Jeff Davis Talks War Of The Worlds and Vampires
Jeff Davis, The showrunner behind popular US show ‘Teen Wolf’, took some time out to chat to Forbes about the finale series of his hit show. During the interview he dropped a few nuggets of gold about his next show War of the Worlds.
I’m friends with Andrew Cochran, who was on the second season of Teen Wolf, who’s a great writer. He told me about War of the Worlds, he was working on with Josh Berry, producer from the firm, whose grandfather actually was Gene Berry, who starred in the original War of the Worlds movie. He started to pitch me the idea and I said “That sounds really interesting. That sounds like a really good take.” Then, they asked me if I wanted to come aboard and help develop it. I said “Yeah, absolutely.”
We brought it to MTV and they liked our take. I think we’ve got something really interesting, because it’s not like Independence Day, where it’s a huge sci-fi massive special effects extravaganza. It’s more POV from the ground up, with survivors desperately trying to figure out how to stop this alien invasion and occupancy. What he pitched to me and what we’ve developed is a very Michael Crichton-type thriller, which I think is a very interesting take on it, a nicely updated version of it. I’m also a huge fan of the Tom Cruise War of the Worlds. I think that’s one of Stephen Spielberg’s most underrated movies.
Many of you may remember a short lived TV series in 1988, that was a sequel to the original 1953 film, so this will not be the first time martians have appeared on TV. Alongside Jeff Waynes sensational musical album and his european stage show tour, a recent TV show aired in 2013, called The Great Martian War 1913–1917, which documented the war using digitally altered film footage from the first world war.Lets not forget that this was story written by H. G. Wells, in 1897, and it continues to be a part of modern culture.
Davis also took some time out to chat about his up coming pilot for the hit vampire film ‘Let The Right One In’.
Filming is going great. I’m really happy with the cast we’ve assembled. I have to say, especially Ben Wadsworth and Kristine Froseth, the two young leads, are surprising us every day with how talented they are. The take on it is very much inspired by the book. I love the movie, Let the Right One In, the Swedish movie, but it wasn’t until I read the book where I thought, “Okay, I can see how this can be a TV series now, can definitely see it.” It’s the story of [Bram Stoker’s] Renfield.
It’s Dracula’s seduction, the way he brings in Renfield, the caretaker. That’s a very interesting POV, and to tell it from the eyes of kids… it’s a very adult story. It’s quite dark. We’ll see if it gets past the pilot stage. As you know about the TV industry, the pilot is a sales tool, essentially. You’re creating a sales tool for the series. We’ll see how TNT likes the pilot and if we can go forward. They’ll be deciding pretty quickly.
Look out for more news on these shows soon, as we expect to see both at some point next year!
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