TV
Joe Bob Briggs Says the Return of “MonsterVision” is “Very Close”
Maybe it’s true what he used to say: “The Drive-In will never die.”
TNT’s “MonsterVision” began in the early 1990s, but it was when Joe Bob Briggs took over as host in 1995 that the show really became a beloved Saturday night staple for horror fans. Essentially, Briggs played the role of horror host for the show, introducing different horror movies each week and popping up to talk shop throughout.
Briggs hosted the show until it was removed from TNT’s lineup in September 2000; the final episode aired on July 8, 2000, and included Children of the Corn II.
Earlier this year, Briggs took to Twitter to let his followers know that the streaming service Shudder was considering a reboot – and he needed our help. At the time, he was asking “MonsterVision” fans to submit video testimonials to joebob@joebobbriggs.com, and now Briggs has tweeted an exciting update on that front.
“We’re getting really really close,” he teased on Twitter this week!
All I can say, Garth, is that we’re getting really really close. https://t.co/a42rNUvPhA
— Joe Bob Briggs (@therealjoebob) March 13, 2018
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
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