CHILD'S PLAY franchise creator Don Mancini is teaming with Syfy Wire to host a Twitter watch along of the first film this evening, and it makes sense that Syfy Wire is involved with this because Mancini is currently developing a Chucky television series for Syfy. Ahead of the watch along party, Mancini sat down for an interview with the Syfy Wire website – and of course, this interview focused heavily on the upcoming TV show.
After saying that he has "always tried to create a different tone, plug Chucky into a different subgenre" from sequel to sequel, Mancini said that the TV show is aiming to
preserve the straightforward scariness of the original film or the first couple of films. But at the same time, continue on with this ever-expanding tapestry of consistent story that we've spun over the course of seven movies and 30-some years. I think fans are really gonna love to see the new characters that we introduce into this realm and just to see how they came off of our classic characters. Not just Chucky, but some of the others that you may be hoping to see. There's a good chance they may turn up."
Jennifer Tilly has confirmed that she'll be showing up in the series, so her character Tiffany is one we can expect to see. I'm guessing Alex Vincent might be around as Andy Barclay at some point, and maybe Christine Elise will come back as Kyle from CHILD'S PLAY 2. The ending of CULT OF CHUCKY would seem to demand that Fiona Dourif return as well.
Mancini is collaborating with a team of writers to craft the episodes of the series, and said the situation reminded of him of working on the Hannibal series.
What Bryan Fuller was doing with [Hannibal] felt like fan fiction made by experts, and I really love that aspect of it. So I feel like, in a way, we're doing that with Chucky now. I'm working with all these really talented writers, all of whom are huge Chucky fans, many of whom grew up on Chucky, and despite the fact that that's a painful reminder of my age, it's great to hear their ideas and just to start incorporating stuff into it that I might not have thought of."
He also acknowledged that, like the CHILD'S PLAY remake (which he was not involved with), this show will
look at what it means to be a kid today in the 21st century, as distinct from what it was like to be a kid in the 1980s, when we first showed up on the scene. That's one thing I think people can look forward to and thinking about: 'How does Chucky operate in a world where kids spend so much of their time on social media?', for example. Playing video games, interacting with one another on social media as opposed to in a park, which is what we might have depicted 30 years ago. I think the prospect of seeing Chucky sharpen his skills and add to his toolbox, some of the technical goodies that we have at our disposal now, that's something I think people will find pretty interesting."
The most interesting tidbit Mancini dropped into the conversation was that
Chucky has a different goal in the TV show than he's ever had before, and it's specifically something that is designed to evoke something that's going on in the zeitgeist today."
I don't know what he could be talking about there, but I'm very curious to find out.
Mancini is executive producing the Chucky show with David Kirschner, Nick Antosca, and Harley Peyton. The plot:
After a vintage Chucky doll turns up at a suburban yard sale, an idyllic American town is thrown into chaos as a series of horrifying murders begin to expose the town’s hypocrisies and secrets. Meanwhile, the arrival of enemies and allies from Chucky’s past threatens to expose the truth behind the killings, as well as the demon doll’s untold origins as a seemingly ordinary child who somehow became this notorious monster.
Brad Dourif will once again be providing the voice of Chucky, who will be brought to life with the use of puppetry.