By now (2006) you all know the likely answer: Not likely.

Actually, it hasn’t been revealed even to us. What we learned in Tremors 5 was that ABs congregate in special geologic areas, each laying a single egg. But we never saw the actual laying in the script. Still a secret.

The script is owned by Universal. It is very unlikely that they’d let it be seen.  We can’t talk about cast, characters, or cost.

All we can say, as we’ve said before, is we wish you fans were making the decisions at the studios. Unfortunately, Universal is no longer interested in Graboids of even one dimension.

Both are great ideas as far as we’re concerned.  But we’re only the creators.

Nobody from the earlier movies or TV show. We’re not that blood thirsty.

It was all about the Burt you know and love in a wild new adventure.  The overkill was awesome.

Yes, there was some brief, guarded interest in Tremors 5.  Hollywood politics being what they are, we must be secretive about the players.  We can say at present (October 2009) that Tremors 5 may not be completely dead.  But it’s only un-dead, not alive.  (And if it’s 2019 as you read this, and there has still been no Tremors 5, this answer is then “Yes, but it died again.”)

Sorry to have to keep saying it but, unlike Johnny Five, Tremors 5 is not alive.  Someone posted a fake entry on IMDB saying it was coming out, starring the entire original cast plus people from the TV show.  They even listed Stampede as the contact company (and we even got calls from some cast members and from Universal asking us what the heck was going on).  But it’s just a cruel online joke by somebody.  We’re trying to get IMDB to take down the post (as of August 31, 2010)

What’s up is the internet is a loopy place.  No, they are not the same.  The series was created on its own for SciFi (aka, ludicrously, SYFY).  Tremors 5 is a screenplay about Burt’s adventures in Australia.  Universal Studios has no plans to produce the movie, however.

We gotta give you credit, you all keep coming up with different approaches.  Sometimes I think one of our fans will actually figure out a way to make Tremors 5.  However, that said, the issue remains that Universal owns and controls all rights Tremors for all media in all forms and they do no believe there is any money to be made in creating new material.  There’s no point in our discussing it with any other studio or entity, as we have no control over it.

A number of fans have asked about this.  Yes, we’ve investigated it.  The difficulty is that, even if we raise the money to make the movie, Universal still has to agree to distribute it — and distribution is expensive.  Without their prior approval, it’s a no go. As of now (May 2013) we don’t have a clear answer from them.

Since the movie was never made, it only had a working subtitle.  On the actual finished script that is “Gummer Down Under!”  Somewhere along the line, we also started informally calling it “Thunder Down Under.”

Ye gads, I guess Tremors fans have started going to law school! This question raises valid legal arguments that I don’t think I can handle.  But I’m pretty sure we still need Universal’s permission to use their material/characters, even if the end product is “free.”

No, the Tremors 5 script stands on its own, a new story taking place in a new location.   While Burt is in it, we did not put in other Perfection townsfolk from the series or the movies. Update 2016: and fans now know that Universal ending using almost nothing from our old Tremors 5 script anyway.

We are not privy to what offers may have been made to Universal.  But, while movie rights are sometimes sold by studios, such deals can end up being so expensive (because lots of fees and other charges get tacked on) that the resulting movie has to be a run-away hit to make them worth the risk.

(Posted February 2014) I know it’s a pain that I keep repeating this, but we’re really not supposed to talk about specifics of Universal’s material.  If that ever changes, I’ll put the news on the Stampede site. Meantime, I’ll go this far: Burt finally got the mini-gun I always wanted him to have.  (Update 2016), by now you all know that But not get a mini-gun in Tremors 5.  While the movie was originally going to be based on our original T5 script, they ended up using almost nothing from it.

I can hardly believe it myself (see the many negative posts above), but after all these years there has been some discussion about Tremors 5 at Universal.  As usual, the bloggers and movie websites are buzzing with fragments of this activity that have slipped out.  But we can’t comment until we know more.  We will post an official update here if/when we feel it’s responsible to do so.

As we approach the 25th anniversary of Tremors, we have news about Tremors 5.

Most fans are aware that Universal Studios has announced production of a new DVD sequel, being shot in South Africa. For all of us at Stampede, this is a bittersweet development in our long connection with the franchise, since we, the creators, are not involved.

Stampede has always been interested in reassembling the original Tremors creative team to produce a fresh new theatrical sequel in the Tremors voice. We attempted rights negotations with Universal for an independent theatrical film in 2012. However, the sudio passed on the option, preferring to continue the franchise with DVDs at some future date.

Early in 2014, Universal Home Video indicated that they were budgeting another sequel based on a 2004 script written by Brent Maddock and S. S. Wilson. While they pointed out that they had “no further contractual obligation” to Stampede, they did offer us Executive Producer positions. But they also made it clear that in this new even-lower budget project, the Stampede’ partners’ participation would be severely restricted, with little control over cast, director, special effects, locations, or indeed any aspect of production.

It was always only our full involvement as creators that gave us the means and incentive to reinvigorate and expand the Tremors universe with Tremors 2, 3, 4 and the series — despite the significant increasing budget limitations. Without meaningful creative control allowing us to continue to gurantee the integrity of our Tremors vision, we sadly declined to be involved.

The entire Stampede Team extends a big THANK YOU to the loyal fans who have clamored for this movie for so long. For your viewing pleasure, we hope it’s good!

