TNT fills Shyamalan’s Crypt

US cablenet TNT has added more content to its reboot of horror-themed programming block Tales from the Crypt, curated by Oscar-nominated director M Night Shyamalan.

M Night Shyamalan
(photo by Gage Skidmore)

TNT linked up with Shyamalan earlier this year to develop the two-hour block, which is due to launch next year and is based on the HBO series of the same name that ran from 1989 to 1996.

Tales from the Crypt will be anchored by an eponymous 10-episode series to be executive produced by Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Wayward Pines), featuring characters from the cult EC Comics from which the original block took its name.

The series is set to be joined by Time of Death (working title), which follows a murderous psychopath who returns to his Midwestern hometown to exact revenge on a community he believes destroyed his life.

TNT has ordered a pilot of the show from producer IM Global Television, with Shyamalan also on board as an executive producer. Inspired by the slasher films of the 1980s, each episode unfolds in real time and takes viewers hour-by-hour through a single “long night of hell.”

The network has also begun development on psychological thriller Creatures, about former best friends who, at 12 years old, tried to cut out their classmate’s heart as a sacrifice to an internet bogeyman 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 Mr. Gorgi once again.

Away from the horror block, TNT also recently ordered a pilot for Claws, an hour-long scripted drama/comedy set in a Southern Florida nail salon, which is being executive produced by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack.

This summer, TNT will launch its drama Animal Kingdom, an adaptation of the Australian film of the same name, which will be followed later in the year by another drama titled Good Behavior.