Jordan Peele’s The Twilight Zone

[bassman]

My absolute favorite and all-time classic tv show, The Twilight Zone, is getting it’s third remake next year from Jordan Peele of ‘Get Out’ fame. Today they released a pretty awesome teaser that of course heavily referenced Rod Serling’s original....

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I know it could never reach the same level as the original, but I still look forward to it and hope it’s entertaining. Peele is obviously drawing on more inspiration from the original than either the 80’s or 2000’s remakes/reboots, so maybe that’s a good start.

[shootemindehead]

As someone who didn't find 'Get Out' to be all that and think that the praise levelled on it is to an absurd degree, I don't know what to make of this. I suppose if it does a better job than the 80's rubbish, then it'll be ok, I guess. Nothing will ever beat the originals though.

[Neil]

My absolute favorite and all-time classic tv show, The Twilight Zone, is getting it’s third remake next year from Jordan Peele of ‘Get Out’ fame. Today they released a pretty awesome teaser that of course heavily referenced Rod Serling’s original....

dlHnIRu2wcs

I know it could never reach the same level as the original, but I still look forward to it and hope it’s entertaining. Peele is obviously drawing on more inspiration from the original than either the 80’s or 2000’s remakes/reboots, so maybe that’s a good start.
Oh fingers crossed for this!!!

[JDP]

Don't know why some people trash the 80s version of this show. It had some good episodes. Overall, I found it consistently better than the 2000s version.

[bassman]

Don't know why some people trash the 80s version of this show. It had some good episodes. Overall, I found it consistently better than the 2000s version.

Indeed, both of these adaptations had some good episodes sprinkled throughout. I think what comes off as “trashing” these two series’ really stems from the fact that the original is SO good and nothing has ever, and probably will never, be able to live up to it.

But yeah, there are some good episodes in there, some new, some remakes, and some are even sequels to episodes from the original. I also really like Twilight Zone: The Movie from the eighties. It ultimately became infamous for the tragedy on set, but it also has its good parts. The remake of Nightmare at 20,000 Feet was probably the best of them all, IMO.

As for Peele, its true that he’s only had one film and it was probably being over hyped, but I’m excited for his involvement after reading interviews where he described his love for Serling’s original series. He seems like he loves the original enough to make something that MIGHT be able to stand next to it. Come to think of it, regardless of it being overhyped, ‘Get Out’ was really a good feature length Twilight Zone episode....

[shootemindehead]

Don't know why some people trash the 80s version of this show. It had some good episodes. Overall, I found it consistently better than the 2000s version.

Because it was largely shite, with a few good episodes here and there. It cheap 80's soft production does it no favours either.

Probably the best episode in the entire run was 'A Little Peace and Quiet'.

[JDP]

Because it was largely shite, with a few good episodes here and there. It cheap 80's soft production does it no favours either.

Not sure what you mean by "soft production". If you mean that there were no "twisted" episodes, I have to disagree. In some episodes even child characters would be subjected to cruel and dark plot "twists" (example: The Shadow Man), something that even the original Twilight Zone did not dare to do (different times; in the 1960s such a thing was "taboo" for TV.)


Probably the best episode in the entire run was 'A Little Peace and Quiet'.

That first episode also had another cool story starring Bruce Willis, the one where he accidentally calls home from a bar and his "other side" answers the phone. That 80s version had many famous and yet-to-be-famous actors in it.

[shootemindehead]

Soft photography. It looks like a cheap 80's production, because it was a cheap 80's production.

Yeh, 'Shatterday' wasn't bad and the one involving the couple who were caught between minutes. But, I just cannot watch them any more.

[JDP]

Soft photography. It looks like a cheap 80's production, because it was a cheap 80's production.

It looks like other anthology shows of the time, like Romero's Tales from the Darkside or Spielberg's Amazing Stories. Sort of like short films you could see in a movie theater (in fact, I remember seeing a screening of a compilation of 3 episodes of Amazing Stories at a movie theater back in 1988. People who did not know it was a TV show thought that it was an actual movie!) The 2000s version of Twilight Zone looked more like a "direct-to-video" production.


Yeh, 'Shatterday' wasn't bad and the one involving the couple who were caught between minutes. But, I just cannot watch them any more.

Just like all anthology shows, I let a good amount of time pass before watching the episodes again. I enjoy them more when I only have distant memories of them.

