TV
‘Talk to Me’ Spinoff Series to Possess Immersive 3D from Meta
A Talk to Me spinoff series is coming in immersive 3D, Variety has learned.
Meta is teaming up with XRTV, a new immersive storytelling venture from the founders of Crypt TV, for the currently-untitled live action series.
Described as “Euphoria” with possession, it will follow a group of young travelers chasing the ultimate party on a European island until they discover the Hand, a supernatural high deadlier than any drug.
The series is being created exclusively for Meta headsets and shot fully in 3D. It will harness cutting-edge mixed reality technology to map viewers’ environments and immerse them in the story.
All six half-hour episodes will be written by Trent Atherton and directed by Craig William Macneill (“Them,” “Channel Zero”).
Talk to Me creators Danny & Michael Philippou will executive produce alongside Darren Brandl and Jack Davis for XRTV, Samantha Jennings and Kristina Ceyton for Causeway Films, Andreas Michael Wentz and Juan Antonio Cano Trujillo for Sur Film, and Jeff Rich producing for Meta.
“The promise of XR is this idea that we can now map the story into your own space so you feel like you’re inside it,” said Brandl. “It’s a big leap past the previous 3D and immersive shows we’ve produced, because now, the canvas is your living room. Its superpower is presence: that awe of being transported, the unsettling feeling that a demon is with you — in your room.”
Brandl continued, “Talk to Me is the perfect immersive IP because it’s about young adults who seek the Hand to experience the euphoria of possession but end up tormented by breaking through to the spirit world. It made possession fun, and the scares unforgettable. Maybe we’re crazy, but we’re betting you’re going to want to feel possessed too, and with Meta’s new technology, we think for the first time you’ll believe it!”
“This groundbreaking technology is opening up new frontiers and we are delighted to be working with world leaders Meta and XRTV,” added Jennings and Ceyton. “The concept of Talk to Me is perfectly suited to the exciting possibilities of new kinds of immersive storytelling and we can’t wait to see the results.”
Released in 2022, Talk to Me follows a group of friends who discover how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand. They become hooked on the new thrill, until one of them goes too far and unleashes terrifying supernatural forces.
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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