Kevin Bacon in Tremors – Im Land der Raketenwürmer (1990) © Universal Pictures
Those: Esquire
Footloose, Sleepers, JFK, Apollo 13, A question of honour, Hollow Man, Mystic River, X-Men: First decision… Kevin Bacon has already had a film career that he can really look back on with pride. But there is only one film in his career that he has watched again and that he would like to return to: Tremors – In the land of rocket worms! In a new interview with the magazine Esquire he assured again that it is the only one of his films whose character he would like to re-impersonate: (from English)
It was the one film of mine that I wanted to return to. Otherwise I don’t look back at all.
The iconic horror comedy, in which Bacon and Fred Ward fight gigantic, voracious sandworms as casual workers in the sleepy provincial nest of Perfection, was not a box-office hit, but later achieved cult status and has been continued for home theater six times to date. Bacon was not involved in any of the sequels, Ward only returned for the second film, and since then it has been Michael Gross as gun man Burt Gummer who became the face of the series. Only last year is with Tremors: Shrieker Island the seventh film in the series has been released.
Even if the sequels occasionally had entertaining moments and Gross as Gummer is always a pleasure, none of them could hold a candle to the original. That’s how Bacon saw it too. A few years ago, Universal contacted him about another sequel. However, when Bacon found out that this would only appear in the home theater, he declined. He wanted to return as Val McKee in a higher quality production and not in a rather carelessly cranked sequel.
However, there was suddenly a possible compromise: a TV series produced by the genre forge Blumhouse. In it, Bacon was supposed to re-impersonate Val, who likes to reminisce about his short-lived fame as a graveoid killer and has a broken relationship with his daughter – until the rocket worms return to Perfection and he has to take action again. Bacon explained how the series almost came about:
It was the 25th anniversary. I’m at Blumhouse and they were really interested in the idea. Universal didn’t want to remake it as a feature film, maybe because it didn’t work the first time in the cinema. So we shelved it. But then they came up to me and asked: “What do you think of a series?”
First the series of Amazon prime announced, then Universal took over cable broadcaster Syfy. The pilot episode, directed by Vincenzo Natali (Cube), was produced, but then Syfy decided against the order of the series – to the great disappointment of Bacon and the fans of the series. A short time after the series was canceled, the trailer for the pilot episode was released (including the unmistakable, secure music from the horror film It Follows), which actually looked quite promising and increased the lack of understanding about Syfy’s decision. Check it out for yourself:
Still, Bacon wants the dream of his Tremors-Do not give up on return:
I would still love to do it, believe me. Maybe it has to be the 30th anniversary or the 35th. We’ll keep trying.
The first film celebrated its 30th anniversary last year, so we can only hope that Bacon will still be interested in playing the role again in his mid / late 60s. It’s a little ironic how much bacon is on fire for a new one these days Tremors-Film is. When initially offered the role in the original film, he was reluctant to accept it. His career stagnated a bit at the time, he was just becoming a father and was dependent on the money. He accepted the part but feared that a film about killer worms would hit the last nail in his coffin. Instead, it has become one of his most popular films, and one that he prefers to look back on to this day.
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