TV
The Plug Has Been Pulled On John Carpenter’s “Tales for a Halloween Night” Series at Syfy
Back in 2017, Universal Cable Productions announced a development deal with John Carpenter, which was to see the horror master executive producing scripted programming with UCP for the NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment portfolio, as well as for external networks and streaming services, along with his producing partner, Sandy King.
UCP and Carpenter went into development on “Tales for a Halloween Night” for SYFY, we learned. The series was to be based on Carpenter’s award-winning graphic novel anthology of stories where he brings together storytellers from the worlds of movies, novels, and comics for a collection of horror stories featuring graveyards, sunken ships, creepy crawlers and ghosts.
Carpenter was intending on directing “at least” the pilot episode of the series. but Sandy King breaks the bad news this week that the plug – for good reason, it seems – has been pulled.
“SYFY wanted Tales for a Halloween Night but it quickly became evident that they just wanted the title. And I really saw a disaster on the horizon,” King just told ComicBook.com. “So I went, ‘No, no, no. This is not a good idea.’ It was a greenlit series but if it’s not gonna be something cool for the fans and for the eventual audience, then I don’t think it’s a good idea to do it.”
“It’s dead,” King confirmed. “I think we have a pretty good idea what our fans want to see. It doesn’t mean something can’t be done but at its core, the people we work with have to respect horror fans and respect the genre. That’s the core of it. Not just respect the fact that horror right now makes money.”
In other words, if it’s going to be done, it’s going to be done right. Respect.
You know video game adaptations are hot when even Golden Axe is making the leap to the screen. And indeed it is, with Deadline reporting that the Sega Genesis video game franchise that debuted back in 1989 is getting an animated series at Comedy Central.
Comedy Central has given “Golden Axe” a 10-episode order, Deadline reports today.
The voice cast for the animated series from CBS Studios in association with Sony Pictures Television and Original Film includes Matthew Rhys (The Americans), Danny Pudi (Mythic Quest), Lisa Gilroy (Jury Duty), Liam McIntyre (Spartacus) and Carl Tart (Grand Crew).
“Described as a hilarious and loving homage to Sega’s video game series, Golden Axe follows veteran warriors Ax Battler, Tyris Flare and Gilius Thunderhead as they once again battle to save Yuria from the evil giant Death Adder who just won’t seem to stay dead. Fortunately, this time they have the inexperienced and underprepared Hampton Squib on their side.”
Mike McMahan (Star Trek: Lower Decks) and Joe Chandler (American Dad!) will co-write the first episode and executive produce the series, with Chandler serving as showrunner.
The original Golden Axe video game was released in 1989, followed by sequels in 1991, 1992 and 1993. The series got a modern day upgrade with Golden Axe: Beast Rider in 2008.
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