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New Creepshow anthology series on Shudder from Greg Nicotero
Entertainment Weekly reveals:
The streaming service Shudder has given the green light to a Creepshow TV series inspired by the classic 1982 horror anthology film of the same name, EW can exclusively reveal. Greg Nicotero, the Walking Dead executive producer and makeup effects wizard, is attached to direct, executive-produce, and supervise the show’s creative elements.
A homage to the horror comics of the 1950s, the original Creepshow featured segments written by Stephen King and was directed by a fellow horror legend, Night of the Living Dead filmmaker George A. Romero. The movie starred Hal Holbrook, Adrienne Barbeau, Leslie Nielsen, Ed Harris, and King himself, and it spawned two sequels and a spin-off comic. Shudder is owned by AMC Networks (home of The Walking Dead) and specializes in thriller, suspense, and horror fare.
“Creepshow is one of the most beloved and iconic horror anthologies from two masters of the genre, George A. Romero and Stephen King,” Shudder general manager Craig Engler said in a statement. “We’re thrilled to continue their legacy with another master of horror, Greg Nicotero, as we bring a new Creepshow TV series exclusively to Shudder members.”
“Creepshow is a project very close to my heart!” said Nicotero, who met his makeup effects mentor Tom Savini while visiting the set of the film and later collaborated with Romero on the zombie movies Day of the Dead and Land of the Dead, among other projects. “It is one of those titles that embraces the true spirit of horror… thrills and chills celebrated in one of its truest art forms, the comic book come to life! I’m honored to continue the tradition in the ‘spirit’ which it was created.”
The new Creepshow series is scheduled to debut on Shudder in 2019. Each episode will tell original stories and be helmed by a different filmmaker, with Nicotero directing the first episode. His company KNB EFX Group will also handle the creature and makeup effects.
The show will be produced by The Cartel with Monster Agency Productions, Taurus Entertainment, and Striker Entertainment.
“The Cartel is excited to bring the iconic Creepshow brand to Shudder as a series,” said Cartel CEO Stan Spry. “There is no better person to be the creative force behind this new production than Greg Nicotero. His experience and leadership will ensure that the series is of the highest quality and will help to excite horror fans around the world.”
A homage to the horror comics of the 1950s, the original Creepshow featured segments written by Stephen King and was directed by a fellow horror legend, Night of the Living Dead filmmaker George A. Romero. The movie starred Hal Holbrook, Adrienne Barbeau, Leslie Nielsen, Ed Harris, and King himself, and it spawned two sequels and a spin-off comic. Shudder is owned by AMC Networks (home of The Walking Dead) and specializes in thriller, suspense, and horror fare.
“Creepshow is one of the most beloved and iconic horror anthologies from two masters of the genre, George A. Romero and Stephen King,” Shudder general manager Craig Engler said in a statement. “We’re thrilled to continue their legacy with another master of horror, Greg Nicotero, as we bring a new Creepshow TV series exclusively to Shudder members.”
“Creepshow is a project very close to my heart!” said Nicotero, who met his makeup effects mentor Tom Savini while visiting the set of the film and later collaborated with Romero on the zombie movies Day of the Dead and Land of the Dead, among other projects. “It is one of those titles that embraces the true spirit of horror… thrills and chills celebrated in one of its truest art forms, the comic book come to life! I’m honored to continue the tradition in the ‘spirit’ which it was created.”
The new Creepshow series is scheduled to debut on Shudder in 2019. Each episode will tell original stories and be helmed by a different filmmaker, with Nicotero directing the first episode. His company KNB EFX Group will also handle the creature and makeup effects.
The show will be produced by The Cartel with Monster Agency Productions, Taurus Entertainment, and Striker Entertainment.
“The Cartel is excited to bring the iconic Creepshow brand to Shudder as a series,” said Cartel CEO Stan Spry. “There is no better person to be the creative force behind this new production than Greg Nicotero. His experience and leadership will ensure that the series is of the highest quality and will help to excite horror fans around the world.”
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Barbeau will be joined by Giancarlo Esposito (Better Call Saul) and Tobin Bell (Saw) for the series’ first episode, Gray Matter, based on a 1973 story by Stephen King. The episode will be directed by The Walking Dead’s effects wizard Greg Nicotero.
“I was thrilled when Greg asked me to join the Creepshow world once again,” Barbeau said. “And then working with Tobin and Giancarlo, with Greg as our director, well, that was the icing on the cake — no, not that cake. Oh, you know what I mean.”
