Fresh off the box-office success of The Invisible Man, director Leigh Whannell is set to tackle another “thrilling” project, this one for Blumhouse and UCP.
This effort will be a small screen continuation of his 2018 S/F thriller Upgrade, with Whannell also acting as executive producer with showrunner Tim Walsh, according to a press release from the studios.
Blumhouse and UCP–a division of NBC Universal Content Studios–previously worked together on USA Network’s The Purge series, as well as on the upcoming The Wilderness Of Error for FX.
The Upgrade film–written and directed by Whannell and starring Logan Marshall-Green, Betty Gabriel and Harrison Gilbertson–followed the travails of Grey Trace, whose wife was killed during a mugging, a horrific attack that also left him paralyzed.
Trace then was approached by an inventor who claimed to have a cure for him: a computer chip implant called STEM. This experimental implant imparted heightened physical abilities to its host, giving Trace the means for revenge against his wife’s murderers.
The TV series reportedly will start several yards after the events in the film and “broadens the universe with an evolved version of STEM and a new host, imaging a world in which the government repurposes STEM to help curb criminal activity.”
The studios said a writers’ room has been set up to work on the show’s premiere season. Krystal Ziv Houghton and James Roland–who worked on the second season of The Purge–will collaborate with Whannell and Walsh.
Whannell’s work on the Blumhouse and Universal production of The Invisible Man–starring Elisabeth Moss–netted more than $122 million worldwide at the box office. His horror resume also includes writing 2010’s Insidious and penning the first three Saw movies.
Keep reading Horror News Network for any updates on the Upgrade TV series.
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