TNT will revisit Tales from the Crypt once rights clear up

July 28th 2017, 9:48am

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Two of this year's biggest horror disappointments were Paramount canceling the new FRIDAY THE 13TH movie and TNT putting the kibosh on their planned revival of TALES FROM THE CRYPT.

While it seems not much other than fear (and possibly rights issues) were to blame for the sinking of FRIDAY THE 13TH at Paramount, we know for sure that TNT's TALES FROM THE CRYPT was sent to premature burial due to those damn rights and their damn issues.

Back in April, the Turner network issued this statement about the whole mess:

The underlying rights to the classic, vintage property are complicated. … TNT and others have been pursuing a solution for more than a year, with significant progress being made. We look forward to the potential for further active development of this valuable franchise once the clearance process is fully resolved.

And today we have an update via TBS and TNT entertainment president and Turner CCO Kevin Reilly:

It’s been fun with lawyers, it’s been really fun. We did not know from the get-go or else we would not have announced it and made a big deal out of it. But in fact, there were rights. It is of the most — if not the most — complicated rights structure I’ve ever seen in my career, and we had no idea as we got into it. It became a nightmare. So we said, ‘Fine.’ If and when this gets cleaned up, we’ll revisit.

"When this gets cleaned up." Right, sure thing.

And thus brings about a problem with our world of horror these days; the studio couldn't get the rights to the NAME Tales from the Crypt, so they abandoned the project altogether. Why not just take all that work and whatnot, call the series TALES OF HORROR (or something) and release the damn thing?

But that's just being ridiculous.

What do you think of TNT letting all these rights issues hold up this new horror anthology series? Do you think you'd only watch the series if it was called TALES FROM THE CRYPT, regardless if it had the HBO Cryptkeeper or not? Let us know what you think on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram!

Until then you can buy your copy of TALES FROM THE CRYPT: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION