Rod Serling's Night Gallery

[Jan]

Found a notice in my Google Alerts this morning that 'Joe Straczinski' was involved with the above miniseries slated for 2015. No other information available except that it's got Curmudgeon Films linked with it and Curmudgeons lists Stephen Furst as a Producer. ETA: forgot to post the link: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm6606776/

Will have to keep an eye out. Not going to post a question to JMS on FB for now as I expect he's chin-deep in Sense8.

Jan
ETA: if it turns out to be real, it'll count toward the Skywatch game only when official (and properly spelled!) confirmation is received.

[Delenn_of_Mir]

I hope it's a twilight zone revival!!!!!!

[Jan]

Looks like it's got a name now:

Rod Serling's Night Gallery (2015)
TV Mini-series – Thrille

Four filmmakers are named:

Rick Berg Executive Producer
David J. Eagle Executive Producer
Griff Furst Executive Producer (as G.E. Furst)
J. Michael Straczynski Executive Producer

ETA: Posted to JMS' Facebook page to see if he could talk about it more now.

Jan

[JoeD80]

I hope it's a twilight zone revival!!!!!!

Night Gallery was another Rod Serling anthology show.

[Dan Dassow]

Looks like it's got a name now:

Rod Serling's Night Gallery (2015)
TV Mini-series – Thrille

Four filmmakers are named:

Rick Berg Executive Producer
David J. Eagle Executive Producer
Griff Furst Executive Producer (as G.E. Furst)
J. Michael Straczynski Executive Producer

ETA: Posted to JMS' Facebook page to see if he could talk about it more now.

Jan

IMDb lists Rod Serling's Night Gallery as a TV Mini-Series.

Rick Berg (I) is primarily known as a Producer/Literary Management (Executive) . He was the producer for two projects prior to Night Gallery.

David J. Eagle directed 13 episodes of Babylon 5.

Griff Furst is the son of Stephen Furst and Lorraine Feuerstein. Feuerstein is Stephen's original last.

For some strange reason, IMDb lists Thor as jms' primary credit.

[Jan]

In a Nerdist interview recently:

N: On a separate note, I have to ask about Night Gallery… Having worked on the ‘80s Twilight Zone, it seems like you’re the perfect person to carry on Rod Serling’s legacy by continuing his final series. Of course, since Night Gallery isn’t as well-known as Twilight Zone it would seem there’s even more ground for you to make it your own.

JMS: To a degree. We also want to honor what Rod did with the original. I did a pilot script for Universal and for Syfy, and they’re making a decision now whether or not to proceed with it. They’re also talking about a separate anthology show, which would be more of a hard-edged kind of a project. I can’t say that much about it, because it’s still in process.

http://nerdist.com/exclusive-j-michael-straczynski-prepares-us-for-his-netflix-series-sense8/

Jan

[Babel-17]

Nice to hear that Serling's legacy will be upheld. As great a writer as Serling was, he seemed to actively mine his field for the best stuff he could get. Night Gallery, hmm, I loved it as a kid but I can see where there's room for growth. Lots of potential for populating such a place. Maybe instead of just pictures*, we could have characters who visit (and some quirky staff <thinking of you Zathras!>). Lol, I love the idea of JMS interacting with such people. IIRC, the HBO show, The Hitchhiker originally had the premise where the narrator for the show, The Hitchhiker, would catch a ride from a person who would be featured in the episode.

But I'd also love some straight up modern day versions of Serling's original format.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085031/

A series of mystery-thriller stories, linked only by the character of The Hitchhiker, who would introduce and close each episode in the style of Rod Serling or Alfred Hitchcock. Occasional stories involved supernatural forces, but most plot twists stemmed only from the dark side of the human spirit.

*Statues, and even museum type stuff, might also be worthwhile

[sarthaz]

Let's go full-on Hitchcock style and have JMS introduce each episode himself, perhaps by filling in his silhouette outline. "Good evening ..."

[Jan]

I would LOVE to have JMS introduce every segment! Will have to check out his profile at SDCC to see if it might work for a Hitchcockian gig.

Jan

[Babel-17]

Looks like Hulu is offering the original series for free. I just watched The Waiting Room, next up, Last Rites for a Dead Druid. Funny enough, Buddy Ebsen is in the first segment, Donna Douglas is in the second.

Might only work for US viewers, and there are ads here and there. The quality is excellent, all things considered.

Hopefully this link to Season one, episode one, works. I'm watching them out of turn. I was googling "double whammy", which led me to "Li'l Abner" where I noticed Donna Douglas in the 1959 movie. Since I remembered her in Night Gallery, I googled that and ...

http://www.hulu.com/watch/12279

Edit: Ha! Jeff Corey in Episode One, and it's written by Fritz Leiber.
Edit 2: Wow, his first lines are basically a response to a variation of "Who are you?" and then his next lines .... lol

[Delenn_of_Mir]

Well it's 2016 now, and it's no longer on Joe's imdb page. Is it safe to say the project got tanked? Sad, cos I bet it would have been good.

On the bright side, I got some more shows to add to my anthologies list. (sun)

[Jan]

I still see it being in pre-production (I've got IMDb Pro) but nothing's happened on it for a long time, you're right. Hope it might still happen.

[Delenn_of_Mir]

I'm not holding my breath.

(Cos I can't really hold it for that long and in case it does happen I don't want to die before it airs)

[Jan]

With the passing of Stephen Furst, I was wondering what the status of this might be. According to IMDb, it's in 'Turnaround' as of July 25, 2017. According to Wikipedia, that means:

A turnaround or turnaround deal is an arrangement in the film industry whereby the production costs of a project which one studio has developed are declared a loss on the company's tax return, thereby preventing the studio from exploiting the property any further. The rights can then be sold to another studio in exchange for the cost of development plus interest.[1]

Michael Cieply defined the term in The New York Times as "arrangements under which producers can move a project from one studio to another under certain conditions".

[Hypatia]

I was wondering about this project, too. It sounds like an excellent project, I do hope it is moving forward.