It's not often that Blumhouse swings and misses badly. That's one of the benefits of producing horrors on a shoestring budget that explode into massive hits and long-running franchises. Now they're turning their proven model to the world of television with two new series, one based on The Purge movies and another on disgraced former Fox News chief, Roger Ailes. Both of these I'm very hyped for.
Deadline reports Blumhouse's new deal allows for them to develop their own TV shows, and they are kicking things off with The Purge. It'll be prepped for SyFy and USA, which sound like decent homes for it. The Purge takes place in an alternate U.S. where the government has instituted the annual "Purge" holiday, a 24-hour period when all violent crime is legal. It's used as a means of controlling the population and getting rid of undesirables, but of course a resistance rises to put a stop to it. There have been three movies thus far, all directed by James DeMonaco, and they've earned a combined $319M on a total $22M budget. The series will likely detail how the New Founding Fathers rose to power and created the Purge. A fourth film is due out next year and will be a prequel to the original trilogy.
Blumhouse also has Secure and Hold: The Last Days Of Roger Ailes, about the fall of the man who built right-wing network Fox News into a powerhouse. Showtime will be the home for this limited series, and intriguingly it has Tom McCarthy (Spotlight) writing and serving as showrunner. Ailes was a chief consultant for Richard Nixon, and he had this idea for GOP TV which never came to pass. Years later he would be able to put that idea into effect when he took over as CEO of Fox News in 1996, and built them into a force in the news industry and the loudest conservative voice in the world. Journalist Gabe Sherman's reporting on Ailes, which includes the litany of sexual harrassment charges that led to his ouster from Fox, will be the series' focus.
