In the arena of great creature features (of which there are many), it feels like 1990's Tremors perhaps doesn’t get the credit it deserves. It’s a lean, mean and fun ride full of great practical effects that hold up to this day. We’ve had six direct-to-video sequels over the years, as well as a TV show and now, it seems like a reboot of some sort is in the cards. That’s because original writers S.S. Wilson and Brent Maddock have secured the rights to their original screenplay, which means they can now do with it as they please. Sort of. It’s complicated, but we’ll get into that.
The 2nd Annual TremorsFest was recently held in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Wilson was in attendance and (via JoBlo), he broke the big news. Before diving into what any of it might mean for the future of the franchise, let’s go over what was said, exactly. Per Wilson…
“What we have now, just got, are the rights to our original screenplay. That’s good, we can remake (Tremors) if we want to. We don’t have the rights to Shriekers, we don’t have the rights to Ass Blasters, we don’t have the rights to Tremors 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.”
Copyright law is a complicated beast but, in essence, Wilson and Maddock were able to successfully terminate the copyright on their original Tremors screenplay, which was released by Universal Pictures. After 35 years, creators can transfer the rights of a given copyright. That’s partially what has held up a new Friday the 13th movie for all these years. In this case, it seems slightly less messy. Wilson, Maddock and their company Stampede Entertainment now own the screenplay for the first film in the U.S., but the not the franchise as a whole.
Directed by Ron Underwood, the original film centers on Val McKee (Kevin Bacon) and Earl Bassett (Fred Ward), two repairmen who are tired of life in the small desert town of Perfection. As they try to leave, they stumble upon several mysterious deaths and a seismologist (Finn Carter) who is studying unnatural readings below ground. The town is then forced to fight for survival against worm-like monsters hungry for human flesh known as Graboids.
As Wilson made clear, Universal did a lot with the franchise over the years, releasing six DTV sequels including Tremors 2: Aftershocks, Tremors 3: Back to Perfection, the prequel Tremors 4: The Legend Begins, Tremors 5: Bloodlines, Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell and Tremors: Shrieker Island. For what it’s worth, Shriker Island provided an ending of sorts for the franchise, with Michael Gross’ gun-toting Burt Gummer meeting his demise. Gross had become the series mainstay, starring in every film to date.
So, what can Stampede Entertainment do? More importantly, what will they do? If they try to execute a remake or sequel of some kind, they can’t use any elements from the sequels, including creatures such as Shrikers or Ass Blasters. More importantly, they only control the rights in the U.S. For international distribution, they would still have to work something out. For what it’s worth, Wilson said on an episode of the Talking Tremors podcast that they have no plans to remake the original.
“Stampede has zero intention to do a remake of the first movie. They’re most likely going to try to make a sequel that’s set in Perfection, Nevada with the remaining cast and crew and another Graboid threat.”
That means, if Bacon would be interested in returning, we could get a legacy sequel of sorts focused on Val McKee in Perfection decades after the events of the original film. Bacon did star in a pilot for a Syfy show that functioned very much like that, but the pilot didn’t get picked up to series. So, who knows? Maybe they revisit the idea as a movie instead. In any event, it does seem like a new Tremors movie of some kind will be pursued now. As for what shape that takes and how soon it comes together? That’s far less certain for the time being. Stay tuned.
For more, check out FANGORIA #91 from the archives, which features Tremors on the cover.
