“The Purge” isn’t a franchise that’s ever going to see one of its movies make a billion dollars at the box office, but in terms of return on investment, I would venture it offers a mightier percentage than some much more expensive blockbuster films out there. The horror/thriller series is certainly in healthy shape, with this summer’s “The Purge: Election Year” the most successful yet, and the entire series so far earning over $315 million worldwide. Again, it doesn’t seem like much, but for an R-rated horror series, with no big stars, that costs little to make, Universal are more than satisfied. However, the future of the brand looks to be headed to television.
With ‘Election Year’ hitting home video this week, CinemaBlend caught up with longtime “The Purge” writer/director James DeMonaco who revealed that a TV series was in the works.
“[It’s] more of an interwoven anthology. They came to me about a TV show, my idea is that you do six or seven storylines. And I would kind of intercut them, use flashbacks,” he explained about the format of the show. And DeMonaco hopes that more narrative space means that the series can explore the mindset of the Purgers.
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“….why I like the idea of a maybe 10 hour TV thing on this, the one thing you really can’t do on the films is, just because of mere real estate and time, is you can’t get into the nuance and complexity that would drive someone to commit a terrible act on this night. Whether it’s revenge or out of passion, but what might be interesting in a TV show is with a flashback narrative, if you start on Purge Night but you go back to show how people have gotten to where they are,” DeMonaco revealed. “Where you see a couple that’s gone haywire on this night, but let’s show everything that’s led up to this moment of a husband trying to kill a wife — the cheating or the accusations of cheating or money problems. It will be interesting to show those arcs, those dramatic and complex arcs that get people to where they pick up a gun or a knife and kill someone else. I think there’s something cool that we can do with the real estate of TV — 10 hours, potentially.”
Whether or not this new series with supplant future films remains to be seen, but apparently dealmaking and money talks are already happening for the show. It’s certainly an interesting new direction to take for “The Purge,” and it’ll be interesting to see if the visceral thrills of the movies will have greater impact with more backstory applied. Thoughts? Let us know in the comments section.