Guillermo Del Toro is one busy man, but that doesn't stop him from adding another project to his list. A Killing on Carnival Row, once a film property of Del Toro almost ten years ago, is coming back to life through Amazon as a TV series, with Del Toro co-writing and directing the pilot.
The Hollywood Reporter reveals Amazon and Legendary Studios are teaming together to bring this project back to life, now to be called Carnival Row. Legendary acquired the script for the new series during the past year. Co-writing the pilot in addition to Del Toro are Travis Beacham (Pacific Rim) and Rene Echevarria.
Del Toro plans to direct Carnival Row's this spring between finishing up post-production on his new movie Crimson Peak, due in theaters on October 16, and beginning work on Pacific Rim 2. There's no word on what ever happened to that black & white indie he was going to make with John Hurt in this time slot.
Initially penned back in 2005 by Beacham, A Killing On Carnival Row was a script that got a lot of attention, but never went anywhere until now. Del Toro was attached, then moved on, then Neil Jordan stepped up and passed before Tarsem Singh mentioned directing it back in 2011 according to Deadline. After this, word became quiet on the picture.
Plot details for the upcoming show are skim at the moment, although the original movie was a steampunk-laced fantasy where a detective hunts down a vampire serial killer whose been killing fairies. The setting, at the very least, remains the same.
“We always had too many ideas to fit into the feature,” Thomas Tull, of Legendary, said to THR. “We can now really focus on the world and the politics of what it is to be a magical being in a Victorian steampunk atmosphere where you are seen as a lesser being.”
Del Toro also executive produces with Gary Ungar, who find a ratings darling this summer with The Strain this summer. As noted by my weekly recaps at the time, The Strain had a lot of problems as it went along, but Del Toro certainly proved he put together a hell of a pilot.
Image courtesy of Peter West/ACE Pictures