Looks like television producer Thom Beers has got his hands tied up nowadays. He's got successful programs running on cable—
Ice Road Truckers,
Ax Men, the Emmy-nominated
Deadliest Catch—and he's also got the premiere of the new NBC reality series,
America's Toughest Jobs, to tend to. And now, he's heading up two new projects which we can expect to land in television screens, bookshelves, and even the big screens any time soon.
First, Beers' upcoming television project:
1000 Ways to Die. It was originally a two-part special aired in May on cable network Spike, but the success of the series led to the network ordering ten half-hour episodes of the factual series. The episodes are set to premiere this fall.
As with the original, it will tackle true stories exploring the many different ways—bizarre, perhaps—one can die. Featuring fast-paced reenactments, explanations from experts, historical tidbits and comic book-styled CGI effects, the program aims to play off the notion, “that could never happen to me,” in a tongue-in-cheek fashion.
“We may not readily admit it, but we all have a strange fascination with death, particularly of the gruesome details of how it occurs,” Beers said in a statement. “The bizarre humor in some of these cases is undeniable.”
“We are thrilled to be in the Thom Beers business,” Sharon Levy, Spike's senior vice president for original series, enthused. “We loved the special and Thom's vision for the series combines all the things our audience wants—outrageousness, water cooler facts and a never-before-seen-on-TV quality.”
Beers is also set to take on the comic book business, collaborating with publisher Devil's Due to release
Chopper Zombie. Written by Todd Livingston and drawn by Scott Keating, it revolves around a motorcycle builder who is killed by thugs after he refuses to sell his formula for a new superfuel to a big corporation. However, he rises from the dead to settle the score. The comic was released last July 30, but Beers also hopes to turn it into a feature film; he sets the start of production for next year.
With these projects, we are assured of more Beers projects that will, perhaps, provide the right mix of rush and enlightenment. He's done it before with his television shows—and, hopefully, he can do it in other media as well.
-Henrik Batallones, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Sources: Spike,
Variety
(Image courtesy of Original Productions)