David Wong’s “John Dies at the End” is a big book for a 100-minute movie. Writer-director Don Coscarelli does a solid job paring through the narrative and isolating the appropriate pieces to make the feature work, but this is some mesmerizingly disturbing stuff we’ve got going on here. It’s well worth expanding and, much to my delight, Coscarelli confirmed the book-turned-movie may be developed into a TV series, too.
“John Dies at the End” is currently available on VOD, but in honor of the film’s January 25th theatrical release, Coscarelli took the time to sit down and talk soy sauce, meat monsters, bratwurst phones and a possible TV version with FX. He explained that the team behind the film has considered going the TV route and that they honed in on FX because the film’s star and executive producer, Paul Giamatti, recently made an arrangement with the network through his own production company, Touchy Feely Films.
The project is nowhere near a sure thing and Coscarelli certainly isn’t about to get ahead of himself. He admitted, “Obviously the movie needs to come out and establish itself and hopefully there will be likeminded souls like yourself who would have the same feeling.” He also suggested that “John Dies at the End” might be a bit too “wild” for the FX executives, a thought he quickly reconsidered after being reminded that “American Horror Story” is currently an über sick and twisted FX staple.
But even though “John” is warped enough to nestle right in alongside material like “AHS,” Coscarelli is right; it’s going to come down to the film’s reception at the box office and on VOD platforms, and, honestly, it’s not exactly a widespread crowd pleaser. The movie features two guys who have heightened senses, travel to other dimensions and see crazy creatures all courtesy of a drop of soy sauce; you’re either on board for an adventure of that nature or you’re not.
I say take the plunge and give it a go, but if you need to hear more about it straight from Coscarelli himself, check out the clip of him discussing the potential TV show below and keep an eye out for the full interview with the writer-director coming soon to Shockya.com.