April 3, 2019 — Shudder, AMC Networks’ premium streaming service for horror, thriller and the supernatural, today announced initial casting for its upcoming horror anthology series, Creepshow, based on the iconic 1982 film written by Stephen King and directed by George A. Romero. Adrienne Barbeau (The Fog), Giancarlo Esposito (Better Call Saul), and Tobin Bell (Saw) will star in the Stephen King story “Gray Matter,” adapted by Byron Willinger and Philip de Blasi (The Commuter) and directed by series showrunner Greg Nicotero (The Walking Dead).
“I feel I’m in great company getting the opportunity to direct a story written by Steve,” said Nicotero. “Between Salem’s Lot, Pet Sematary and The Stand, I’ve always found his stories rich in relatable characters forced into supernatural situations beyond their control—the everyday person’s primal fears. To visualize ‘Gray Matter’ for Creepshow with the help of Adrienne, Giancarlo and Tobin was about as good as it gets for a horror fan from Pittsburgh!”
In “Gray Matter,” Doc and Chief, two old-timers in a small, dying town, brave a storm to check on Richie, an alcoholic single father, after encountering his terrified son at the local convenience store. The story, first published in 1973, is part of King’s best-selling 1978 collection, Night Shift.
For Barbeau, “Gray Matter” represents a return to the Creepshow franchise more than 25 years after her unforgettable portrayal of “Billie” in the 1982 segment, “The Crate.” Barbeau also serves as the host of the Shudder Original podcast, She Kills.
“I was thrilled when Greg asked me to join the Creepshow world once again,” said Barbeau. “And then working with Tobin and Giancarlo, with Greg as our director, well, that was the icing on the cake — no, not that cake. Oh, you know what I mean.”
The DNA of the original movie is firmly embedded in the new series: in addition to Barbeau and King’s return to the franchise, fans will recall that writer Joe Hill (who has also contributed a story this season) played comic-book-loving “Billy” in the film’s wrap-around segments. John Harrison, who was 1st Assistant Director on 1982’s Creepshow and composed its iconic theme, is back to direct several segments of the series. And executive producer Greg Nicotero visited the first film’s set as a teenager, and contributed make-up effects to its 1987 follow-up, Creepshow 2.
With “Gray Matter,” Shudder has confirmed eight of the twelve segments that will make up Creepshow’ s six-episode season. Previously announced segments include “By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain” by Joe Hill, “House of the Head” by Josh Malerman (Bird Box), “The Companion” by Joe R. Lansdale, Kasey Lansdale, & Keith Lansdale, “The Man in the Suitcase” by Christopher Buehlman, “All Hallows Eve” by Bruce Jones, “Night of the Paw” by John Esposito, and “Bad Wolf Down” by Rob Schrab. Additional titles and casting will be announced soon. The series is scheduled to wrap production later this week in Atlanta, GA.
Shudder’s Creepshow is produced by the Cartel with Monster Agency Productions, Taurus Entertainment, and Striker Entertainment: Stan Spry, Jeff Holland, and Eric Woods are executive producers for the Cartel; Greg Nicotero and Brian Witten are executive producers for Monster Agency Productions; Robert Dudelson, James Dudelson and Jordan Kizwani are executive producers for Taurus Entertainment; Russell Binder is executive producer and Marc Mostman co-executive producer for Striker Entertainment. Creepshow will premiere on Shudder later this year.
“Gray Matter”
Story by: Stephen King, adapted by Byron Willinger and Philip de Blasi
Directed by: Greg Nicotero
Doc and Chief, two old-timers in a small, dying town, brave a storm to check on Richie, an alcoholic single father, after encountering his terrified son at the local convenience store. The story, first published in 1973, is part of King’s best-selling 1978 collection, Night Shift.
>> Source
Greg Nicotero talks about the challenges of directing an adaptation of the Stephen King short story ‘Gray Matter’ for the upcoming Creepshow series on Shudder. The horror-centric streaming service is set to launch its biggest original program to date with a reboot of the 1982 horror anthology of the same name written by King and directed by George Romero. The film spawned a film franchise and now it’s set to be resurrected on the home for all things horror, headed up by a guy who knows a thing or two about making the genre work on television.
