TV
FX Orders “What We Do in the Shadows” Series Pilot!
The long-rumored “What We Do in the Shadows” series is moving forward at FX with a pilot production commitment, Variety reports.
Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi–the stars, writers, and directors of the 2014 film–will serve as executive producers, with Clement serving as writer and Waititi serving as director. Scott Rudin, Paul Simms, Garrett Basch, and Eli Bush will also executive produce. FX Productions will produce.
Kayvan Novak, Matt Berry, Natasia Demetriou, and Harvey Guillen are set to star in the half-hour series. The exact details of the plot are being kept under wraps, but Waititi previously said the show would be set in the United States rather than New Zealand, per Fandango.
The original film is a mockumentary about a group of vampires named Viago, Vladislav, Deacon, and Petyr living in the city of Wellington.
Clement and Waititi are also developing a sequel film based off a group of werewolves featured in the film currently titled “We’re Wolves”. The pair is also working on a spinoff series in New Zealand called “Wellington Paranormal”, following the bumbling cops Karen and Mike who were briefly featured in the film.
Spoof films haven’t been funny since Scary Movie, mostly because they focus too much on pop culture. Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement’s hysterical What We Do in the Shadows plays a lot of inside baseball, which is why it’s a home run, especially for horror fans.
Blade Runner is headed to the small screen in Prime Video’s upcoming Blade Runner 2099, set 50 years after Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049, in a world where replicants have emerged on top after an uprising.
Humans are no longer in power.
At the forefront of the new series are stars Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All At Once) and Hunter Schafer (Cuckoo), and EW has shared the first images of their characters.
Yeoh stars as a replicant Blade Runner named Olwen, facing the final days of her life. It’s a twist on the Roy Batty story from the first film; here, that story will be told from the replicant’s perspective.
Opposite her is Schafer as Olwen’s partner, Cora, a human fugitive pretending to be a replicant. Olwen and Cora will be working together to investigate missing rogue replicants.
Blade Runner 2099 comes from Alcon Entertainment, Scott Free, and Amazon Studios. Silka Luisa (“Shining Girls”) is writing, showrunning, and executive producing.
Jonathan van Tulleken (“Shōgun”) will direct and executive produce the first two episodes.
Luisa tells EW that Ridley Scott’s seminal sci-fi noir acts as the series’ North Star, but it’ll forge its own identity: “We leaned into sunshine noir. You’re still very much in the Blade Runner world, but the show is about a birth. It’s about a birth of a city. It’s about a birth of a replicant era. These characters are discovering who they really are. And so the climate is hot, it’s sticky, it’s sunny. We’re on the coast a lot. We’re in Santa Monica a lot. So it’s like you’re seeing Ridley’s texture, but you’re seeing it in the sunshine noir filter.”
The showrunner adds, “The show is really imagining what comes after us, and what does it mean to be human in a world where humanity is no longer relevant?“
Dimitri Abold (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes), Lewis Gribben (Somewhere Boy), Katelyn Rose Downey (The Nun II), and Daniel Rigby (Renegade Nell) also star in the upcoming series. Johnny Harris (A Gentleman in Moscow), Amy Lennox (Only Child), Sheila Atim (The Woman King), and Matthew Needham (House of the Dragon) join as recurring guest stars.
Blade Runner 2099 is expected to premiere later this year, so stay tuned.
Credit: Clay Enos/Prime Video
Credit: Clay Enos/Prime Video
Credit: Clay Enos/Prime Video
Credit: Clay Enos/Prime Video
You must be logged in to post a comment.