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2011’s Tucker & Dale vs. Evil is a comedy slasher film starring Tyler Labine and Alan Tudyk as goofy well-intentioned rednecks who get mistaken for axe murderers by a group of accident-prone college students in the deep woods. It’s awesome and hilarious, and is now a cult classic. (If you’re a fan of Tucker & Dale, you will love Heart Eyes, which is on Netflix now. I was so happy to see it in the theater. Clever slasher send-ups are rare.)
You may wonder why we never got a sequel, series or spinoff of this delightful movie. The answer is a typical one: it was squashed by a man who has never met a beloved franchise/IP he couldn’t kill for tax purposes: HBO’s David Zaslav. Tucker & Dale’s director, Eli Craig, has a new well-reviewed horror movie out called Clown in a Cornfield. In a podcast interview with Slashfilm, Craig revealed the sad current fate of Tucker & Dale.
I recently had the chance to speak with director Eli Craig in honor of his excellent new movie “Clown in a Cornfield.” During the conversation, we touched on the attempts to get a sequel to his 2011 cult classic “Tucker and Dale” made over the years. While it has been in development at various points, it never fully got off the ground.
“Honestly, ‘Tucker and Dale 2’ has died more deaths than the college kids in ‘Tucker and Dale,”‘ Craig quipped. “We’ve had so many versions that have almost got off its feet or, for one reason or another, have gotten killed. It really does set us back that people can’t look at the box office, the actual box office, of the movie.”
For those who may need a refresher, the original film centers on a pair of affable hillbillies named Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine) who are on vacation at their run-down mountain cabin when they are mistaken for murderers by a group of college kids. Bloody and funny hijinks ensue. Speaking further, Craig revealed that they were this close to getting a sequel made for cable TV before Zaslav pulled the plug:
It’s always been a struggle, and then when we do set it up, and we get all the pieces together, it gets killed somehow. We almost did a TV show with it that was on TNT/TBS, and you’ll be happy to know that David Zaslav, the slayer of all cinema [laughs], came in and put the final nail in the coffin for ‘Tucker and Dale’ as we were about to go to series, and just cancelled all production.”
The main thing to understand is that Zaslav is as brutal as any executive in the business when it comes to killing projects, no matter where they are in the process. For what it’s worth, Craig officially began developing a version of “Tucker and Dale vs. Evil 2” way back in 2014. Eventually, that shifted to a small screen version several years later. Craig also told me what the show would have looked like, and it sounds like it would have been very rewarding for fans of these characters:
“The TV show was more like — it’s not going to exist anymore — but it was more like Tucker and Dale, but detectives. Detective Tucker and Dale, like, stupidly trying to figure out what’s happening in a world where they’re always getting it wrong and people are dying around them […] It was Alan and Tyler, and it was…yeah. [Resigned shrug] What can you say?”
Indeed, he was going to get Tudyk and Labine to reprise their roles in this TV version. It also seems like a great way to expand these characters with a TV-friendly premise.
How can one old man who doesn’t even watch these shows have so much decision-making power? Warner Brothers better not f-ck up the streaming distribution for Sinners! A detective series for Tucker and Dale has so many possibilities. Psych remains one of the most beloved shows of all time and we need more silly buddy detective shows. I’m hoping that this news reaches some decision makers at a streamer that isn’t shooting itself in the foot repeatedly and has the ability to make it happen (i.e. Netflix).
In the mean time, Clown in a Cornfield looks just like the type of self aware slasher horror I love. I’m going to try and see that one in the theater too.
Photos credit: Image Press Agency/Image Press Agency/Avalon, Getty and via YouTube
In this one case, I’m okay with this. This movie is pure gold and even with some of the same creatives involved, it’s rare for a sequel or spin off to be any good years or in this case well over a decade later. Leave the magic that is Tucker and Dale vs. Evil alone. I’d be okay with a similar fun concept but I’m well and truly over people trying to pump water out of a dry rock (that’s my way of saying STOP MAKING F****ING sequels) Give me more Sinners, more Everything Everywhere All At Once, more The Menu. Give me original ideas.
I’d be okay for the same team to have brought the characters over for a tv series… it was the original team who DID come up with an original idea and they had found a way to keep it fresh, sounds like, in series form.
But if it would have meant we never would have gotten the offkilter joys of Resident Alien with Tudyk that would be a tough trade off.
Also Zaslav is a menace.
That movie along with Black Sheep is my feel-good movie. I judge people on how they react to these cinematic masterpieces.
Loved this movie so much! It was so unexpected, I didn’t know anything about it going in. Would’ve watched this.