David Lynch has confirmed he will be directing every episode of the forthcoming Twin Peaks revival after all. The acclaimed director, one of the co-creators of the Twin Peaks world, pulled out of preparations for the third season last month — although little was said publicly, at the time Lynch tweeted “not enough money was offered to do the script the way I felt it needed to be done.”
Dear Twitter Friends, the rumors are not what they seem ….. It is !!! Happening again. #TwinPeaks returns on @SHO_Network
— David Lynch (@DAVID_LYNCH) May 16, 2015
Well, Showtime must have dug deep, because Lynch is back. What’s more, the original nine-episode run has been extended. “David will direct the whole thing which will total more than the originally announced nine hours,” said Showtime president David Nevins in a statement. The Twin Peaks fan community can breath a sigh of relief.
After news broke that Lynch had walked away, the original cast members rallied to his side, producing a video based around a “Twin Peaks without David Lynch is like …” catchphrase. The hashtag #SaveTwinPeaks was heavily used on social media too. With stars such as Sheryl Lee and Sherilyn Fenn backing their director, it would have been difficult for Showtime to go ahead without him.
Still, it’s good to have confirmation that Lynch is back on board, and that Twin Peaks fans will be getting more episodes when the show returns in 2016. To tide you over in the meantime, there are plenty of moody crime dramas that owe a debt to Twin Peaks airing in the near future, with season 2 of True Detective one of the major ones.
The first two seasons of Twin Peaks ran from 1990 and 1991 and initially proved to be a huge ratings hit. Once the central question of “Who killed Laura Palmer?” was answered — and the series leaned more towards sci-fi and horror — viewing figures plummeted, leading to its cancellation. Aside from its rollercoaster ratings, though, the series inspired many of the dark, unconventional murder mystery shows that have followed since.
[Header image courtesy of Thiago Piccoli/Flickr under a Creative Commons 2.0 license]
