The Outer Limits Taps Dr. Strange Director Scott Derrickson

By Brent McKnight | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

The Outer LimitsScott Derrickson is having a pretty solid time lately. Not only is his horror thriller Deliver Us From Evil set to drop this summer, but he’s also been tapped by Marvel to helm their upcoming Dr. Strange adaptation. For a lot of people, that would be enough to keep them busy, but Derrickson is about to tackle another beloved property, The Outer Limits.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, this project will reteam Derrickson with his Sinister co-writer, C. Robert Cargill, also known as Massawrym from Ain’t It Cool News. The duo scored a big in 2012 when their low-budget creep fest topped $48 million at the box office and have been on the rise ever since.

Derrickson, who says he prefers The Outer Limits to its contemporary The Twilight Zone, claims they plan to focus on one second-season episode in particular: “Demon With A Glass Hand,” written by sci-fi legend Harlan Ellison. The episode revolves around a man (Robert Culp), who wakes up with no memory of his past. He may not be able to remember anything more than 10 days in the past, but he does have a robotic hand from the future and is being chased by some shady fellas who turn out to be aliens. Derrickson and Cargill’s script will involve time travel, fooling with human genetics, and invading alien forces. All of that sounds like a pretty damn good time to us.

Check out a clip from the original “Demon With A Glass Hand:”

This movie has been in the works for quite a while, with little movement, and multiple people involved. Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, who wrote many of the Saw movies and Feast, were attached to the project for a long time.

The Outer Limits is an anthology show that ran from 1963 to 1965 on ABC, with a mid-1990s revival on Showtime and the Sci-Fi Channel. Though it is often compared to The Twilight Zone, the episodes were more science fiction exclusive, rather than including elements of fantasy and the supernatural. While it is probably the smartest move to focus on a single storyline—a Twilight Zone movie that’s in the works will take the same path—I can’t help but wish they went in for a full anthology. Horror has so many, with the V/H/S films and ABC’s of Death, it would be nice for sci-fi to get one of its own.