Lin Shaye has earned genre icon status with her roles in many horror movies, from making a brief appearance in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street to carrying the Insidious franchise as the psychic Elise Rainier. Now, as she’s approaching the age of 80, Shaye is set to become an action star. She has signed on to executive produce and play the lead role in the action thriller series Ellen.
Deadline reports that Ellen will run for six episodes and is being financed by New Regency, the company that was behind The Revenant and The Beast Must Die. The story, scripted by Tim Walker from an idea by Jalmari Helander, follows
a nefarious land developer who gets more than he bargained for when he tries to intimidate an 80-year-old widow into abandoning her Montana ranch.
New Regency is working with QCode, Automatik, and Oddfellows on Ellen, and the companies are also planning to develop and produce a podcast that will accompany the show. 42 is producing Ellen with Automatik. Executive producing with Shaye are 42’s Ben Pugh and Charlie Morrison, Josh Horsfield, Automatik, Oddfellows, New Regency, and Walker. Helander and Petri Jokirantaa are co-executive producers. The filmmaking duo of Clif Prowse and Derek Lee (Afflicted) will be executive producing and directing.
Casting for the project is still “in progress”, so we don’t know yet who will be sharing the screen with Lin Shaye on Ellen… But really, Shaye’s involvement is all I needed to know about to get interested in this show. I would like to see her shift into badass mode to protect her property, so I’ll be watching Ellen.
Are you a fan of Lin Shaye, and does this Ellen show sound interesting to you? Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below.