A24 and Silver Reel want to make an Under the Skin TV show

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Seven years ago, Silver Reel financed director Jonathan Glazer's dark sci-fi film UNDER THE SKIN (available on Blu-ray HERE) which was then distributed by A24 in the United States. Silver Reel and A24 are now in a bidding war against each other, fighting over the chance to turn the concept of UNDER THE SKIN into a television series.

This is a bidding situation because the TV rights are up in the air while production company Seventh Kingdom Productions goes through the equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Although UNDER THE SKIN went over well with critics and The Arrow gave the film an 8/10 review, I can't think of many movies that are less suited for the TV treatment than that one. That is a purely cult film, telling an oddball story in a way only certain viewers will appreciate. I can't imagine why Silver Reel and A24 want to bring it to TV so badly.

Based on a novel by Michel Faber, UNDER THE SKIN was directed by Jonathan Glazer from a screenplay he wrote with Walter Campbell. Hyped as "a masterpiece of existential science fiction that journeys to the heart of what it means to be human, extraterrestrial — or something in between", the film had the following synopsis: 

A voluptuous woman of unknown origin (Scarlett Johansson) combs the highways in search of isolated or forsaken men, luring this succession of lost souls into an otherworldly lair. They are seduced, stripped of their humanity, and never heard from again.

Maybe I'm missing out on something, because I could not get into UNDER THE SKIN's slow-crawling style at all. The New York Post called it a "sci-fi snooze-fest", a description I find fitting. Watching that movie once was enough for me, I wouldn't want to return to that world every week for a TV show.