It was announced back in 2017 that Universal Cable Productions had struck a development deal with John Carpenter, which was to see Carpenter executive producing scripted programming with them for NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment, in addition to external networks and streaming services.
Recently, UPC and Carpenter went into development on "Tales for a Halloween Night" for SYFY, based on Carpenter's award-winning graphic novel anthology of stories, which brought together various storytellers for a collection of horror stories.
We learned that Carpenter intended on at least directing the pilot episode, but Carpenter's producing partner Sandy King breaks the bad news that the plug has been pulled on the series, apparently for a good reason.
“SYFY wanted Tales for a Halloween Night but it quickly became evident that they just wanted the title. And I really saw a disaster on the horizon,” King told ComicBook.com. “So I went, ‘No, no, no. This is not a good idea.’ It was a greenlit series but if it’s not gonna be something cool for the fans and for the eventual audience, then I don’t think it’s a good idea to do it.”
“It’s dead,” she confirmed. “I think we have a pretty good idea what our fans want to see. It doesn’t mean something can’t be done but at its core, the people we work with have to respect horror fans and respect the genre. That’s the core of it. Not just respect the fact that horror right now makes money.”
Basically, the series can still happen, it just needs to be done right with respect for the genre.