[shootemindehead]

It looks like other anthology shows of the time, like Romero's Tales from the Darkside or Spielberg's Amazing Stories.

Yeh. Cheap.

[blind2d]

Wow, I'm so excited for this!! :D

[bassman]

Simple behind the scenes photo of the clapper board in a diner, but it got me excited!

http://cdn.collider.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/the-twilight-zone.jpg

The first episode of the original has scenes in a diner(it’s also all in Hill Valley from Back to the Future! :p ). Coincidence or remake? Hopefully the former, as I don’t want too many remakes of the original episodes.



Wow, I'm so excited for this!! :D

Seems like we’d had a discussion kinda recently and you were saying that you were just recently seeing the original show for the first time? I actually became a fan of the original kinda late in life, too. I’d seen episodes here and there growing up, but sometime in my mid-late twenties I caught the marathon on the SyFy channel and it changed my life! I’ve been a huge addict for the show and collector ever since. Glad to hear you enjoyed it as well! :D

[bassman]

Adam Scott(Parks and Rec., Piranha) has been cast as the lead in “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet”, which will be a remake of the classic episode “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”, which was written by Richard Matheson, directed by Richard Donner, and starring William Shatner. This story was also adapted for the TZ movie in the eighties, directed by George Miller and starring John Lithgow.

I’m still hoping they don’t go too far with remaking established stories, but this IS one of the all-time greats, so it makes sense that it’d be one of them. I can definitely see Scott being a solid casting decision, so here’s hoping they can pull it off!

[JDP]

Adam Scott(Parks and Rec., Piranha) has been cast as the lead in “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet”, which will be a remake of the classic episode “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”, which was written by Richard Matheson, directed by Richard Donner, and starring William Shatner. This story was also adapted for the TZ movie in the eighties, directed by George Miller and starring John Lithgow.

I’m still hoping they don’t go too far with remaking established stories, but this IS one of the all-time greats, so it makes sense that it’d be one of them. I can definitely see Scott being a solid casting decision, so here’s hoping they can pull it off!

No way they will ever top or even equal the original or the 80s remake.

[bassman]

No way they will ever top or even equal the original or the 80s remake.

Oh yeah....nothing can top Serling’s original. No way, no how. The two reboots can easily be topped, but the most this can compare to the original would be as a sort of companion piece. With the right people and effort, they could achieve something related to Serling’s seminal work, but never topping it, I’m sure.

[shootemindehead]

Ummm...I hope it's not going to just be a load of remakes. That would be crap. Nightmare at blah blah has already been remade anyway. We don't need another one.

The beauty of something like 'The Twilight Zone' is the unfolding of a strange story, concluding in a "surprise" ending, or at least something that the audience isn't supposed to see coming. So remaking the old stories is pointless.

[blind2d]

Ummm...I hope it's not going to just be a load of remakes. That would be crap. Nightmare at blah blah has already been remade anyway. We don't need another one.

The beauty of something like 'The Twilight Zone' is the unfolding of a strange story, concluding in a "surprise" ending, or at least something that the audience isn't supposed to see coming. So remaking the old stories is pointless.

While I agree with this... I'm just excited to see more Adam Scott! He's dreamy... :) <3

[bassman]

It looks like other anthology shows of the time, like Romero's Tales from the Darkside or Spielberg's Amazing Stories. Sort of like short films you could see in a movie theater (in fact, I remember seeing a screening of a compilation of 3 episodes of Amazing Stories at a movie theater back in 1988. People who did not know it was a TV show thought that it was an actual movie!) The 2000s version of Twilight Zone looked more like a "direct-to-video”

The 80’s Twilight Zone in particular has very poor picture quality because of the post production process used. While the series was shot on film, it was then converted to one inch master tape transfers for editing, dubbing, effects, etc. Because of this particular process, the original 35mm film negatives were discarded, leaving only deteriorating videotape masters. The show had poor picture quality when it first aired, which of course is even worse now. This is the reason this particular series only has a SD release and no HD transfers like the original. The HD collection of the original series looks phenomenal because they had the original film negatives to remaster, but sadly they can’t ever do it for the 80’s show. The PQ and life expectancy of the 80’s series was doomed from the start.



Jordan Peele’s new series has collected an impressive cast list recently. Apart from Adam Scott that I mentioned earlier, they’ve also announced Greg Kinnear, Steve Yeun, Kumail Nanjiani, Jon Cho, Jacob Tremblay, Allison Tolman, with more to come. Hopefully having these “names” is an indication that they’re being attracted by great writing. Looking forward to it!

