John Carpenter's TALES FOR A HALLOWEEN NIGHT SyFy Series Has Been Scrapped
In 2017 it was announced that John Carpenter’s comic book seriesTales for a Halloween Night would be getting a TV series adaptation from SyFy. Carpenter himself was even going to direct some episodes of it, which is what I was really excited about.
Unfortunately, Storm King Production’s Sandy King has confirmed that the project has been scrapped and she explains why:
"We had one [project] where 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. 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."
So, the plug was pulled to avoid mediocrity. I guess that makes sense, especially if you can see that things aren’t going to turn out as well as you would hope. King went on to say:
"I think we have a pretty good idea what our fans want to see and we definitely have a pretty good idea what should come out from. If somebody's a fan of that anthology, there should be a character to any show that comes out of it...it shouldn't be just barfing up the books. It should be something that grows out of it or has a flavor of it or in some way meets the expectations or why are we giving it that title? Call it 'Bozo Goes To Mars' or something else."
King also said that they are interested in pursuing another series, they just have to find the right people to work with:
"It's all cool. We can do another series but I think if you use that title, you should in some way meet those expectations. So we'll 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."
She added:
"And that's something you really have to be willing to walk away from. When you look at it and go, 'Nah, no, it's not good enough.' There are times you just have to sit there and go, 'Seriously, why did you think that was a good idea?' And if you're me, you have to be prepared for everybody to be pissed off about it."
Well, I guess it’s a good thing that the project was canceled! Hopefully they can find a network and creative team to work with that will actually respect the material and give the horror fans something special and cool.
Here’s the official synopsis::
From John Carpenter, the man who brought you the cult classic horror film Halloween and all of the scares beyond comes the ultimate graphic novel anthology of tales to warm your toes by on a dark and stormy October night! Carpenter brings together storytellers from the worlds of movies, novels and comics for a collection of tales featuring graveyards, sunken ships, creepy crawlers and ghosts to haunt your dreams at night!
I just want to see Carpenter direct something again! But he might be too busy playing video games.
Source: CB