In the fall of 2004, the French horror film Les Revenants debuted at the Venice Film Festival, weaving a surreal web of mystery that continues to entangle viewers nearly a decade later. Also: The film depicts a world in which the dead rise again, seemingly unharmed, with no taste for human flesh—an anti-zombie zombie concept that’s since been the subject of Les Revenants’ TV adaptation (retitled The Returned for its 2013 broadcast in the U.K. and the U.S.), an unrelated 2013 novel called The Returned, and ABC’s ongoing Resurrection. The last work in that list just so happens to be based on the literary The Returned, neither of which have any direct connection to Babylon Fields, a failed CBS pilot from 2007 that recently underwent its own resurrection (the verb for restoring life to what once was dead, not to be confused with Resurrection starring Omar Epps and Kurtwood Smith).
Further confusing matters, A&E has been plotting its own adaptation of Les Revenants/The Returned all along, a remake rumored to be produced by Carlton Cuse, someone long affiliated with rumors, remakes, and complicated backstories. But unlike the Lost theories you chronicled on LiveJournal (speaking of something that you might want to make sure is actually dead) around the time Les Revenants premiered, this speculation has panned out: According to a press release issued this afternoon, A&E has ordered 10 episodes of The Returned, to be written and executive produced by Cuse and True Blood’s Raelle Tucker. “The Returned has the potential to be one of the most compelling drama series on cable, thanks to phenomenal scripts written by Carlton and Raelle,” says A&E boss David McKillop, via the release. “We look forward to seeing their vision brought to life on screen,” McKillop’s statement continues, in what is almost certainly not the last time you see the words “brought to life” being used in the general proximity of a TV show about the previously deceased.