NBC has announced this morning that they will be airing the TV adaptation of “XIII”, the classic Belgian comic series political thriller, airing February 8 and 15, 2009. The television event will star Val Kilmer, Stephen Dorff, Stephen McHattie, and Jessalyn Gilsig.

The adaptation, called “XIII: The Conspiracy”, originally aired in France this year on the premium TV channel Canal+ before coming to the US and other territories. The anonymous protagonist is on the run, wanted by the US government after the assassination of the first female President of the US and the uncovering of a mysterious conspiracy in the government.

“XIII” was created by the Franco-Belgian team of Jean Van Hamme and William Vance, and is about an amnesiac hitman trying to discover the truth about his past. The only clue that he has is a tattoo on his neck, “XIII”, and him waking up in a tree in a parachute with no memory at all before that. Drawing its influences from Robert Ludlum’s renowned book “The Bourne Identity”, it has been serialized several times over the years in comic collections, as well as adapted into a video game based on the first third of the story. There have also been attempts to bring the comic itself to the US but so far none have had success.

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By Costa Koutsoutis, (Source: MTV Splash Page)