TNT ‘Tales From the Crypt’ Essentially Dead, Boss Confirms
It’s been well over a year since TNT’s M. Night Shyamalan reboot of Tales From the Crypt was announced; since running afoul of some legal challenges. Some internal teasers peaked our interest, but according to TNT boss Kevin Reilly, “I’m not waiting around four years for this thing.”
Reilly essentially confirmed the project shelved in a conversation with Deadline, noting that a new “sci-fi block” curated by filmmaker Ridley Scott had taken precedence. Previously, Shyamalan was to arrange a “horror block” around Tales From the Crypt, though the rights turned out more complicated than expected:
That one got really caught up in a complete legal mess unfortunately with a very complicated underlying rights structure. We lost so much time, so I said, ‘Look, I’m not waiting around four years for this thing’. Maybe that will come back around but in the meantime, Ridley Scott had come up, who has so much creative enthusiasm. […]
I haven’t ruled [a different horror block] out. We don’t have a specific property today but we’re open to it.
Prior reports claimed that “budget issues” with the project scuttled TNT’s new horror block, which also featured seasonal anthology Time of Death and new series Creatures. Said TNT of the Tales From the Crypt delay previously:
The underlying rights to this classic, vintage property are complicated. TNT and others have been pursuing a solution for more than a year, with significant progress being made. We look forward to the potential for further active development of this valuable franchise once the clearance process is fully resolved.
Previously greenlit for 10 episodes to air in 2017, the new Tales from the Crypt anthology series was said to feature a “newly reinvented Crypt Keeper” along with writing inspiration from the crowdsourced platform Wattpad. Tales From the Crypt is best remembered by its seven-season run on HBO in the ‘90s, despite the show’s origins having roots in the 1950s EC comics. From 1989 to 1996, the series also hosted countless celebrities as both actor and director, among them Michael J. Fox, Tom Hanks, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Back to the Future director Robert Zemeckis.
There’s every chance Tales From the Crypt could continue in another form, but has Shyamalan since moved on?