Tremors reboot directed by Bill Watterson has been cancelled

Back in 1990, director Ron Underwood brought us one of the greatest creature features ever made, Tremors (watch it HERE). A film that introduced subterranean monsters known as Graboids and spawned a franchise that has – so far – consisted of six direct-to-video sequels and a TV series that ran for thirteen episodes back in 2003. The only cast member who stuck with the franchise through every sequel and the TV series was Michael Gross, but for the last few years Tremors star Kevin Bacon has let it be known that he wants to come back to the world of Tremors. He even starred in a pilot for a second Tremors TV series… but Syfy didn’t pick it up. While Bacon continues to “wait for the call” that will give him the chance to reprise the role of Valentine McKee, Daily Dead has discovered that Universal Pictures’ 1440 Entertainment division was recently developing a Tremors reboot that was going to be directed by Bill Watterson (Dave Made a Maze), but the project has been cancelled.

Daily Dead’s Heather Wixson was able to look at character breakdowns and a draft deck for the cancelled reboot (honestly, I don’t know what a draft deck is), and by going over this material she was able to learn that the Tremors reboot wouldn’t have returned to the setting of Perfection, Nevada, but likely would have been set somewhere nearby. She also saw that it would have contained “a lovely tribute” to Tremors and Tremors II: Aftershocks star Fred Ward, who recently passed away.

Wixson isn’t sure how closely the Graboids in the film would have resembled the original version of the monsters, but she did hear that Watterson had been pushing for practical effects, moving away from the latter sequels’ reliance on CGI. By checking out Watterson’s Vimeo page, she found “an intriguing video” entitled Monster Worm Reference Clips. And then she was able to talk to Watterson himself: “While Watterson couldn’t fully elaborate on any exact details surrounding the project due to legal reasons, he did confirm that the project had been greenlit by Universal 1440 Entertainment but was no longer moving forward. Watterson also shared his thoughts on getting to be a part of a new Tremors project, explaining that it was something that he was extremely enthusiastic about doing, that he was proud of the work that he had put into the reboot, and that he knows that Tremors fans would have flipped over what he had planned for this new film.“

As Wixson notes, the most recent sequel Tremors: Shrieker Island did feel like an end to the original franchise (wrapping up with the death of Gross’s beloved character Burt Gummer), so this wouldn’t be a jarring time for a reboot to come along. But while Watterson was an interesting choice to direct a new Tremors movie, it does seem myopic on Universal’s part to have the project set up as another 1440 Entertainment direct-to-video movie instead of putting a little more money into it so Tremors could return to theatres. When you have Kevin Bacon wanting to star in another Tremors movie, why would you even look into the idea of making a direct-to-video reboot when you could have a big screen sequel starring Bacon?

What do you think of the news that a direct-to-video Tremors reboot directed by Bill Watterson has been cancelled? Do you want to see Kevin Bacon return for a sequel? Let us know by leaving a comment below.