Nine episodes were promised for early 2016 when Showtime announced its “Twin Peaks” miniseries last October.
Then in May Showtime president David Nevins said there would be more than nine hours of “Peaks.” But not how many more.
Later in May “Peaks” actress Sherilyn Fenn (apparently repeating what series co-creator David Lynch told her) said Showtime had increased its “Peaks” order from nine to 18 episodes.
In June “Peaks” co-creator Mark Frost said the series was delayed to 2017.
Nevins, speaking today at Showtime’s TCA event, confirmed Frost’s assertion that the series would begin shooting next month (keep an eye out for casting news, kids!) but could not say precisely when we’d see the series or how many episodes were being aired.
Nevins says he, and we, will learn those particulars when Lynch completes editing.
He expects viewers will see the results in 2016 or 2017.
All Showtime episodes will be directed by Lynch from one very long teleplay by Lynch and Frost, said Nevins, who also indicated that Lynch has complete creative control over the revival.
Nevins promised the Showtime version “resolves questions left from the original series.”
Series lead Kyle MacLachlan announced at another Showtime TCA event last January that he would be reprising the role of FBI agent Dale Cooper. A week later Sheryl Lee and Dana Ashbrook, who played teen lovers Laura Palmer and Bobby Briggs a quarter-century ago, said Lynch gave them permission to announce they too will be returning for the revival. Lynch apparently told Fenn around the same time that she’d be back as hotel heiress Audrey Horne.
Nevins downplayed Lynch’s April comments indicating Lynch had decided not to direct Showtime’s “Peaks” due to budgetary concerns.
“I never had any doubts we were going to get him back. This was a huge priority project to me. What happened was it became clear that it was going to take more than nine episodes, which was the originally planned for, originally budgeted for, length of the series. So we had to sort of work out the details. And I really wanted to get David to write the whole thing and he wanted to direct the whole thing. And we eventually got through it, and I think it's going to be they're looking to be in great shape starting in just a few weeks.”
