‘Tremors’ TV Series Grabs Its Director

After years of being relegated to a slew of straight-to-video sequels, Tremors is finally getting its due with a new TV series featuring Kevin Bacon reprising his role from the original film. As reported by Deadline, Vincenzo Natali, who has previously directed episodes of Westworld, American Gods, and The Strain, has signed on to direct the pilot for SYFY.

In the new series, “The killer Graboid worms that nearly destroyed Perfection, NV, 25 years ago are back, and the town’s only hope for survival is Valentine McKee (Bacon), who beat them once. But to do it again he’ll have to overcome age, alcohol and a delusional hero complex,” per Deadline.

The news comes after many months of Bacon hinting at the different stages of development the series has been in, with the upcoming series marking the first time he’ll have reprised the role since the 1990 film.

Earlier this year, while at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Bacon revealed to Screen Daily, “It’s the only character I’ve ever played that I was interested in exploring 25 years later.” He added, “It (Tremors) is a really good movie.”

Having previously starred in films like Footloose and Diner, the actor was well on his way to massive success, with the sci-fi adventure film marking an opportunity to show off his skills as a reluctant hero. Unfortunately, the film flopped in its initial release, causing Bacon to want to distance himself from the franchise in the fallout.

Of his initial decision, Bacon explained, “I was like – why would I make a sequel of a bomb? That makes no sense to me. I am not going to make another movie that’s not going to do well at the box office. That is not a good career move.”

The film gained cult status in the burgeoning home video market, which has kept its legacy alive to this day.

“It became a major, major title in rental and had this cult life,” Bacon admitted.

The actor reportedly originally approached Blumhouse with the idea of doing a feature film, but instead opted to do an eight-episode series, with Bacon pointing out, “We are going to do a pilot for SYFY.”

Time away from the original film has allowed the actor to look back at McKee more fondly, as the actor reminisced, “I don’t go back and watch my movies but because we were doing this one, I had to go back and look at it. It’s just the idea of this loser who is living a very ordinary life and has an extraordinary experience with these monsters and becomes, for a moment, a hero.”

The pilot doesn’t yet have a production schedule or slated release window.