When John Logan decided to end 19th century horror drama Penny Dreadful after three seasons, it wasn’t with the intent to revive it in any form down the line. He was busy enough writing the books for musicals such as Moulin Rouge! or screenplays for James Bond films. But US cable TV network Showtime told him he should always feel free to pitch a continuation.
As it turns out, a few years later Logan was inspired to develop a new idea. But this story was set about as far as you could get from the first series, in the dappled sunshine of Los Angeles circa 1938. “When people think of Los Angeles in the 1930s, they invariably think about Hollywood and Metro Goldwyn Mayer and Dorothy in the red slippers,” Logan tells SFX. “And that’s not our show. Our show is about downtown LA, about Pasadena, about the beach, about all the different characters and social worlds interacting that have nothing to do with Hollywood.”
Knowing it could be a hard sell, Logan says he pitched to the network that “It’s not Victorian. It’s not gothic. It’s the opposite. It’s bright, sunny LA, and it’s about history and politics.” To his delight, they didn’t baulk at this and greenlit the new iteration, Penny Dreadful: City Of Angels.
CITY OF DEMONS
This story is from the May 2020 edition of SFX.
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This story is from the May 2020 edition of SFX.
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