Twin Peaks reboot: David Lynch to shoot individual episodes as long movie

For a while, it was looking like David Lynch wasn’t going to be involved in Showtime’s reboot of Twin Peaks because of a money dispute. But now that he’s locked back in to direct all episodes of the upcoming season, more details have begun to emerge about the follow-up series.

At Tuesday’s Showtime TCA executive session in Los Angeles, Showtime Networks president David Nevins revealed that Lynch and his Twin Peaks co-creator Mark Frost wrote one long script for the entire series, and that Lynch will in turn shoot it as one long movie, which will be edited down into individual episodes.

The series was initially supposed to run for nine episodes, but Nevins said there will likely be more once the footage is broken down. Adding to the mystery, IMDb currently lists 18 Twin Peaks episodes in pre-production. Shooting is slated to begin in September, according to Deadline.

As for the casting, Nevins confirmed that Lynch regular Kyle MacLachlan will indeed return, and that fans “should be optimistic that the people [they] want to be there will be there, in addition to some surprises”.

Twin Peaks, which ran for two seasons from 1990-1991, is considered one of the most influential shows of its time. It was followed by the 1992 feature film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. For Lynch, the reboot marks his first major project since 2006’s dark thriller, Inland Empire, starring Laura Dern.

The new episodes will either premiere in 2016 or 2017. Said Nevins: “I’ll take it when it’s ready. I hope that’s sooner rather than later.”