Get ready for more horror from Gale Anne Hurd.
The Walking Dead executive producer will be producing an upcoming horror anthology series, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The series will be based on Aaron Mahnke’s popular Lore podcast which explores the often chilling origins behind myths of monsters- both creature and human- like serial killers, vampires, and yes, zombies.
The project is the latest from Hurd’s company Valahalla Entertainment which produces The Walking Dead, spinoff Fear the Walking Dead and Syfy’s recent debut Hunters. Long time producing partners Ben Silverman and Howard T. Owens’ (The Biggest Loser, 30 Days) A & E affiliate Propagate Content will also be producing. The project will be shopped around to both cable and network channels. Along with Hurd, Silverman, and Owens, Brett-Patrick Jenkins (Face- Off, Tough Love) and Mahnke will be among the execuitve producers.
Like the podcast, each episode of the series will be a standalone about one specific lore involving deep cut research of eye witness accounts and mixed historical media. Unlike the podcast, the television series will have the added medium of visuals to up the creep factor (we can only hope for a Walking Dead crossover when they hit the zombie episode).
“Serial inadvertently created a completely new playground for storytelling and intellectual property,” said Jenkins, who reached out to Mahnke himself about developing the series. “Aaron Mahnke is the Stephen King of podcasting.”
Mahnke, who’s also written several creepy myths of his own in novels like Indian Summer, Consumed and Grave Suspicion researches, writes and narrates the podcast himself. Since launching March of 2015, the podcast has produced over 30 episodes, gained 2 million listeners and made iTunes Best of 2015 list.
The Lore series is the latest in both the trends of podcasting turned tv and anthology. Last Man on Earth and The Lego Movie’s creators/ godsends Phil Lord and Christopher Miller will be adapting the seminal Serial podcast for Fox, and of course there’s an entire slew of anthology series out there- True Detective, Black Mirror, the recent Juice-tastic American Crime Story- though unlike most Lore will be a traditional anthology, focusing on episode narratives rather than season- spanning ones.
Hurd expressed her own excitement over her new, frightful project. “I’m excited to partner with Propagate on this truly thrilling and disturbing project. Lore is the real stuff that should keep you up at night.” Mind you, this is coming from a woman who’s behind the show that had this thing: