Sales From the Crypt' Anthology a Go at TNT With "Reinvented" Crypt Keeper

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The 10-episode series hails from M. Night Shyamalan and will be part of a horror block as the Turner network also adds seasonal anthology pilot 'Time of Death.'

TNT is moving full steam ahead with its Tales From the Crypthorror block.

The Turner-owned network on Thursday announced that it has ordered a 10-episode anthology based on Tales From the Crypt as part of the block of programming overseen by M. Night Shyamalan. The cabler also greenlighted seasonal anthology pilot Time of Death from IM Global Television and is developing psychological thriller Creatures from Sue Naegle.


READ MORETNT Sets 'Tales From the Crypt' Horror Block From M. Night Shyamalan



First announced in January, Tales From the Crypt will be at the center of the weekly horror block. After uncertainty about whether the new series would feature the famed Crypt Keeper from the original EC Comics series, TNT confirmed that its incarnation will indeed feature a "newly reinvented" Crypt Keeper. The horror block is slated to launch in 2017.

As part of the block, TNT has picked up pilot Time of Death, a seasonal anthology produced by IM Global. The drama is described as a season-long horror tale that unfolds in real time, with each episode taking viewers hour-by-hour through a single "long night of hell." Season one will follow a murderous psychopath who returns to his Midwestern hometown during the annual county fair to exact revenge on a community he believes destroyed his life.

Guy Busick (Watch Over Me) and newcomer R. Christopher Murphy will pen the script, with Shyamalan and IM Global Television's Mark Stern and IM Global founder Stuart Ford onboard to executive produce. Season one will pay tribute to the slasher films of the 1980s, with subsequent seasons inspired by the traditions of other horror subgenres.


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Additionally, TNT announced that it is developing drama Creatures for the block. The project, produced by Naegle Ink, is described as a sophisticated psychological thriller that tells the disturbing tale of two former best friends who, at 12 years old, tried to cut out their classmate's heart as a sacrifice to an internet bogeyman they invented called Mr. Gorgi. Fifteen years later, the two young women have been released from a psychiatric institute into their small town in Alaska, but it's not long before they start to feel the alluring and terrifying presence of Gorgi again. BAFTA winner Dominic Mitchell (In the Flesh) will pen the script and executive produce alongside Naegle. Tom Shankland (House of Cards, The Missing) is set to direct and exec produce.

The horror block, curated by Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Fox's Wayward Pines), will feature short- and longform stories. The Tales From the Crypt series is executive produced by Shyamalan and his Blinding Edge Pictures partner Ashwin Rajan. Endgame's James Stern and Aloris Entertainment's John Santilli and Dan McKinnon also exec produce.
For TNT, the news comes as the drama-focused cable network looks to reinvent itself and make noise with edgier fare beyond such staples as Rizzoli & Isles, The Last Ship and Major Crimes. Under new topper Kevin Reilly, the cabler has added Chad Hodge's Good Behavior, starring Michele Dockery, mini The Alienist and film-to-TV adaptation Animal Kingdom.TNT