Tremors novelization to be written by Christian Francis

In the early 1980s, writer S.S. Wilson was climbing over large boulders in the Mojave Desert when the thought occurred to him, “What if something was under the ground and I couldn’t get off this rock?” That thought would eventually grow into the story for one of the greatest creature features ever made, Tremors (watch it HERE), which was directed by Ron Underwood from a screenplay Wilson wrote with Brent Maddock. That movie, released by Universal in 1990, introduced viewers to the subterranean monsters known as Graboids and spawned a franchise that has – so far – consisted of six direct-to-video sequels and a TV series that ran for thirteen episodes back in 2003. Wilson, Maddock, and their production company Stampede Entertainment were behind the first four movies and the TV show, and they had written a script for Tremors 5… but Universal kept the script on a shelf for several years, and when they decided to dust it off and give the movie a greenlight, they made one of those incomprehensibly bad decisions that Hollywood makes from time to time and decided to make Tremors 5 without the involvement of Stampede, having their script rewritten on the way to production. Then Universal made two more sequels without Stampede, but with poorly re-designed versions of the creatures and scripts that suffered without Stampede’s input. So, when it was announced last year that Stampede had regained the copyright to their original Tremors script, it was great news. This would mean that Stampede is back in the Tremors game, and probably also means that Universal will have to work with them if the studio wants to make any Tremors films going forward. Now, the official Stampede Entertainment website has given an update on the situation – revealing that they first thing the company has done with their rights is hire author Christian Francis to write a novelization of the original film!

In the United States, copyright holders can terminate the transfer of their rights after 35 years. We’ve recently seen this happen with screenwriter Victor Miller and Friday the 13th, with James Cameron and Terminator, and others – and that is how Stampede got the copyright to their original Tremors script back.

Tremors has the following synopsis: Handymen Val McKee and Earl Bassett are tired of their dull lives in the small desert town of Perfection, Nevada. But just as the two try to skip town, they happen upon a series of mysterious deaths and a concerned seismologist studying unnatural readings below the ground. With the help of an eccentric couple, the group fights for survival against giant, worm-like monsters hungry for human flesh. The film stars Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Finn Carter, Michael Gross, Reba McEntire, Bobby Jacoby, Charlotte Stewart, Ariana Richards, Tony Genaro, Richard Marcus, Victor Wong, Bibi Besch, Conrad Bachmann, Sunshine Parker, Michael Dan Wagner, John Goodwin, and John Pappas.

Stampede posted the following update: As was announced at the Santa Fe Tremors Fest in October, 2024, the partners in Stampede Entertainment have reclaimed the rights to the original script for Tremors. We’ve been exploring what this may allow us to do, so here’s the update: First, we aren’t reading outside ideas. We are discussing a return-to-Perfection sequel, and one or two more outlandish ideas featuring graboids in new settings. Whatever we decide to pitch to Hollywood, it will not be a remake the first movie with a new cast.  Nor will it be a version of our original script for Tremors 5 (a question that is frequently sent to the Stampede FAQ) We are considering ideas that feature the return of Kevin Bacon as Val, but no promises!

LICENSING UPDATE: One bit of good news: we have made a deal with writer Christian Francis to do a Tremors novelization based on our script, since Universal never did one. Check out his many SF and horror books at: http://echohorror.com/ Beyond that, it is now clear we have no rights to the first movie and no ability to license anything from it. We cannot license, for example, t-shirts with a graboid on them, or even something with the Tremors title logo (the original script was titled “Beneath Perfection”). Therefore, all requests for licensing anything from any of the Tremors films must be still be referred to Universal Studios. This is a shame, because Universal hasn’t done much with those licensing rights at any point in the 35 years they’ve had them. It’s cool that we’re going to get a novelization, though.

Will you be reading the Tremors novelization by Christian Francis? Let us know by leaving a comment below. Francis has previously written a Session 9 novelization, and in the near future we’ll be seeing novelizations of In the Mouth of Madness, The Gate, Strangeland, The First Power, the Maniac Cop trilogy, Night of the Comet, and 3615 Dial Code Santa Claus that were written by him.

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