Spooktacular Podcast LORE to be Developed for the Small Screen
The Hollywood Reporter announced on Wednesday that the smash-hit horror podcast Lore is making the journey to the small screen. The show has been taken under the wing of seasoned producer/writer Gale Anne Hurd of Valhalla Entertainment, who will be collaborating with Ben Silverman and Howard T. Owens of Propagate Content.
Though most recently known for executive producing AMC’s The Walking Dead and spin-off Fear the Walking Dead, the rest of Hurd’s mile long resume is no less impressive, including her work as writer and producer of The Terminator and producer of Aliens. She is enthusiastic about this new venture, telling The Hollywood Reporter, “I’m excited to partner with Propagate on this truly thrilling and disturbing project. Lore is the real stuff that should keep you up at night.”
Lore is currently keeping 12.2 million listeners awake long past their bedtime. Just over a year old, the wildly popular program was named Best of iTunes 2015 and, with over 10 million downloads, has taken the podcasting world by storm.
The show is written, narrated, and produced by Boston-area resident Aaron Mahnke, who is also the author of several novels. Each episode delves into a different aspect of things that make us humans double check the spaces under our beds and leave the lights on when we go to sleep. All of Mahnke’s stories are based on his own research, making them 100% true and 100% spooky.
Now, those stories will be coming to your TV in the form of an anthology of hour-long stand-alone episodes. Hurd’s Valhalla Entertainment was brought in to kick start the process by Propagate VP Brett-Patrick Jenkins, who was the first to approach Mahnke and later tweeted:
Congrats to @amahnke & @lorepodcast ! We are so excited about this one! https://t.co/qj8X4pcHgV
— mooncrüe (@brettpatrick) April 20, 2016
“Congrats to @amahnke and @lorepodcast! We are so excited about this one!” He told Hollywood Reporter, “[Nonfiction podcast] Serial inadvertently created a completely new playground for storytelling and intellectual property. Aaron Mahnke is the Stephen King of podcasting.”
Lore is the second podcast to be adapted for TV, following in the footsteps of Serial, currently in development by Fox 21. It will also join anthology series Black Mirror from Netflix and TNT’s reboot of Tales from the Crypt. The executive production team will include Hurd, Mahnke, Silverman, Owens, and Jenkins. There is no word on which network will carry the program though Propagate Content will be soon be making the rounds of both broadcast and cable.
New Lore episodes premiere biweekly and can be downloaded from the Lore website as well as iTunes.