TV
“Tales From the Crypt” Rights Issues a Complicated “Nightmare”
The “twist” ending is that we’ll probably never see “Tales From the Crypt” back on television (I’m fine with this so long as I get the HBO episodes in HD one of these days).
Last year, TNT told Bloody Disgusting that rights issues have delayed their “Tales From the Crypt” revival, which was to be part of an M. Night Shyamalan curated horror block. In August 2016 TNT president Kevin Reilly said to expect the show in the fourth quarter of 2017. After small optimism, Reilly told Deadline back in June that they’re moving on from the project and instead focusing on Ridley Scott’s new anthology series.
“That one got really caught up in a complete legal mess unfortunately with a very complicated underlying rights structure,” he had explained. “We lost so much time, so I said, ‘Look, I’m not waiting around four years for this thing’. Maybe that will come back around…”
Reilly had more to say today, explaining that they wouldn’t have even announced the project had they known how complicated and screwed up the rights were.
“It’s been fun with lawyers, it’s been really fun,” Reilly sarcastically stated. “We did not know from the get-go or else we would not have announced it and made a big deal out of it. But in fact, there were rights. It is among the most — if not the most — complicated rights structure I’ve ever seen in my career, and we had no idea as we got into it. It became a nightmare. So we said, ‘Fine.’ If and when this gets cleaned up, we’ll revisit.”
“Tales From the Crypt” – part of TNT’s planned Horror Block, which was to also include “Time of Death” and “Creatures” – was greenlit back in April 2016 as they were ramping up an initial 10-episode order of the anthology series that would have reinvented the Crypt Keeper, based on the original EC Comics.
The project was announced as a new block of terror and suspense that was to be curated by Shyamalan, the Oscar-nominated writer-director of The Sixth Sense, Signs and Unbreakable, and executive producer of the the Fox series “Wayward Pines.”
The block was said to feature both short and long-form storytelling, led by the “Tales From the Crypt” anthology series, executive-produced by Shyamalan, his partner at Blinding Edge Pictures, Ashwin Rajan; Endgame’s James Stern; and Aloris Entertainment’s John Santilli and Dan McKinnon.
TV
‘God of War’ – Ryan Hurst Suffers On-Set Injury and Will Be Replaced as Kratos in Prime Video Series
After four episodes have already been shot of Prime Video’s hotly anticipated “God of War” television series, we’ve learned that an on-set injury will send the team back to square one.
Deadline reports that actor Ryan Hurst, who had been cast to play Kratos in the series, tore his bicep during a stunt-gone-wrong on set, and rather than wait until Hurst has healed up and can get back into action, the streaming series will instead recast the role of Kratos.
Additionally, all four episodes they’ve already shot will have to be fully re-shot with the new actor they bring in to play Kratos. At this time, no replacement actor has been announced.
Deadline notes that the decision was made by Sony Pictures Television and Amazon MGM Studios, the producers of the upcoming Prime Video adaptation of the video game franchise.
Hurst tore his bicep while doing a stunt on set back in late June. “This is a heartbreaking development for Hurst who underwent a physical transformation after getting the role, putting on 40 lbs of muscle, and worked hard for months on the Vancouver set filming the physically demanding role until getting hurt performing his duties,” Deadline notes in their report.
The outlet explains, “Hurst’s recovery time is unclear but for a serious bicep tear requiring surgery, it is typically 4-6 months, with a return to full strength taking up to a year. Given the physicality of the role, it will likely not have been safe for Hurst to resume filming until 2027. According to sources, while Hurst’s full recovery is a priority, the period required was longer than the production shooting schedule could accommodate, leading to the difficult decision.”
The “God of War” production is currently on hiatus. Stay tuned for more.
Callum Vinson (“Crystal Lake”) is playing Atreus in Prime Video’s “God of War.”
The live-action adaptation of PlayStation’s massively popular ancient mythology-themed video game franchise has received a two-season order from the streamer.
The tale follows father and son Kratos and Atreus as they embark on a journey to spread the ashes of their wife and mother, Faye. Through their adventures, Kratos tries to teach his son to be a better god, while Atreus tries to teach his father how to be a better human.
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