Tales of Pumpkinhead - TV Series

Hello Pumpkinheads, how would you guys feel about a Pumpkinhead TV series? Well at one point the idea was being considered, but unfortunately the project never grew beyond the stage of infancy. In issue #257 of horror magazine Fangoria, Gary Gerani (co writer of the original film) had this to say.....

I put together a Tales of Pumpkinhead TV series proposal for the sheer fun of it. This ambitious, illustrated presentation (Winston's top designer, Crash McCreery, rendered cool-looking demons for me) contained 20 new stories and was something of a semi-anthology. The gimmick was: Every other week we'd offer a Demon of Revenge story in order to give Pumpkinhead itself an ongoing presence. Since these creatures have been around since the dawn of mankind, the tales were set in various time periods (ancient Rome, the Wild West, etc.), although many were contemporary. One of my favorites concerned a Holocaust survivor who obtains fetal Pumpkinhead husks through the black market and plans revenge against the descendants of Nazi concentration camp runners who tortured and murdered his family.

On alternate weeks, Tales of Pumpkinhead would feature brand new, equally vile beings linked to the various evils of man. Together these megamonsters would constitute "The Dark Pantheon," an HP Lovecraft-like idea that seemed to bring my creative thinking full circle. And although Tales was designed to showcase individual demon stories, the series also provided continuing characters: In addition to Haggis, there was a young female anthropology student named Konda (eventually being groomed as the Witch's successor, though she doesn't know it) and United Faith, a secret organization of state-of-the-art demon slayers housed within the Vatican. (This was years before Stephen Sommeres made use of/screwed up that concept in Van Helsing.)

Both Weinman and Smith raved about Tales of Pumpkinhead, and within weeks we set up a meeting with MGM/UA. They seemed strangely resistant to doing anything with the property, and we soon learned why: they no longer had the rights to Pumpkinhead! After a little detective work, Weinman located the true copyright holders and made some kind of tentative arrangement with them. Next stop: the Sci Fi Channel.

"you guys show the original Pumpkinhead every Halloween," I remember telling creative directors Tom Vitale and Ray Canella. "Why not broadcast a brand new Pumpkinhead film every year at this time, and establish a creepy new tradition?" That seemed to make sense to them. So before embarking on any kind of regular series (although Tales was well-received), I sat down with these fellas and conjured up a brand new story that harked back to the very first Pumpkinhead tale ever written. It concerned ruthless land developers invading Bradely Mountain....and naturally, the mountain strikes back. After working out every beat, commercial breaks and all, we were convinced we had a winning story that everyone would embrace.

Everyone, that is, except Weinman. "The Sci Fi Channel is out, Stan Winston is in," he told me over lunch after I returned from all my story meetings in New York. It seemed Stan Winston was interested in doing a remake of the original film, as remakes of cult horror movies were a hot new trend at the box office. While I certainly couldn't argue with the commercial aspects of this approach (as producers, we'd make much more money with a theatrical movie), from a purely creative standpoint. I found the idea redundant and rather pointless. The first film is perfectly fine in its elegant simplicity; why do it over again? More would inevitably be less. So this time around, with a heavy heart, I served as co-producer on the project rather than screenwriter.

Weinman collaborated closely with Stan's designated surrogates, and after about two agonizing years, a remake screenplay was delivered. Combining some of the "family" elements of our first sequel screenplay, Stan Winston's Pumpkinhead (!) maintained Stan's prime directive that the tittle creature be exactly as it was in the 1988 picture: the same moves, the same methods of killing(clutching victims from above, etc.). Although Weinman-a fine writer- added some nice touches with the doomed characters, and the whitewater rapids setting was novel, it was pretty much the same story all over again with a bigger budget. According to Weinman, the screenplay was appreciated, but ultimately rejected by over 20 Hollywood production companies.
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That's a shame, the Tales of Pumpkinhead sounds like it could have been great. Who knows? As doubtful as it seems, maybe someday we'll get a Pumpkinhead series.