TUCKER & DALE VS. EVIL Director Blames David Zaslav for Killing TV Spinoff: “The Slayer of All Cinema”
It’s been 15 years since Tucker & Dale vs. Evil flipped the horror comedy slasher genre on its head, and fans have been hungry for more ever since.
Now, director Eli Craig has revealed he was developing a spinoff series and shed new light on why it hasn’t happened.
In a recent interview with /Film, Craig revealed that the series was set up at TNT/TBS and it would’ve seen Tucker and Dale become hilariously incompetent detectives. Unfortunately, that concept never made it to air, and Craig puts the blame squarely on the former Discovery CEO, David Zaslav.
“We almost did a TV show with it that was on TNT/TBS, and you’ll be happy to know that David Zaslav, the slayer of all cinema [laughs], came in and put the final nail in the coffin for Tucker and Dale as we were about to go to series, and just cancelled all production.”
The original 2010 film starred Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine as two sweet-natured hillbillies who are mistaken for bloodthirsty killers by a group of panicked college students, who then proceed to accidentally kill themselves in absurd and hilarious fashion. It became an instant hit with genre fans and currently boasts an 86% critic score and 85% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Still, despite its cult status and strong international performance Craig says the lackluster domestic box office, just $223,838, has made it hard for Hollywood to take the property seriously. Craig joked:
“Tucker and Dale 2 has died more deaths than the college kids in Tucker and Dale.
“We’ve had so many versions that have almost got off its feet or, for one reason or another, have gotten killed. It really does set us back that people can’t look at the box office, the actual box office, of the movie.”
The axed TV series would have been a fresh and fun twist:
“It would have been more like Tucker and Dale, but detectives. Detective Tucker and Dale, like, stupidly trying to figure out what’s happening in a world where they’re always getting it wrong and people are dying around them.”
Despite all the false starts, Craig hasn’t given up hope, saying:
“I’ve never completely let go of the idea we’d make a sequel. And part of the reason people want to see a sequel is because it’s set up for it.
“Tucker and Dale, when I wrote it, there were these elements I wanted to follow, like Chad is still alive, Allison and Dale’s story.”
Craig wrapped the conversation with a message to fans:
“Hollywood is a slayer of great ideas. But stay alive, fans! Because there’s always a possibility.”
So while the TV show may be officially dead, the dream of more Tucker and Dale chaos lives on. Just maybe don’t expect it to happen while Zaslav’s still swinging the axe.