Watchmen co-writer David Hayter has joined forces with producer Benedict Carver to form Dark Hero Studios, a company that will generate film, TV, Internet and videogame projects in the action, sci-fi and horror genres, according to Variety.

Formation of the company comes as Hayter prepares to make his directorial debut on his werewolf thriller script Slaughter's Road, with Carver producing along with Steven Paul through Crystal Sky Prods. Production begins in the summer.

Hayter said Thomas Dekker (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) will star, and Ray Stevenson (Rome) is in talks to star alongside Dekker.

Dark Hero begins its slate of projects with Demonology, which Hayter wrote and will direct, and the company will set up graphic novels, comicbooks, vidgame properties and original genre scripts for movie treatment. Sarah Freudeman will be Dark Hero's director of development.

Hayter said he hatched Slaughter's Road after he was offered a slew of werewolf movies and found enough flaws in each to never want to make such a pic; genre-savvy friends changed his mind.

Hayter's Demonology grew out of his experiences attending an international high school in Japan.

"It's about an American kid who goes to one of these schools in Belgium, but it brings my own horrible experiences of school to life," Hayter said.