(Clears throat, puts on best Narrator's Voice): *There is nothing wrong with your movie news website. Do not attempt to adjust the monitor. We are controlling the output. If we wish to make it sillier, we will report on that Justin Bieber concert/biopic 3D madness. If we wish to make you cry, we will keep this joke up for the next eight paragraphs... *(Hacking cough) We’ve decided to take pity on you, and hold off there. But it’s all in the service of word that MGM has found a pair of writers to start mining the resource that is the rights to classic sci-fi anthology show The Outer Limits.
The original series ran from 1963 until 1965 across the pond and over here, ending up in endless late-night repeats. Blending “what if” stories with more of an action and suspense bent than clear inspiration The Twilight Zone, it nevertheless trod a similar path. An attempt to rejuvenate it saw an update on the air from 1995 through 2002. But now MGM is trying to get a film version on to screens.
It’s not the first time that the company has been flirting with the idea, though: back in 2008, Ain’t It Cool reported a press release from the Lion talking up the idea of a film based on the original series. But the issue has become a little more tangled in recent years, what with MGM’s constant financial woes.
Largely up for sale, MGM is nevertheless ploughing ahead on a few projects, and paid regular Saw writers Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan to develop a script based on their idea for the story.
There’s no word on what form that will take, whether they’re trying a portmanteau pic as was attempted with the Twilight Zone film (spare us the helicopter jokes), or telling one story. But we don’t like their chances much. And if MGM can’t get itself out of monetary hell, the Limits could be stuck in limbo for a while yet.