“Twisted Metal” is a brand new, half-hour post-apocalyptic action comedy series, based on Sony’s vehicular combat video game franchise of the same name.
Naturally, Thomas Haden Church’s aptly named Agent Stone is the “cold and unyielding post-apocalyptic highway patrolman who rules the roads.” While Anthony Mackie’s John Doe must bypass Stone to deliver a package in a distant wasteland.
Church, an Oscar nominee for “Sideway” and a Marvel villain as Sandman in “Spiderman 3,” was instantly keen on the “Twisted” twisted humor.
“The first three scripts I read were a lot of fun. And the comedy is so absurd. Laugh out loud hilarious,” Church, 63, explained in a Zoom interview done prior to the current actors’ strike.
“This whole world is defined by mayhem and chaos and Agent Stone, by the sheer force of who he is and who follows him, in his own warped sense of justice, is going to make it all just and peaceful. He’s going to pull society back together.”
Before he said yes to a videogame created over 30 years ago, Church had “a long conversation” with the showrunner Michael Jonathan Smith. “He impressed me as a young guy that had a very clear vision about what he wanted this to be. And additionally I met with — you know what! – all the racing people connected to the game. Which of course I had no knowledge of whatsoever. I mean, I’m generations removed from gaming.”
Is “Twisted” kin to a 21st century Mad Max?
“I don’t know about that. My generation was big fan of ‘Road Warrior’ which came out when I was in college. But that’s the Australian Outback and all like the desolate sub-Sahara. There’s never these ‘Twisted’ destroyed cityscapes and highways. Like an abandoned Six Flags where a lot of the stuff goes on.
“Which is,” he continued, “even so bizarre that so much of the action takes place in this horrifically destroyed carnival.
“So ‘Mad Max’ movies to me are a whole different generation, a different style of storytelling.
“But it’s a flattering comparison.”
If Church ever decides to go racing, there’s always his home, a 2,000 acre Texas ranch. “I’ve had it for 24 years. It happened I sold a script and it was greenlit for me to direct in 2001. We canvassed all of the United States and Canada and it turned out we could shoot the movie in Texas around Austin.
“So I moved back to the ranch and wherever a movie was shooting, I would just go there. I haven’t actually even been to LA in seven years.”
“Twisted Metal” streams Thursday on Peacock