It's not often we bring you a clip for something you'll possibly never see, but in the case of the Locke & Key trailer to the ad for the TV pilot which Fox decided not to pick up for a full series earlier this year.
The pilot, based on Joe Hill's comics, sees the recently bereaved Locke family relocating to the ancestral pile Keyhouse, in Lovecraft, Massachussetts. Once there, Bode, the youngest of the Locke children, comes across The Ghost Door, which allows him to leave his corporeal form, and leads to the discovery of The Girl in the Well... Miranda Otto, Nick Stahl, Sarah Bolger and Skylar Gaertner starred.
Originally picked up by Steven Spielberg for Dreamworks, Locke & Key eventually passed to and was greenlit for pilot season by Fox. Sadly, the rest was silence, but all may not be lost after all. Speaking to Empire recently, Joe Hill seemed optimistic that the pilot may still see the light of day in some form.
"Nothing's a sure thing," Hill says, "and launching a TV show is probably the hardest act in the entertainment business. We came up with a great script and a terrific cast, and Josh and Mark made something really scary and emotionally intense. But Fox had eight pilots and only three slots for new dramas, and they picked the three they wanted. But still, I'm not certain we're done yet..."
"As a comic book, Locke & Key has a lot of the same elements that you see in shows like Dexter, Breaking Bad, Battlestar Galactica and Walking Dead," Hill goes on. "They're dark, fantastical shows with a grim edge, and the thing they all have in common was that they were on cable TV. I think it's possible that we may yet find someone who'd like to give the show a shot, if we're very lucky."
Hill also believes there's scope for the pilot to be released theatrically in some form, although "you'd probably have to throw another $5m at it and add half an hour. I'll say this: we've had some channels in particular be more than interested, and that gives me hope. But until someone actually buys twelve episodes, we don't have a show."
On the evidence of the trailer, would you like to see more? Give us your thoughts in the comments below, and watch this space for updates.