Start looking for higher ground, because the pilot episode for the potential new Tremors series is digging closer to the surface. Following the announcement in June that SYFY had ordered a pilot episode of a new Tremors series from Universal Cable Productions and Blumhouse Television, it's now been revealed that Vincenzo Natali is lined up to direct.
Deadline reports the news about Natali's involvement, revealing that the filmmaker behind Cube, Splice, and Haunter has been "tapped to direct" the Tremors pilot episode starring Kevin Bacon, who will reprise his role as handyman-turned-hero Valentine “Val” McKee.
In addition to feature films, Natali has an impressive list of TV directorial credits to his name, having worked behind the camera on Darknet, Hemlock Grove, The Returned, Hannibal, Wayward Pines, Westworld, The Strain, and American Gods.
Natali will work from a script written by showrunner Andrew Miller, who starred as Kazan in Natali's first feature film, Cube.
As per the press release that was sent out in June, the new Tremors pilot episode will feature the following synopsis:
"The killer Graboid worms that nearly destroyed Perfection, Nevada 25 years ago are back, and the town’s only hope for survival is Valentine McKee (Bacon) who beat them once. But to do it again he’ll have to overcome age, alcohol and a delusional hero complex."
Bacon will produce the project with Jason Blum of Blumhouse, with a eight episodes reportedly planned should the series move forward beyond the pilot episode stage.
While four Tremors film sequels have been released after the first movie's debut in 1990, Bacon is more focused on following the events of the original movie than those that followed it, as he previously told Collider:
"They went and made a bunch of sequels to the movie. I want to put those aside because, first of all, I wasn’t in them. But what I was really interested in was taking this guy and, 25 years later, seeing what happened to him, to his dreams, and to his life. Andrew Miller, who’s writing the script, came up with this really, really interesting take on it, and I think it could be a lot of fun."
This wouldn't be the first Tremors series to hit the small screen, as fans are familiar with the short-lived Tremors: The Series, which aired on the Sci-Fi Channel in 2003. The most recent entry in the franchise will be Tremors 6, starring Michael Gross as gun enthusiast Burt Gummer, who took over as the leading man in the sequels. Tremors 6 is set to be released on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD on January 30th, 2018.
Other than Bacon as Val, it's currently unknown who else would appear in the series. Could we see the return of Fred Ward’s Earl Basset, Reba McEntire’s Heather Gummer, or Gross' beloved Burt Gummer? Only time will tell, but we'll keep Daily Dead readers updated on more details as they break through the surface like a Graboid going after its next meal. In the meantime, what do you want to see in a new Tremors series?
Vincenzo Natali on the set of Splice (photo by Steve Wilkie):
Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.
When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.
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