Legendary Pictures has been sitting on the rights to ‘A Killing on Carnival Row’ for nearly a year now and instead of using it to make a movie as originally planned it now is heading to Amazon with Guillermo del Toro (‘Crimson Peak‘,’The Strain‘) again at the helm. The new series is shortening the name a bit and will now be called ” with the help of Rene Echevarria (‘The 4400,’ ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’) and Travis Beacham (‘Clash of the Titans,’ ‘Hieroglyph’) taking care of the script who del Toro previously worked with on ‘Pacific Rim.’
While the show is del Toro’s baby he is only set to be directing the pilot at this time and will most likely just serve as executive producer alongside Beacham and Gary Ungar (‘Gothika’,’Modigliani’) who he co-produces ‘The Strain’ with. No word on who else will be directing the series and if it will be a single director or the work of many.
The plot for this is right up del Toro’s alley and practically screams to fit into the background world of his big screen worlds of ‘Hellboy’ and ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ as we are introduced to a noir styled world where humans, fairies, and other mystical creatures exist and are known to one another. The initial script had a serial killer on the loose in this world with a detective investigating the case of a multitude of mystical creatures being the targets where he himself ends up as the prime suspect. However, a long format version of the tale which television can provide will give them more room to expand on the concept and grow the world.
Really sounds like a world that del Toro could beautifully bring to life and according to the director, “We tried to do it for so long as a film that the rights reverted back to Travis as a basic story And I’ve always talked about it to anyone that would listen.”
“We always had too many ideas to fit into the feature,” he continued. “We can now really focus on the world and the politics of what it is to be a magical being in Victorian steampunk atmosphere where you are seen as a lesser being.”
New Line had initially picked up ‘Carnival Row’ back in 2005 with del Toro immediately becoming attached but as the film kept getting pushed off, he left the project to pursue his other works. Although Neil Jordan was attached to direct after del Toro and Tarsem Singh ending up with it in 2011, no studio ever managed to push the project forward. Clearly Legendary is willing to hedge their bets on del Toro with how many wins he has under his belt for the studio at this time.
With Amazon having just cancelled out on Chris Carter’s ‘The After‘ before it even got off the ground, this seems not only to be the perfect genre replacement but an idea that I can get even more excited about.
How about it folks? Are you looking forward to checking out ‘Carnival Row’ when it premieres on Amazon or are you suffered that it will end up being prematurely cancelled as well? Are you more excited for the concept of ‘Carnival Row’ or wish ‘The After’ was still being made? Share your thoughts below!
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
