Sony Pictures Entertainment
By Joshua Meyer/March 21, 2022 10:33 am EST
Cineflix Rights acts as the show’s international distributor and is bringing it to MipTV’s 59th Spring International Television Market in Cannes, Frances, early next month, where it will continue to shop the series around for more global partners. Batalon serves as a co-executive producer on “Reginald the Vampire,” which hails from showrunner Harley Peyton. The first season will have episodes directed by Jeremiah Chechik, David Frazee, Lee Rose, and Siobhan Devine.
The guy in the coffin
This is the start of “Fat Vampire,” which sounds a little less fat-shaming with its new TV title. Reginald wants to report God to the Better Business Bureau because he feels like he was a victim of false advertising. He survived high school, only to realize that people in the real world were not any kinder or less bullying.
Since it’s the Year of the Vampire, and I’m a sucker (not to be confused with a bloodsucker) for anything Nosferatu-related, I listened to the “Fat Vampire” audiobook last year after we first reported on this show’s development. In some ways, the book reminded me of FX’s “What We Do in the Shadows.” Instead of the energy vampire, Colin Robinson, roaming his office floor, draining life from people through boring conversations, you’ve got Reginald in his cubicle, fending off the whoopee-cushion pranks of his fit coworkers. There’s even a Vampire Council that gets involved, putting our hero on trial for his life, similar to what happened with the vampires on the FX show.
In the world of “Fat Vampire,” people have to undergo rigorous physical training before they turn into bloodsuckers, since they’ll be stuck in whatever body they have for life (or un-death). Reginald upends everything when he becomes a vampire without any training. He’s overweight, has no luck with attacking humans on the street, and is never going to match the Vampire Council’s notion of the ideal physique. But with any luck, he’ll be able to get by with a little help from his friends.
Truant has written a whole series of six books so there’s seemingly no shortage of material when it comes to “Fat Vampire.” For his part, Batalon has gained a new level of mega-exposure via “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which is now one of the highest-grossing films of all time. Tom Holland has had movies like “Uncharted” and Zendaya has had HBO’s “Euphoria,” so it’s probably high time that Batalon, known for playing Spider-Man’s “guy in the chair,” Ned Leeds, got to headline his own project.
