'Saw' TV Show in Early Talks for Production

A Saw TV show is reportedly in early talks for production, but nothing is officially greenlit just yet. During a recent interview with Deadline, Lionsgate Television chairman Kevin Beggs was commenting on some other films-turned-TV-series that the company has been working on, and dropped that there have been discussions about bringing the timeline-twisting torture-horror series to the small screen. "We're always exploring what we can do in television with something like the Saw franchise, so that's a conversation," he said.

Created by James Wan and Leigh Whannell, the horror franchise debuted in 2004 with Saw. It followed two men who find themselves impending victims of the Jigsaw serial killer, who doesn't murder his victims in traditional ways, but rather crafts devices that cause the victim to be in control of whether or not they die. Both men wrote the story while Whannell wrote the screenplay and Wan directed the film. Whannell starred in the film as well, appearing opposite Cary Elwes, Danny Glover, Monica Potter, Michael Emerson, Ken Leung, and Tobin Bell.

Saw was a hit with horror fans, making it very successful. The film earned more than $100 million at the global box office on a budget of just over $1 million. For the next six years, a new Saw film was released in theaters every October, with Saw 7: The Final Chapter debuting in 2010. Years later, Twisted Pictures and Lionsgate brought the franchise back with Jigsaw, the eighth film in the series. It starred Matt Passmore, Callum Keith Rennie, Clé Bennett, and Hannah Emily Anderson.

To date, the Saw franchise has grossed over $976 million at the worldwide box office, and they're far from being done. May will see the release of the series' ninth movie — Spiral: From the Book of Saw — a spin-off film that stars Chris Rock, Samuel L. Jackson, Max Minghella, and Marisol Nichols. In the film, Rock plays detective Ezekiel "Zeke" Banks, a cocky cop who winds up in charge of a brutal murder investigation that seems to be inspired by the Jigsaw murders.

Speaking about the film to Collider, Rock previously shared that it will be just as intense as the past Saw films, but that it will also use some infrequent humor to cut the tension at times. So, [Spiral] is really scary and really bloody. It's a Saw movie. But every now and then, you take a little air out. It's gonna be good."

Finally, it was reported this month that a tenth Saw film is "actively in development," rumored to be titled Saw X. Horror news outlet Bloody Disgusting pointed to a Production Weekly listing that referred to the film and noted it was being produced by Twisted Pictures and Lionsgate, as well as Wan's Atomic Monster production company. At this time, no other details are available about the potential film.