Gale Anne Hurd, executive producer of The Walking Dead and co-writer of Terminator, just made a special NYCC appearance at the Amazon Video panel. Hurd announced she will be working with creator Aaron Mahnke to adapt his award-winning podcast ‘Lore.’ The podcast focuses on non-fiction scary stories, with an emphasis on exploring the origins of modern mythology. Mahnke has traditionally done all of the research and storytelling for ‘Lore,’ but upgrading to a live-action streaming series will allow them to expand their writers’ room and incorporate reenactments. Hurd promises the upcoming season will deal with ‘vampires, werewolves, ghosts, zombies (her favorite), and yes even serial killers.’
Joining the production crew will be former The X-Files writer Glen Morgan, who will be serving as showrunner. Mahnke told a heartwarming story during the panel about growing up as a devoted X-Files fan in college, naming Glen Morgan’s “Home” as his favorite episode. When Morgan contacted him independently to say he was enjoying ‘Lore,’ the two developed an ongoing friendship. Mahnke describes having Morgan in his writer’s room as “a dream come true.” Hurd is also an organic fan of the series. She expressed that she’s always been passionate about horror, and specifically “obsessed with mythology.” It’s an area that occupies a large amount of her personal reading at home. Having worked in film for a long time, she describes working with unscripted media as an item on her “bucket list.” She was also asked about her move to focusing more on television. Hurd said she prefers television because working on a film for 2 years yields around 2 hours worth of story, whereas the same amount of time spent on television might yield over 30 hours. She went on to say television is “more ambitious” and “tells deeper more character-driven stories.”
Mahnke seems to have no concerns about running out of material for stories any time soon. When asked, he said “there’s just a ton of creepy stuff out there.” He also said “we are a broken people” in reference to humanity, which honestly made me like 10x more pumped about the tone of this show.