[JDP]

The 80’s Twilight Zone in particular has very poor picture quality because of the post production process used. While the series was shot on film, it was then converted to one inch master tape transfers for editing, dubbing, effects, etc. Because of this particular process, the original 35mm film negatives were discarded, leaving only deteriorating videotape masters. The show had poor picture quality when it first aired, which of course is even worse now. This is the reason this particular series only has a SD release and no HD transfers like the original. The HD collection of the original series looks phenomenal because they had the original film negatives to remaster, but sadly they can’t ever do it for the 80’s show. The PQ and life expectancy of the 80’s series was doomed from the start.

I actually watched the 80s Twilight Zone episodes when they first aired, and they did not seem to have any poorer picture quality than any of the other TV shows of the time. The effects of deterioration are being noticed now, though, after decades of storage. Tape does not preserve its quality like film does. It was a lack of foresight from the show-maker's part not to save the 35mm original footage. If it was still around they could just re-edit the episodes directly from it and improve the picture quality.

[bassman]

Exactly, it was poor decisions all the way down the line. While it may not have been noticeable, particularly on the tube TV sets of the time, the show still suffered on its initial airing because they used the tape transfers.

Coincidentally, the original series has six episodes in the second season that were filmed on tape in an effort to cut costs. They also had to shoot these episodes on stage so that they could essentially do live cuts in-camera. These episodes were restored to the best of their ability for the HD transfers, but it makes it very clear how inferior tape was to film.

[bassman]

They’ve now announced the show’s premiere date of April 1, 2019. Two episodes premiere on April Fool’s Day, with one episode per week after that. https://www.joblo.com/movie-news/jordan-peeles-twilight-zone-revival-sets-official-premiere-date

New actors continue to be announced as the production progresses. Thus far we have: Adam Scott, Ike Barinholtz, John Cho, Lucinda Dryzek, Taissa Farmiga, Greg Kinnear, Luke Kirby, Sanaa Lathan, Kumail Nanjiani, Rhea Seehorn, Allison Tolman, Jacob Tremblay, Jefferson White, Jonathan Whitesell, Jessica Williams, DeWanda Wise and Steven Yeun. Not too shabby, with more to come.

[blind2d]

They’ve now announced the show’s premiere date of April 1, 2019. Two episodes premiere on April Fool’s Day, with one episode per week after that. https://www.joblo.com/movie-news/jordan-peeles-twilight-zone-revival-sets-official-premiere-date

New actors continue to be announced as the production progresses. Thus far we have: Adam Scott, Ike Barinholtz, John Cho, Lucinda Dryzek, Taissa Farmiga, Greg Kinnear, Luke Kirby, Sanaa Lathan, Kumail Nanjiani, Rhea Seehorn, Allison Tolman, Jacob Tremblay, Jefferson White, Jonathan Whitesell, Jessica Williams, DeWanda Wise and Steven Yeun. Not too shabby, with more to come.

Nice! I'm even more excited for it now! EEEE!!

[bassman]

In a fantastic new article by Rolling Stone, Jordan Peele reveals that his upcoming film Us, was actually created with inspiration from the Twilight Zone episode, Mirror Image:


Its initial inspiration, appropriately enough, was the old Twilight Zone episode “Mirror Image,” which he saw as a kid. In it, a woman encounters her duplicate in a bus station and becomes convinced it arrived from a parallel universe, bent on replacing her. “It’s terrifying, beautiful, really elegant storytelling,” Peele says, “and it opens up a world. It opens up your imagination.”

As I believe I’ve said before in this thread, he’s clearly a huge fan of Rod Serling’s seminal series, which helps give me a more optimistic approach to this new Twilight Zone series!

It’s a fantastic Rolling Stone article in which he discusses his entire career, inspirations, etc. I highly recommend it: https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-features/director-jordan-peele-new-movie-cover-story-782743/

[bassman]

New trailer for the super bowl:

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Love it! :D

EDIT: CBS removed the trailer, for whatever reasons, but I’ve replaced it with another copy. It may not last long, as well. It doesn’t make much sense for CBS to remove free publicity!

