TNT Reveals What Is Holding Up ‘Tales From The Crypt’ Series

So, maybe TNT’s Tales From the Crypt isn’t dead after all?

A while back, TNT announced that a Tales From the Crypt reboot from M. Night Shyamalan was in the works, only to later dash the hopes of fans by saying that the project wasn’t moving forward.

There has been a lot of confusion surrounding the series, to say the least.

This week, Turner chief creative officer Kevin Reilly said that the problem surrounding the Crypt reboot lies in a complicated situation with the rights to the property.

“It’s been fun with lawyers, it’s been really fun,” Reilly said. “We did not know from the get-go or else we would not have announced it and made a big deal out of it. But in fact there were rights. It is among the most — if not the most — complicated rights structure I’ve ever seen in my career, and we had no idea as we got into it. It became a nightmare. So we said, ‘Fine.’ If and when this gets cleaned up, we’ll revisit.”

The folks at Turner clearly want to make this series work, and it looks like they’re hoping to revisit the situation when the rights get sorted out.

A big part of this problem stems from the original Tales From the Crypt comic. The book was sold to multiple creators and that has created a complicated situation as time as gone on. “Too many cooks in the kitchen,” as they say.

More Tales From the Crypt: Tales From the Crypt Reboot Coming From M. Night Shyamalan / Shyamalan’s Tales From the Crypt To Adapt Stories Directly From the Comics

Tales from the Crypt is based on the EC Comics series of the same name, created by William Gaines. The original show ran from 1989 until 1996 on HBO, and the show’s host, the Crypt Keeper, has become an icon of horror.

The new series would have been “based on” the comics, with a reinvented Crypt Keeper — although it’s distinctly possible that the specter of the cult-classic HBO series is part of the rights issues TNT alluded to.