But it’s his work building Vault’s entertainment pipeline, from the ground up, that he’s most focused on today.
“I don’t have to sell a hook, I can sell a book,” DeSanto told TheWrap’s Office With a View. “The books are good, and I know they’re well developed and character driven. I don’t have to pitch people ‘it’s Die Hard in a deli.’”
You’ve had a front-row seat to the comics-to-screen business for 20 years. How has the way studios approach comic IP changed?
When I started, comics weren’t really accepted as an ongoing source of material, and when they eventually became that way, it was mostly perceived as just superhero books. Over the years, certain things changed that perception. “Road to Perdition,” “Wanted,” “Scott Pilgrim.” Movies that weren’t DC or Marvel. Now people understand that comics are a rich resource of storytelling. It’s more genre-based. They’ve accepted it and look beyond superheroes.
Vault is still relatively young compared to Marvel or DC. What’s your pitch to studios when you’re bringing them a Vault property?
The fact that we don’t publish anything related to superheroes or multiverses really helps. What Vault is very good at is just creating good books. When we started working together, we decided early on to keep publishing and entertainment church and state. The entertainment side does not impact what they publish and vice versa. They’re not using comic books as a medium to sell a script or a treatment, and the books reflect that. It attracts talent in a way that other comics don’t.
Also, these properties aren’t mired in decades of mythology. They’re relatively clean. And one smart thing Vault does is they don’t do many ongoing books. A lot of what they publish is self-contained, which makes my life easier. I can point to a beginning, middle and end of a story as a launch pad.
“Barbaric” just got greenlit at Netflix. What was the journey from comic to series order?
Like everything in this business, it’s a long game and an endurance contest. It’s not for the weak. The irony is that when “Barbaric” was first published, Damian Wassel and I looked at it and thought, I can’t imagine anybody doing this in live action because it’s so over the top. And boy, were we wrong. People started calling about it immediately.
It was really Sheldon Turner who got my number out of the blue and called me with a very impassioned plea about his love for it and his understanding of it. He had a first-look deal at A+E and was willing to get behind it. His producing partner Jennifer Klein has really been the driving force who powered her way through this to get it where it is today. They’ve been tremendous partners. It took a long time to develop the take, but it was done in a careful and loving way. By the time it was taken out, Netflix saw it as something special that speaks to a new audience. It doesn’t have the baggage of a Conan. It feels new, it feels fresh.
You were the showrunner on “Transformers: War for Cybertron.” What did running that trilogy teach you about working inside a franchise from a big toy company like Hasbro?
It started before that. I came from working for the executive producers on the Batman movies, doing things like “Constantine” and “The Spirit,” so I had an understanding of how bigger rights holders operate. I also had relationships at Hasbro through those earlier jobs, which allowed me to understand the mechanics of how it works. And in my other life as a writer, I was writing “Star Trek” for CBS and doing “Star Wars” shows with Kyle Newman for Star Wars Celebration. All of that gave me a foundation.
Before the Netflix series, there was a digital series called “Power of the Primes” that I was originally an EP and writer on, and then became showrunner. That was the crash course in gaining Hasbro’s trust and learning how animation is produced. By the time I went into “War for Cybertron,” I was well positioned. I already had Hasbro’s trust. We very rarely disagreed on creative direction. It was a real pleasure. I’ve had experiences with other huge rights holders that weren’t as good. All the stars just aligned on that one.
What’s the comic sitting on your desk right now that you think should be a movie or TV show?
There’s a book coming out soon called “Godfather of Hell” that I think is very special. A lot of people are already talking to us about it. Same with “Nectar” and “Excommunicated,” which are from the same creator (Jeremy Robinson). Vault has gone up a few levels in terms of coming up with original ideas that are rich and fresh.
It becomes a much easier sell when you have confidence in the material. But the biggest one I’m most excited about is Post Malone’s “Big Rig,” which is Vault’s biggest-selling title. We’ve got a great package coming together for that that we’re taking out very, very shortly.
What’s the one thing producers get wrong when they try to adapt comics?
They don’t understand the source material. It’s less these days about just handing over an option fee. It’s about who’s going to put this on a pathway to success. That requires people really understanding the material, and my job is to vet that.
You can smell the bullshit sometimes. Somebody wants to option a comic just because it’s a comic and comics are IP. I don’t want to deal in that space for Vault. I want people to understand that this Vault book is an excellent idea that can be expanded upon. A lot of times people just look at the hook or the cool pictures and don’t understand the actual content. And that becomes tricky.
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