TV
‘The ‘Burbs’ – Keke Palmer Starring in TV Series Adaptation of Joe Dante’s 1989 Classic
Joe Dante’s dark comedy favorite The ‘Burbs is headed to the small screen with a TV series adaptation for Peacock, and Keke Palmer (Nope) has been set to star in the series.
Variety reports that The ‘Burbs has been ordered straight-to-series by Peacock. Celeste Hughey (“Palm Royale,” “Dead to Me,” “High Fidelity”) is adapting Dante’s film for television.
Here’s a particularly cool bit from the website’s report: “The series will film on the Universal Studios backlot, just like the movie.” The show’s official synopsis previews…
“Set in present-day suburbia, The ‘Burbs follows a young couple returning to the husband’s childhood home.
“Their world is upended when new neighbors move in next door, bringing old secrets of the cul-de-sac to light, and new deadly threats shatter the illusion of their quiet little neighborhood.”
Seth MacFarlane will executive produce, along with Brian Grazer of Imagine Entertainment.
Keke Palmer is starring and also executive producing.
Joe Dante’s original movie starred Tom Hanks, Carrie Fisher, Bruce Dern, Rick Ducommun and Corey Feldman, the film centered on an overstressed suburbanite and his neighbors who become convinced that the new family on the block is part of a murderous Satanic cult.
Brian Keiper celebrated 35 years of The ‘Burbs here on Bloody Disgusting earlier this year. He wrote, “Joe Dante had made horror comedies before—Piranha (1978), The Howling (1981), and Gremlins (1984) all certainly qualify, but The ‘Burbs was something different. It is first and foremost a comedy, filled with often over-the-top absurdist humor, with horror woven through like the dark threads in a tapestry giving the film its wholly unique character.”
‘The Burbs’
Best known to horror fans for playing Rupert Giles in 121 episodes of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” actor Anthony Head (aka Anthony Stewart Head) has passed away at 72 years old.
Daughters Emily and Daisy Head said in a statement to the BBC that their father “passed away peacefully of complications due to pneumonia, surrounded by his family.”
Their statement continues, “It has been, and forever will be, an honour and a privilege to be his daughters, and to have witnessed firsthand the impact both he and his work have had on so many. We know how dearly he will be missed by friends, colleagues, and fans of the shows he was in — he loved his job very much, and he always considered himself incredibly lucky, to have been able to work alongside such exceptionally talented people, in such wonderful productions, across a career that spanned several decades.”
Anthony Head more recently played Rupert Mannion in 18 episodes of “Ted Lasso,” with the English actor’s film and television credits dating back to 1978. On the horror front, Anthony Head starred in Darren Bousman’s Repo! The Genetic Opera, as well as 2011’s Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, Let the Wrong One In, “Warehouse 13,” and “The Canterville Ghost.”
Also of note here in the world of horror, Anthony Head once played Dr. Frank-N-Furter in a London stage production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show back in the 1990s.
Outside the horror world, Anthony Head’s film and television credits well exceed 100 different productions and include “Highlander,” “NYPD Blue,” “Silent Witness,” “Doctor Who,” And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself, “Little Britain,” The Magic Door, “Sensitive Skin,” Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, “Free Agents,” The Iron Lady, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, “You, Me & Them,” “Dominion,” A Street Cat Named Bob, and Batman: Gotham by Gaslight.
“Buffy” actor James Marsters writes on Instagram, “There’s a hole in the World. Anthony Head has passed on from us. He was an unflaggingly kind and steady presence on the set of Buffy, and the best actor in the cast. He was the best of us. I was lucky to have known, and learned from him. He left the world a better place for his presence. Thank you Tony for all you gave.”
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