[bassman]

First trailer with episode footage:

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Lookin’ pretty great to me! :hyper:


Also, the poster has been released:

https://www.joblo.com/assets/images/joblo/news/2019/02/Jordan%20Peele,%20The%20Twilight%20Zone,%20Poster, %20AITH.jpg

[bassman]

A couple episode-specific trailers:

Nightmare at 30,000 Feet

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The Comedian

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Premieres next week!!!

[bassman]

The review embargo lifted today, and thus far out of all the reviews I’ve found, the general consensus seems to be that Peele pulled it off! They’re saying it’s a good balance of fan service/nods, while also carving out its own relevant path and earns a seat right alongside Serling’s original as a continuation.

Can’t wait to see the first two episodes for myself in a few days!

[bassman]

There doesn’t seem to be too much interest here at this point, but it’s worth noting that CBS has put the first episode up for free on Youtube. It’s a very enjoyable episode and only excites me more for the rest of the series! It looks like Peele revived the show in a very positive way.

CBS has the episode set to where it can’t be embedded on other sites, but you can see it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/19GO8-Rrn0g

[blind2d]

There doesn’t seem to be too much interest here at this point, but it’s worth noting that CBS has put the first episode up for free on Youtube. It’s a very enjoyable episode and only excites me more for the rest of the series! It looks like Peele revived the show in a very positive way.

CBS has the episode set to where it can’t be embedded on other sites, but you can see it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/19GO8-Rrn0g

Yaaaay!!! I'm super excited for this!!

[Neil]

There doesn’t seem to be too much interest here at this point, but it’s worth noting that CBS has put the first episode up for free on Youtube. It’s a very enjoyable episode and only excites me more for the rest of the series! It looks like Peele revived the show in a very positive way.

CBS has the episode set to where it can’t be embedded on other sites, but you can see it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/19GO8-Rrn0g

Only available in the US :(

[bassman]

The remake of Nightmare at 30,000 Feet is pretty much an all-new story! They took the basic premise of Richard Matheson’s original story and created something entirely new and modern for today’s audiences. It’s a great episode and Scott gives a really convincing performance throughout. I’m afraid to say too much until others have seen it.

Keep an ear out for the name of the pilot, which is a reference to original episode director, Richard Donner. :cool:

[ProfessorChaos]

There doesn’t seem to be too much interest here at this point, but it’s worth noting that CBS has put the first episode up for free on Youtube. It’s a very enjoyable episode and only excites me more for the rest of the series! It looks like Peele revived the show in a very positive way.

CBS has the episode set to where it can’t be embedded on other sites, but you can see it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/19GO8-Rrn0g

thanks for the heads-up, i'll try to get around to checking this out this weekend. big fan of the original series. not very familiar with peele's work aside from some of his sketch show and his fargo season one character. heard good things about his two horror films, though.....but.....i really think it's a bitch-ass move for them to make this only viewable by signing up for their shitty little subscription service, and i doubt i'll see the rest of them till they get their pompous heads out of their asses.

[shootemindehead]

So...I've "acquired" the pair of these and will have a look later.

In any case, I have no doubt that this won't live up to the best of the 60's 'Twilight Zone'. That show was (largely) perfect for what it was and the time it was made in, and such things tend not to travel in time so well, as evidenced by the numerous failed attempts to revive it.

[bassman]

Yeah, it’s probably best to check your expectations at the door, simply because the original series is so incredible and one of the best in history. So expecting the exact same is likely only setting yourself up for disappointment. However, based solely on the two episodes currently available, I do feel like this has the potential to become the best of the three reboot shows. The version from the eighties was previously the best incarnation since the original, but I could see the current show having the capability of surpassing that, depending on how the rest of the season turns out.

So yeah.....I wouldn’t go in expecting it to be Serling’s original, but instead go in expecting it to be some sort of close relative that draws inspiration from the classic.

[JDP]

thanks for the heads-up, i'll try to get around to checking this out this weekend. big fan of the original series. not very familiar with peele's work aside from some of his sketch show and his fargo season one character. heard good things about his two horror films, though.....but.....i really think it's a bitch-ass move for them to make this only viewable by signing up for their shitty little subscription service, and i doubt i'll see the rest of them till they get their pompous heads out of their asses.

Unfortunately, this seems to be the trend for TV shows nowadays: "pay per view", "on demand", etc. AMC did the same with the new Creepshow.

[bassman]

I’ve found that I’m enjoying the show more and more with each passing episode. They’ve already announced Season Two and that the series had the highest numbers for the network. More than the new Star Trek, which really surprises me, honestly.

Looking forward to more!