AMERICAN BEAUTY director Sam Mendes and his Bond writer John Logan are teaming on a Victorian horror series that will unite some of macabre literature's most iconic figures. 

Touted as a psychosexual horror series (on pay cable, the sexual half is a given), PENNY DREADFUL will find the likes of Dr. Frankenstein and his monster, Dorian Gray, characters from DRACULA, and more, embroiled in Victorian London. The series "weaves together these classic horror origin stories as the characters grapple with their monstrous alienation."

A precursor to pulps and YA lit, the term Penny Dreadful refers to novels and serials of a sensational, thrilling (and cheap) nature aimed at Victorians as literacy rates rocketed in 1800s England. As it's early, there's no word on on other characters of the era expected to show, but there's plenty to choose from; Sweeney Todd first appeared in Penny Dreadful, THE STRING OF PEARLS (pictured left). 

PENNY DREADFUL heads into production in the latter half of 2013. 

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