NBC develops supernatural soap opera for Napa

A supernatural soap opera involving mystical ancient vines on a Napa Valley wine estate is currently being developed by the NBC network in the US.

Japanese director Hideo Nakata – the man behind cult horror movie The Ring – is being slated as a possible producer or director of Vines, which revolves around a troubled family in search of a new life together.

The family moves to a Napa Valley winery, only to find that its vineyards are populated by ‘ancient vines with dangerous mystical powers’.

The project, originally envisaged as a film, has already attracted producers Michael Aguilar (co-producer of Martin Scorsese’s The Departed) and Taka Ichise (who worked on The Ring with Nakata), as well as writer Mark Kruger.

A spokesperson for NBC Universal told decanter.com that a script has been completed, although no pilot episode has yet been given the go-ahead – so it is far from certain that the proposed series will be broadcast.

However, Vines is already generating a great deal of online comment from fans of horror and fantasy.

Some are suggesting that it could become ‘a supernatural Falcon Crest’, referring to the long-running 1980s soap opera set among feuding family factions at a winery in the fictitious Tuscany Valley, loosely modelled on Napa.

But one online poster, Napa resident Dan Monez, offered a different take on Vines, writing: ‘Having lived in the Napa Valley most of my adult life, I can tell you that every winery thinks their vines have mystical powers.

‘Just ask a winemaker… or a wino.’

Written by Richard Woodard