'Tales From the Crypt' Reboot Still Dead, According to M. Night Shyamalan

A reboot of The Twilight Zone debuts next year, leading many audiences to wonder what happened to M. Night Shyamalan's Tales From the Crypt reboot that was confirmed in 2016. The project was seemingly scrapped last year, leaving many fans to wonder if the project will ever emerge in some capacity. According to Shyamalan, the reboot series is gone for good.

"I think it's dead," the filmmaker shared with Digital Spy. "We tried everything that we could. That was so mired in people that had rights to it… constantly mired from the original comic books to the people that did the original show and that was a very contentious era for that show and who was involved and all the stuff that had nothing to do with me, a generation before me."

The Tales From the Crypt title is one of the most recognizable when it comes to anthology horror stories, which is ultimately the issue that led to the project being axed.

Tales From the Crypt was the name of a horror series from EC Comics, delivering audiences all manner of ghastly morality tales in the '50s. In 1972, a Tales From the Crypt film was released, which was loosely inspired by the comic series, as it delivered audiences multiple horrific vignettes. In 1989, HBO launched a Tales From the Crypt TV series, bringing to life both stories from the original comics and delivering audiences all-new frights. The success of the brand, and the iconic host The Cryptkeeper, led to three Tales From the Crypt films.

The variety of projects that utilized the name resulted in complicated issues regarding rights to the name, with TNT ultimately opting to avoid dealing with the property.

"I begged them, 'Please just give me the rights, we'll do it this way, you're going to be really happy,'" Shyamalan pleaded. "But it didn't work out that way and here we are."

When the project was officially announced, it was slated to be part of a block of weekly horror on TNT, which would include multiple original TV series, which included Time of Death, Creatures, and Tales From the Crypt, as well as a movie. Despite enthusiasm surrounding the horror programming, the rights issues became too complicated to overcome.

"The underlying rights to this classic, vintage property are complicated," a representative for the network shared last year, per Deadline. "TNT and others have been pursuing a solution for more than a year, with significant progress being made. We look forward to the potential for further active development of this valuable franchise once the clearance process is fully resolved."

Stay tuned for details on the future of the Tales From the Crypt brand.

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