The folks behind the upcoming fairy tale thriller, Tell Me a Story, stopped by SDCC 2018 to share some exciting new information about the series.
Tell Me a Story will be a dark, psychological thriller that will take well known fairy tale stories and re-imagine them in modern day New York City. The show will be based on a Spanish TV show, Cuéntame un Cuento, and will interweave three classic fairy tales per season into one, epic story. The series will premiere on CBS All Access, likely in Fall 2018.
Executive producer Kevin Williamson (The Vampire Diaries, Scream, Dawson’s Creek) and stars Paul Wesley (The Vampire Diaries) and James Wolk (Zoo) answered some of our burning questions about the series and shared a short teaser! The teaser is still unavailable, but you can watch a trailer for the Spanish series (with English subtitles) below. The Three Little Pigs and Little Red Hiding Hood tidbits shown in the teaser looked quite similar to those in the Spanish version.
Based on what we saw and heard at SDCC, Tell Me a Story will definitely be an exciting series to watch. Check out everything we learned, and decide if you agree!
- Season 1 of Tell Me a Story will focus on Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs, and Hansel and Gretel. The first season (and likely future seasons) will have 10 episodes.
- The show will be an interweaving, serialized drama. It will seems to start as three different shows, but the fairy tales will begin to intersect and “become immersed in each other” before the season ends.
- The series will definitely subvert the fairy tales that it’s based on. The links to the classic stories will be “subtle,” but Paul Wesley assured us that “if you’re at all familiar with any of these stories, you’ll know immediately.”
- No word on which fairy tales they’ll be tackling in future seasons, but Kevin Williamson stated that Jack and the Beanstalk is his favorite fairy tale, so we wouldn’t be surprised if it makes an appearance sooner than later!
- Unlike the last project Kevin Williamson and Paul Wesley teamed up on and other fairy tale based TV shows, there will be no supernatural elements in Tell Me a Story. Wolk described the series as “very rooted and very grounded.”
- The show will be set in New York City, which will seem like “its own character.” Williamson described the setting as “the woods where everyone strays from the path.”
- Kevin Williamson said that fans of The Vampire Diaries will love his new series! He added that it will feature the same “rapid storytelling.” “We go a mile a minute and slow down for the emotional moments. We have the cliffhangers that I love to write.”
- Both Paul Wesley and James Wolk will be a part of the Three Little Pigs storyline.
- Williamson described the humanized “pigs” as having the following characteristics. The littlest pig just wants things to be easy. He doesn’t have the resources to have the life he wants, so he goes out and takes it, because that’s the easy way. The middle pig is a man of half measure. He’ll go half the distance, but wants the rest of it to be easy. The final pig works really hard for everything he gets, but things still don’t work out.
- Paul Wesley’s character’s name is Eddie. According to him, Eddie is “the exact opposite” of Stefan Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries. “He has certain tattoos that will make you be like ‘I know what kind of guy this is. This guy doesn’t really think before he acts.’ He sort of gets himself in these positions that are just so unfortunate. He’s not stupid, but sometimes he does some really stupid things.”
- James Wolk will play a character named Jordan, who is the “big bad wolf” equivalent in the Three Little Pigs storyline. “Jordan is loving his life. He’s very happy, he’s in the city, he’s a very affable guy. Very quickly, he is beset with some terrible tragedy that completely turns who he is and takes him down a very dark path.”
- Danielle Campbell (The Originals) will play the Little Red Riding Hood character, and Kim Cattrall (Sex and the City) will play her grandmother. Cattrall will not be “the grandmother you’re used to seeing,” Williamson assured.
- Their story will begin when Little Red moves to New York, following the death of her mother. She will meet a “big bad wolf” on the dance floor while out clubbing in the city!
- It’s “the story of a grandmother trying to make a difference in a young girl’s life,” and will showcase the bond between the two women.
- All three men in attendance at SDCC praised the experience of shooting a series for a streaming service, specifically CBS All Access. “There’s really no inhibitions, which is a huge, welcome change,” Wesley said. Williamson added to the sentiment by saying, “when the show ‘goes there,’ it goes there. People can talk the way they do in real life.”
- Wesley is “thrilled” to get a chance to work with Williamson again. When Williamson sent him the script, he replied with, “I’m in for whatever you do.” He continued the praise by saying “I want to work with this guy. The most exciting twists and turns (on The Vampire Diaries) were really able to take us by surprise. The cast was always excited to read the script.”
- The Hansel and Gretel story is the one we know the least about, but Williamson said it will feature a pair that will “find themselves running for their lives and in the process, finding themselves.”
- The series does seem to be pretty dark, but Wolk claimed that there are “many moments of laughter to come.”
We want to hear your thoughts on this topic!
Write a comment below or submit an article to Hypable.