'The Walking Dead' Director Creating All-New Anthology Series For AMC
08/31/2017 04:03 pm EDT
Despite the massive success of AMC's The Walking Dead, the show can't live forever, with creative minds behind the series beginning to branch out to helm other projects. Co-executive producer and regular director of the zombie show, Greg Nicotero, will help bring Shock Theatre to life for AMC, which was recently announced at the Television Critics' Association press conference.
The series' synopsis is as follows, per Deadline:
"An anthology wherein each episode will be a brand-new sci-fi horror tale in the style of the B movie classics."
UP NEXT: The Walking Dead Season 8 Premiere Date Announced
Shock Theatre is only one of many different projects that would appeal to genre fans from a range of many different talents coming to AMC.
One of the announced projects, Wicked West, "uncovers the most frightening and disturbing tales from the Wild West. And they're all true. Wicked West utilizes Blumhouse's chilling cinematic style on this weekly series, telling stories of sadistic serial killers, murderous black widows, bloodthirsty family clans and local legends laced with the supernatural. With a tense horror, modern cinematic style, Wicked West brings a haunting approach to the untold stories of the bloodbath known as the American West."
MORE NEWS: Details Emerge Regarding The Walking Dead Stuntman John Bernecker's Death
Chris Hardwick, who hosts Walking Dead companion series The Talking Dead, will co-produce the series Underbelly, which will be a "deep dive into the dark-side of pop culture. Using the lens of the horror genre, this anthology explores storylines related to the fan experience, celebrity, greed, alienation, obsession and vanity. The sensibility of the series is darkly funny, shocking, subversive and trippy. If pop culture is a kind of new religion, this show is the deranged heretic who interrupts the service and gets thrown out."
"We are at our best when we bet on and support exceptional talent and this diverse development slate, from exceptional creators with distinct points of view, includes multiple projects from longstanding and successful AMC partners," said Charlie Collier, president of AMC, about the upcoming slate of programming. "Our deep pipeline of projects embodies our 'eclectic by design,' quality programming approach and our 'scripts-to-series' development model that puts the emphasis on the most important part of our strategy – outstanding writing, a commitment to worlds you've never seen on TV before, and rich character development."
With TNT's adaptation of Tales from the Crypt falling into uncertainty, this leaves a big hole in genre TV series that many fans were looking to see filled. Whatever becomes of that project, Nicotero and his massive accomplishments in the world of horror are sure to give audiences plenty of thrills with the new series.
Season 8 of The Walking Dead will premiere on October 22 while Shock Theatre is expected to premiere sometime in 2018.
Disclosure: PopCulture. is owned by Paramount. Sign up for Paramount+ by clicking here.