The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas

Hi TZ radio fans,

I hope everyone enjoyed "The 25th Hour" written by Dennis Etchison and starring the always amazing Mike Nussbaum. Because we have turned all of the original TZ television stories (except "Come Wander With Me") into TZ radio dramas we have been producing brand new never-before-seen or heard stories and I'm very excited about them. FYI: I do hope to produce "Come Wander With Me" at some point soon but because the two main characters have to sing, I need actors who can sing. I'm hoping to cast someone like Jesse McCartney and Rebbecca St. James in these roles. Jesse portrayed Daniel and the young David in my Word of Promise audio Bible and he was absolutely amazing. Rebecca played a servant girl in World of Promise and she is one of my favorite actors/singers. FYI: The older David was played by the incredible actor Gary Sinise. I've had a lot of emails regarding "Come Wander With Me" and when we will be producing it. It's not for lack of wanting to, it's just that this episode needs that very special duel talent of acting and singing.

Next up is the TZ radio drama "Another Place In Time" by Steve Nubie. It will star the one, the only, Malcolm McDowell as a physicist on a remote island in the Irish Sea who finds a link to multiple dimensions. Contemporary science refers to them as parallel universes. He and his wife find out the hard way that the grass isn't always greener on the other side. The supporting players include Sarah Wellington, Martin Aistrope, David Darlow and Meg Thalken. I think this one will turn out to be quite special -- and it has some fun sound design to go along with superb acting. It airs in September so try not to miss it.

I've mentioned in past blogs that I am producing a new dramatic radio series called "Fangoria's Dread-Time Stories" in collaboration with Thomas DeFeo, the CEO of Fangoria Magazine. We just recorded episode three titled "A Fungus Among Us" about a real fungus called the "Cordyceps" fungus that affects ants. When ants are infected with this fungus they become Zombie-like and act irrationally and then their heads explode and fungus spores spew from their brains infecting other ants. YUCK! Well, in our Fangoria story, this starts happening to humans. This gory tale was penned by Steve Nubie and I can't wait for you to hear it. These will be very edgy radio dramas that will be available for download at the Fangoria website www.fangoria.com You'll also be able to PDF download the radio drama scripts there as well. I'm pumped and very excited to say that Malcolm McDowell will serve as host and narrator for this series. These audio dramas will be fully-dramatized with full casts, sound effects and original music by Fangoria editor Chris Alexander. The first episode "The Late Shift" is complete and "Reincarnal" and "A Fungus Among Us" are in the process of being mixed. We will be launching "Fangoria's Dread-Time Stories" before Halloween and then a NEW episode will premiere each and every month. The length of each episode is about 40 minutes, similar to TZ radio dramas. But as I say, these are quite edgy, not for the faint-of-heart and definitely PG-13 so be warned. My hope is that "Fangoria's Dread-Time Stories" will be today's version of what "Lights Out" was back to radio of the 1930's and 40's -- the scariest of the scary when it comes to 'theatre of the mind' radio drama. To that end, I've been in talks with Dave Oboler, Arch Oboler's son (Arch wrote and produced "Lights Out") about using some of his dad's scripts and modernizing them for this series. I'd want to use Arch Oboler scripts of "Lights Out" that have not survive on audio today. For instance, the audio for the most famous of all "Lights Out" stories "Chicken Heart" does not exist. In this story, a professor keeps a small piece of Chicken heart flesh alive in his laboratory and it inexplicably begins to double in size every hour until it blankets the city, the state and eventually the world! How fun would it be to present this and other famous Arch Oboler-penned modernized stories on "Fangoria's Dread-Time Stories"?! I'll keep you posted if this becomes a reality.

Well, that's all for now, thanks for tuning in and I'll see you next time for MORE NEWS FROM THE ZONE!