Leigh Whannell’s sci-fi thriller “Upgrade” is getting a sequel in the form of a TV series, reports Deadline. Whannell will direct, as well as co-creating and producing. Blumhouse Television and UCP are collaborating on the adaptation.
“Upgrade” the series picks up a few years after the events of the film and broadens the universe with an evolved version of STEM and a new host – imagining a world in which the government repurposes STEM to help curb criminal activity.
The show will mark Whannell’s entry into TV, and an addition to the 10-year partnership he has with Blumhouse.
“Upgrade” was made on a small budget of just $5m. The film, which Whannell wrote and directed, starred Logan Marshall-Green, Betty Gabriel and Harrison Gilbertson. In it, after his wife is killed during a brutal mugging that also leaves him paralyzed, Grey Trace (Marshall-Green) is approached by a billionaire inventor with an experimental cure in the form of a computer chip implant called STEM. The implant provides its host with heightened physical abilities, allowing Grey to exact revenge on those responsible for his wife’s death.