Nicotero already has his hands full on AMC’s The Walking Dead, but he’s taken on the additional responsibilities of showrunning the anthology. His duties not only include attracting talent to participate in the scary, gory, and often funny bite-sized stories, but also staying true to the ideas laid out by King and Romero over 30 years ago. In doing so, Nicotero has chosen to adapt one of King’s more memorable short stories, ‘Gray Matter,’ as the first offering from the new series.
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Screen Rant recently participated in a visit to the set of Creepshow, where Nicotero was filming ‘Gray Matter’ with stars Giancarlo Epsosito, Tobin Bell, and Adrienne Barbeau. The result was a first-hand look at how Nicotero works, and how he approaches filming a story from one of the undisputed masters of the genre. Nicotero had this to say about his approach to adapting King’s short story:
Audiences (or, really, Shudder subscribers) will have a chance to see for themselves when Creepshow finally premieres, as ‘Gray Matter’ will be one of two shorts that make up the anthology’s premiere episode. With both Esposito and Bell on hand, it looks as though the series is going big with its first installment.
The acclaimed horror anthology series Creepshow premiered on the AMC cable network Monday night (May 4) after first launching last year on the AMC-owned genre streaming service Shudder. Since debuting there, Creepshow has been a success, with a second season about to start filming before the coronavirus pandemic shut down production for now.
Based on the 1982 movie written by Stephen King and directed by George A. Romero, Creepshow’s six-episode first season features two stories per episode, many of them either written by or based on works from well-known and respected horror authors like Joe Hill and David J. Schow. In honor of King, however, the premiere story was “Gray Matter,” based on a story that appeared in King’s classic 1978 collection Night Shift.
But “Gray Matter” wasn’t the first King story selected for adaptation by Creepshow showrunner and executive producer Greg Nicotero (The Walking Dead), who directed the segment as well. After reaching out to King personally after Creepshow was given the green light, the horror master offered Nicotero a different tale for adaptation: “Survivor Type.”
First published in 1982 and then collected in King’s 1985 book Skeleton Crew, “Survivor Type” tells the story (in diary form) of a disgraced surgeon named Richard Pine, who manages to survive a shipwreck and land on a tiny island in the Pacific with little food or supplies except for the heroin he was smuggling on the voyage.
As the days go by and he runs out of food options, he begins to eat himself a piece at a time, using the heroin as anesthetic. Insane, drifting in and out of reality, Pine ends his diary entries with the amputation of his left hand, which tastes “just like lady fingers.”
“I read it and I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s fucking crazy,’” recalls Nicotero. “I mean, I’d read it a long time ago, but I reread it, and I was like, ‘Jesus, how the fuck are we going to do this?’”
Nevertheless, Nicotero gamely set about adapting the story: “I wrote the script for it, and that was going to be sort of like one of our big staple episodes,” he says. “And as soon as we got into production, I realized how challenging it would be.”
Nicotero says he realized very quickly that they couldn’t shoot the script in a way that would do it justice. “We couldn’t go to the beach to shoot, because we didn’t have the cash to do it,” he reveals. “So after a little bit of struggling back and forth, I went to my production team and just said, ‘Guys, we’re not going to be able to make this script right. I don’t want to shoot it on a lake and then digitally erase all of the trees, or shoot it in a parking lot with a blue screen behind it.’”
Having made his decision, Nicotero reached out to King again and gave him the bad news, but then asked if the show could adapt “Gray Matter” instead. King readily agreed and we now have the excellent episode that kicks off Creepshow’s first season. But Nicotero still has his script for “Survivor Type” around, just in case.
“I do, indeed,” he says. “I gave ‘Survivor Type’ to Jon Bernthal and he loved the script. So I was really like in my head going, ‘Man, how great would it be to have Bernthal star in this episode?’ But we would need a different model to be able to shoot that.”
With the stories already set for Season 2, “Survivor Type” will remain a “lost” Stephen King episode of Creepshow for now. But if Season 3 comes to pass and the budget opens up for location shooting on a deserted beach somewhere, the unfortunate Richard Pine may be dining on those “lady fingers.”
The stories were good, but where this failed for me is in the music. A big part of the original Creepshow was the great connecting music throughout.
Yes. They want to make this something different, but you follow the formula that works and the soundtrack was a big part of making that movie so much fun.
This Creepshow was just two stories, here you go, watch. I enjoyed them, don't get me wrong, but I think they missed something without a great soundtrack for the series.
