Poltergeist TV Series Taps Fear the Walking Dead and Supernatural Writers as Showrunners

As a long-time fan of horror and supernatural genres, I can’t help but feel exhilarated by the news that Kalinda Vazquez and Robbie Thompson are set to bring Poltergeist to our screens as a TV series. With their impressive resumes spanning shows like Prison Break, Once Upon a Time, Supernatural, and Fear the Walking Dead, these two veterans have proven their ability to craft captivating narratives that keep us on the edge of our seats.

The team behind Poltergeist TV series has been confirmed! Amazon MGM Studios has chosen experienced television writers Kalinda Vazquez and Robbie Thompson to write, co-run the show, and serve as executive producers. This project was initially announced in October, with Steven Spielberg, who co-wrote and produced the original 1982 horror film, producing through his Amblin TV. Darryl Frank (Netflix’s The Haunting) and Justin Falvey (The Haunting of Bly Manor) are also executive producers. Variety first broke the news about this development.

As a dedicated fan, I’ve had the privilege to kickstart my writing journey on seasons 3 and 4 of the thrilling drama “Prison Break”, followed by serving as an executive story editor and writer for the action-packed series “Human Target”, both based on DC Comics. I’ve also contributed episodes to the high-octane action-thriller “Nikita” on The CW, the captivating fantasy adventure “Once Upon a Time” on ABC, and the gripping Hulu series inspired by Marvel, “Runaways”. Lately, my pen has been put to paper for two episodes in season 4 of the AMC zombie drama “Fear the Walking Dead”, an episode of “Star Trek Discovery”, and a five-issue comic series titled “America Chavez: Made In the USA” for Marvel Comics.

As a dedicated admirer, I’d like to highlight my appreciation for the creative genius of Eric Kripke. Known for his work on shows such as “Jericho”, “Human Target”, and “Cursed”, he also created the captivating sci-fi series “Ark” in 2009, serving as executive story editor for “Supernatural” on The CW. From 2012 to 2016, he wrote more than a dozen episodes for the horror-drama’s later seasons, including the beloved 200th episode, “Fan Fiction”.

J.C. Thompson, in the past, developed “Supernatural’s” spinoff titled “The Winchesters,” which unfortunately ended after airing a single 13-episode season in 2023. Over time, he has also penned several Marvel comic books, such as “Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme,” “Venom: Space Knight,” “Spidey,” and “Silk” – a Spider-character whose proposed TV series was recently shelved at Amazon MGM.

After Amazon’s $8.45 billion purchase of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 2022, it emerged that Amazon Studios was examining the MGM library for possible series adaptations based on movies such as RoboCop, Legally Blonde, Stargate, Barbershop, Pink Panther, The Magnificent Seven, and Poltergeist. This last title produced a trilogy of films about the haunted Freeling family, a 2015 remake, and the four-season series Poltergeist: The Legacy that ran from 1996 to 1999.

Spielberg’s Amblin Productions has been mining its own library for television, spinning off the Jurassic World movies into the Netflix animated series Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous and Chaos Theory, rebooting Tiny Toons Adventures as Tiny Toons Looniversity, and reviving Gremlins with the animated series Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai.

In this new project, titled “Poltergeist,” Amblin Entertainment and Amazon-owned MGM join forces. They previously collaborated on the Laurel Canyon series for Epix, produced by Frank and Falvey, as well as the MGM+ western series, Billy the Kid.

2024-08-19 23:41

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