French DVD house WE Productions has teamed with publisher Les Humanoïdes Associés to produce Metal Hurlant Chronicles, a live-action TV series based on the long-running comic-book anthology (licensed in the United States as Heavy Metal.)

Variety reports that each half-hour episode will be shot in English and French by director Guillaume Lubrano, and will adapt one or two stories from from the anthology. The pilot's two segments, "Red Light" and "Cold Hard Facts," star David Belle (The Prince of Persia) and Jean Yves Berteloot (The Da Vinci Code).

WE Productions already has sold the series in more than 20 international markets, and is negotiating with a U.S. distributor and a French television channel. The first two seasons, comprising 12 episodes, are expected to be delivered in January 2012.

Created in 1974 by comic artists Jean Giraud (Moebius) and Philippe Druillet Jean-Pierre Dionnet and Bernard Farkas, Metal Hurlant was an influential science fiction and horror anthology that attracted such talent as Richard Corben, Enki Bilal, Bernie Wrightson and Milo Manara.

Check out the promotional trailers and more stills below.

(stills and videos via JoBlo and Bleeding Cool)