'Mockingbird Lane' may air for Halloween; 'Peanuts' reborn via Blue Sky; Chris Carter coming back to TV?

As I noted over a week ago, NBC had decided to not move forward with Mockingbird Lane, a rebooted series based on the classic 1960s TV sitcom The Munsters from Wonderfalls and Pushing Daises creator Bryan Fuller. The idea had been around for almost two years at NBC, and the network spent over $10 million getting it developed, but according to the media site Collider, part of the problem stemmed from the visual direction Fuller wanted it to go and what pilot director Brian Singer wanted. Also, NBC wanted the series have a fish-out-of-water aspect to it, where Fuller wanted it to exist in some self-contained universe. And because Fuller was working on his Hannibal prequel series (which NBC already gave a 13 episode order for midseason), he had no time to work on the show. NBC, looking to get some of its cost back (instead just burying it) will at least air the pilot, which should air this Halloween as a special, though no actual air date has been announced.

20^th Century Fox Animation and Blue Sky Studios –the company behind the Ice Age films and Dr. Suess’ Horton Hears a Who and Rio– are partnering again for a big screen adaptation of Charles Schulz’s beloved Peanuts characters. They’ve set a November 25, 2015 release date for a film, which will be the classic cartoon strips 65^th anniversary and the 50^th anniversary of the classic CBS special A Charlie Brown Christmas. Steve Martino, who co-directed Horton Hears a Who and this summer’s Ice Age: Continental Drift, will helm this film, based on a screenplay by grandsons Craig Schulz and Bryan Schulz along with Cornelius Uliano.

The X Files creator Chris Carter has kept a somewhat low profile since his series ended in 2002. Sure, he co-wrote and directed the second big screen adventure of Mulder and Scully, 2008’s disappointing The X Files: I Want to Believe, and about a year ago he was working on a procedural show with supernatural overtones call Unique, but overall, the man has kept a low-profile for 10 years. But now, the writer has teamed up with Georgetown Television to bring the world The After. It sounds like a conspiracy series -a thriller which revolves around a mysterious and unexplained event and will incorporate “elements of science-fiction, suspense and real-word fear and paranoia.” Georgetown Television, by the way, seems to making an impression of late, as they’re also behind the recently announced reboot of the classic British sci fi series Blakes 7, as well as a pandemic thriller called Hunters from Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski and a supernatural series called Sense from team Wachowski.  The only downside to this announcement is that no US based network has picked up the show, and it’s the intention of Georgetown to shop the show at Cannes, potentially acquiring foreign financing and thus hoping to have it go for a full series pick-up versus going through the usual pilot process. Like a lot of old, popular US shows (especially science fiction and fantasy) the market is huge overseas, so there is a potential it could get picked-up. But that begs the question; would it air here anytime soon?

Ian McShane has joined the cast of American Horror Story: Asylum in a recurring role. Also, Judas Kiss actor Richard Harmon has scored a recurring role on A&E’s prequel Psycho series The Bates Motel.