- Creatives behind Fear The Walking Dead and Supernatural are on board as showrunners
- Original 1982 film has become iconic in the horror/supernatural genre
- Plot will be inspired by the events of the original film
Fans of classic horror will be excited by this news – a series based on the iconic 1982 horror film Poltergeist is in the works.
Experienced showrunners
Variety confirmed that a TV series is in development at Amazon MGM Studios, and that Kalinda Vasquez and Robbie Thompson will be showrunners, as well as writers and executive producers. Vasquez is best known for her work on shows such as Fear The Walking Dead and Prison Break. Thompson meanwhile was a writer and executive producer on several seasons of Supernatural, and has also written various Marvel comic stories, including for Spider-Man and Doctor Strange.
Amblin Television is producing the series. Steven Spielberg, who runs Amblin Television, came up with the idea for the original film and co-wrote the script as well as producing it.
Inspired by original
While plot details haven’t been confirmed yet, it has known that the series will be inspired by the events depicted in the original film.
In the 1982 classic, the Freeling family move into a new home, but soon experience a range of increasingly creepy events. It transpires the home is haunted by several poltergeists with malign intentions. This escalates when the poltergeists then kidnap the Freeling’s daughter, and the family must work with a parapsychologist and spiritual medium to free her and quell the spirits.
The movie was a huge hit – grossing $121 million worldwide and receiving several Oscar nominations – and spawned two sequels in 1986 and 1988. There was also a reboot of the franchise in 2015, but the movie was largely panned by critics and it has not been revisited since.