Shudder continues to give us so many wondrous gifts as a humble streaming home for horror. Today the service made the surprise announcement that a Creepshow animated special featuring the voices of Kiefer Sutherland and Joey King will be debuting later this month, just in time for Halloween. The special will feature two stories written by Stephen King and Joe Hill and directed by Creepshow showrunner Greg Nicotero, with animation by Octopie animation studio.
The first segment, based on the King short story “Survivor Type,” stars Sutherland as a man trapped on a deserted island struggling to stay alive. The second story, “Twittering from the Circus of the Dead,” was written by Hill and stars Joey King as a teenager on a family road trip that turns sinister.
“Although season 2, now in production, has been delayed due to Covid, Greg and his team were still able to pull off this fantastic special so everyone will be able to enjoy a little bit of Creepshow during Halloween season,” said Craig Engler, Shudder’s General Manager.
The announcement is a welcome (and impressive) surprise, considering nobody I know had heard a single peep about Creepshow doing a full-blown Halloween special involving some big-name talent, let alone one that was crafted entirely during quarantine.
>> Source
The first title to debut this year is Shudder’s Creepshow: From Script to Scream (working title), based on the hit anthology series from Nicotero, Stan Spry (The Cartel), Russell Binder (Striker Entertainment), and in partnership with Titan Books. The coffee-table book is written by Dennis Prince, designed by John J. Hill, and co-produced by Julia Hobgood, and brings fans behind-the-scenes of the acclaimed Creepshow series with deep dives into its riveting origins, gripping development, provocative production, sinister special effects, and much more. The series has been heralded as “an irresistibly macabre package,” (Slant Magazine) and “an undeniable love letter to all generations of horror fans,” (CBR), and over three seasons, has been one of the most watched programs on Shudder.
“I grew up wearing down my fingertips paging through books on the making of my favorite movies,” said Nicotero. “I was ravenous to learn the behind-the-scenes secrets. So, I’m excited to be able to present a glimpse behind the making of this epic show!”
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AMC Networks has announced a collaboration with DreadXP and game developer DarkStone Digital to produce a video game based on the TV series “Creepshow.” The show, available for streaming on Shudder, is executive produced by Greg Nicotero and is based on George A. Romero’s 1982 film.
Production company Cartel Entertainment will also help bring the “Creepshow” series to the video game medium across multiple platforms in 2024. The video game will follow “Creepshow’s” anthology format and feature several self-contained horror stories across different types of gameplay genres and tones.
DarkStone Digital is also one of several independent developers who are working on episodic installments to the “Creepshow” video game. DarkStone Digital is best known for indie horror games such as “The Mortuary Assistant.” The full list of contributing game developers will be revealed at a later date.
DarkStone Digital developer Brian Clarke will be “Creepshow’s” creative director. “I’m extremely excited to be a part of such a fun project. I’ve always loved ‘Creepshow’s’ format, and the idea of driving the cohesion of multiple perspectives on horror is really compelling to me,” Clarke says. “I feel honored to have been asked to be a part of this. I can’t wait to jump in and bring the best I can to such a great IP.”
Patrick Ewald, the managing partner and producer at DreadXP, says, “As massive fans of ‘Creepshow,’ we are so excited to collaborate with AMC, Shudder, and Cartel Entertainment to bring that world to an interactive medium.” DreadXP producer Ted Hentschke adds, “The game will represent an expansion of our tremendously successful collaboration with Brian Clarke, whose expertise in crafting lore-rich narratives and clever scares makes him the perfect creative director for the project.”
Nicotero explains, “Hot on the heels of the Skybound Comic release this summer and wrapping post-production on Season 4, I feel like this is an opportunity to celebrate the genre with horror fans around the world in a way that takes us through a myriad of experiences.”
AMC Networks renewed “Creepshow” for its fourth season back in February. Cartel also launched its global distribution outfit last year too in order to license out its content.
“Shudder’s ‘Creepshow’ is in a class all its own — a genre-bending mashup of spine-tingling horror and rib-tickling satire that not just any game publisher could successfully bring to life,” says AMC VP of games Clayton Neuman. “But after playing the Dread X Collection game anthologies, and seeing Brian’s twisted genius at work in ‘The Mortuary Assistant,’ we knew we had found the right partners for this project. This game will surprise, delight and terrify ‘Creepshow’ and horror fans alike, and we can’t wait for players to get their hands on it.”