THE WALKING DEAD and AMERICAN HORROR STORY proved that horror could exist on the small screen while HANNIBAL and BATES MOTEL showed that you could reboot iconic films for television. So, which classic will get reinvented next? How about THE OMEN?
Glenn Mazzara, the departed showrunner from THE WALKING DEAD who took over from Frank Darabont, will write and produce the pilot for DAMIEN. The Hollywood Reporter says the series will serve more as a sequel to the 1976 Richard Donner film and tell a somewhat similar story to the third film in the OMEN series, THE FINAL CONFLICT, that starred Sam Neil.
The drama centers on the film’s young boy Damien Thorn. Now an adult and haunted by his past, Damien is faced with a series of macabre events and must finally face his true destiny: he is the Antichrist.
This is Mazzara’s first project since unceremoniously leaving THE WALKING DEAD after the third season. Before you get too excited about DAMIEN, know that the series would air on Lifetime, the network known for their cheesy, romance novel original movies. While this doesn’t doom the series, they also aren’t quite known for their genre work.
THE OMEN was most recently remade as a 2006 feature film starring Liev Schreiber and Julia Stiles. Prior to that, a made for television sequel THE OMEN IV: THE AWAKENING, brought the series to an end. Many are unaware of 1981’s THE FINAL CONFLICT which starred Neil as an adult Damien as he fulfills his title of Antichrist which was the best film aside from the original. There is a lot of potential for a series based on THE OMEN but don’t hold out too much hope until we see some casting and footage.