The news that Larry Cohen is apparently working on a new anthology series with J.J. Abrams broke a few days ago. Despite several other sites running with the story, I held off posting anything about it, despite being the resident DAILY GRINDHOUSE Cohen super-fan, because I was waiting for some sort of confirmation from Abrams. I’m still waiting.
For those who don’t already know, during an interview with Broke Horror Fan to promote KING COHEN, the new documentary about him, Cohen said the following:
“We’re working on a series now for cable with J.J. Abrams, who is a big fan of mine, and his company, Bad Robot. Each season would be 10 original one-hour Larry Cohen thrillers. We’ve got about two seasons already written, ready to be shot. If that happens, it’ll be a whole new renaissance, and there will be a lot of my material out in the world, and I’ll direct some of them.”
I have no reason to doubt that Abrams is trying to get an anthology series going with Cohen. He has proven himself to be an active fan of genre film history and was—by all accounts—instrumental in making the PHANTASM restoration and Blu-ray box set happen.
What makes me hesitant to get excited just yet is Abrams’ silence on the matter. My guess is that Cohen has indeed written the scripts as he says, but that the show is a long way from happening. Given the numerous roadblocks that can suddenly arise for any TV show or film in development, I am not going to pop the cork on a bottle of champagne just yet. As possibly the biggest Larry Cohen fan on the planet, I want to, but I think it is best to be cautiously optimistic.
Thank you again to Broke Horror Fan for uncovering such a surprising bit of news. Read the full interview here.
Tags: Broke Horror Fan, J.J. Abrams, King Cohen, Larry Cohen, Phantasm
No Comments