Horror Classic ‘Scanners’ Getting HBO Series

Here is some news that is sure to blow some minds — in the most literal sense.

HBO is reportedly developing a TV series version of Scanners, the cult classic horror movie from director David Cronenberg. Although the original 1981 movie spawned a bunch of sequels in the 1990s, this is the first time Cronenberg himself has been involved with one of these projects. The Hollywood Reporter says that Cronenberg “who also wrote the original movie, will act as executive producer along with Michael Ellenberg and Lindsey Springer of Media Res Studio and Meredith Duff and Sarah Sullivan of Wayward Films.” William Bridges from Black Mirror will be the showrunner, while Lovecraft Country’s Yann Demange will serve as director.

The original Scanners told the story of a group of beings with incredible mental powers. Amongst their abilities, they could use their “scanning” to literally blow people’s minds. If you have spent any time on the internet, you have surely seen a GIF of the film’s most famous moment. 

Cronenberg’s Scanners later begat the direct-to-video sequels Scanners II: The New Order and Scanners III: The Takeover. Then it got two more spinoffs: Scanner Cop and Scanner Cop II. There has been talk of reboots of the franchise in the past, but those were mostly intended as movies, where as in this case HBO is making a TV show. Given the premise, it seems like a concept that could definitely lend itself to a series; you’ve got a whole race of head-popping scanners to explore instead of just focusing on one or two of them like in the movie.