Trades Confirm Our Twohy & Ellison DEMON WITH A GLASS HAND story!

Hey folks, Harry here... About 230 stories ago on AICN, we reported that Dimension Films was rearing up to produce a feature film co-written by Harlan Ellison and David Twohy based on that ol episode of the OUTER LIMITS that aired on October 17th in 1964 called DEMON WITH A GLASS HAND.

Well, Variety confirms in one of their latest 'script deals' reports that this has happened. So... What does this mean?

Fans (like me) had been teased years ago by a certain JMS that Babylon 5 would tie into DEMON WITH A GLASS HAND in an epic story arc.... which never came to pass. I remember late night into early morning epic geek conversations with Glen Oliver where we postulated from the end of the first season of BABYLON 5 to an eventual DEMON WITH A GLASS HAND storyline.... We were obsessed to say the least.... As it became more and more evident that this would not come to be, I think many fans kind of thanked the maker that at least we didn't have a bad cheesy attempt at a tie in with a classic work of science fiction and television.

Now, I am going to assume that many of you are not familiar with DEMON WITH THE GLASS HAND... I know in the chat room on this site, I've been amazed at how some folks don't know simple film geek references like CURSE OF THE DEMON or MONOLITH MONSTERS... or even the folks I've met that haven't seen films like DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL or THIS ISLAND EARTH (sans MST3K). So I feel the least I could do is give you a rudimentary concept of DEMON WITH A GLASS HAND...

Robert Culp, a wonderful genre actor from shows like I SPY and THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO, but prior to that, from this... plays a man that awakes in a building that seems to be self-contained, he doesn't know how he got there or why, only that he has an instinct that he is being pursued by strange men/aliens. Oh, and he also has a glass hand that talks with him...

As you can tell from that clip, the hand doesn't have all of its glass fingers... He must collect them to gain more knowledge about why and how he is here and what it is he must do. There is danger in every shadow, around every corner and is non-stop action with an absolute brilliant plot moving the characters forward. There is no, "Why don't they just get out of there?" The entire fate of mankind wrests upon the every movement, action and decision that Robert Culp's character makes. And when you reach the conclusion... you are completely shaken. POWERFUL and GREAT science-fiction melded with action and the tight story-telling constraints of early television.

However, to anyone familiar with the original DEMON WITH THE GLASS HAND, it was instantly clear that this should have been more than just an episode of a remarkable TV series... The story and themes and places the story went could have been expanded upon and explored further with ease and delight.

Twohy and Ellison are currently working to make that come to pass. After Twohy finishes BELOW, the horror/submarine thriller based on Darren Aronofsky's original screenplay (tell me ya ain't drooling for that too) he'll begin to make the screenplay he and Ellison have written a reality! JOY!