The Stampede Partners:
S. S. Wilson, Brent Maddock, Nancy Roberts. Ron Underwood.

Uh — no.  They are two separate things.  Tremors 5 is a finished screenplay for a stand-alone Tremors movie set in Australia.  Unfortunately, Universal has no plans to make it.

Sorry.  Still no can do.  Universal owns and controls all versions of the material.

In our version the Australian Graboids looked somewhat different, but that was all.

Only one member of the original Tremors creative team has seen Tremors 5.  We’ve decided to let the fans make up their own minds about it — by buying or not buying it, before we weigh in with our opinions.

Update: June 2015.  SS Wilson is still the only team member who has seen Tremors 5.  He was disappointed.  The new monster designs were fun and interesting.  But the idea of tentacles running  around like independent snakes was ridiculous.  In the end, he felt the new installment had many story and logic issues and broke most of the rules we tried so hard to maintain during our time with the series.

You fans are great!  You’re already thinking about Tremors 6!  Yes, we would certainly be willing to work on any new Tremors, if we were given the creative control we enjoyed on the first four.  Sadly, at this time (June 2016) it seems unlikely that we will be invited back to the franchise.

We have no answers to this sort of question about Tremors 5.  You’ll have to send your questions to Universal Studios.

We are no longer involved with the Tremors movies, so we have no information. Future questions should go to Universal Studios.  They control everything done with the franchise.

Though we have no more involvement with Tremors I couldn’t resist at least posting this question as it is a lovely idea.   At Stampede we would absolutely be open to it.

We like to think El Blanco still lives in Perfection Valley.  But we did not work on Tremors 5, so we can’t say what the writer or director of that movie intended.

Nothing can be Tremors-related, since Universal controls all rights to that.  We continue to try to get new projects going.  Recently we’ve worked on a new TV series and two new movie ideas, but nothing has sold yet (2017).

Don Michael Paul has not written any Tremors movies.  Tremors 5 and 6 were written by John Whelpley.  We have no say over what format Universal will choose release future versions, so we’ll all have to wait and see.  Finally, we are somewhat baffled by how many fans want to see Graboids, ABs, and Shriekers battling it out.  It seems to us that Graboids would win every time.

We did not work on Tremors 5. The people who did changed or ignored all the rules we tried to be true to when we were working on the series.

You are correct.  The answer is no.  The people developing the series refused to meet with or discuss it with us.

They did not give a reason.  Just said no.

Okay, this is a VERY long question, but we really appreciate the comments within, so we decided just to run the whole thing.  If the opportunity arose, it would be, frankly, hard to turn it down, as we love the world we created.  That said, we feel the task of trying to explain or incorporate terrible and inconsistent ideas we never would have approved would be too frustrating.  So, yes, it’s probably too much of a mess now.  One recourse would be to ignore Tremors 5 and 6, and try to pretend they don’t exist, but even that has its drawbacks.  Control was taken away from us and can’t really be restored now.

Thanks for the kind words.  We have not seen the trailer or the movie.  One of us saw Tremors 5 and alerted the others that it’s too painful to watch where Universal has decided to take the franchise.

We did not make or work on Tremors 5.  The new writer and director chose to break most of the rules we tried to maintain in the first four movies.  So no, in “our” version of Tremors biology, tentacles do not become shriekers.  Nor could a tentacle break off and become an independent organism.  But other people are now making those decisions.

Gotta say, we love the hard core Tremors fans and appreciate their support.  Seems like we spend a lot of time explaining that the creators of a movie usually have no control of any kind after a studio buys it.  I guess we’d try to return to the world and rules that we established — and just ignore the other movies?  Or throw in a bad joke about Burt waking up from dreams about being in Africa and the frozen north?

And just to be clear,  a wildly successful Tremors video game (an idea we’ve always wanted to work on) would make Universal a fortune.  Not us.

As we keep having to say, Universal Studios has decided they don’t want us working on Tremors at all as of Tremors 5.  They prefer to have new people make the movies now.  So we don’t even know as much as the fans about what’s coming up.  Likewise, our representatives contacted the company making the series with Kevin Bacon to offer our services as collaborators, but they refused to meet with us.  They did not say why.

April, 2018, we have seen news reports that Kevin Bacon announced that his series was cancelled and will not be made.  But we have no other information.

When we were doing the original TV series we were certainly considering expanding on the backgrounds of everyone in Perfection.  We hoped to explain that some of Burt’s money came from the silver mine his ancestor owned in Tremors 4.  But as we were prevented from working further on Tremors after that, none of our ideas came to pass.

Thanks for the kind words.  No, when you sell a screenplay you sell all rights to everything in it forever.  We have no say whatever in what Universal does with Tremors.  We don’t know why the creators of Tremors 5 chose to throw away the fantastic original design by Tom Woodruff and Alec Gillis of Amalgamated Dynamics.

Sorry, we don’t know.  We were not allowed to work on Tremors 5.

Sorry, we have no idea, since we were denied any opportunity to work on or consult with the creators of those versions of Tremors.

Michael was disappointed that Universal chose to take us off the movies, but he likes playing Burt, so is hanging in there.

Sorry, we have no information on Tremors 5, 6, a possible 7 or the Kevin Bacon series that was cancelled.

As of this post (July 2019) Michael Gross (who plays Burt Gummer) has been occasionally updating fans on Tremors 5, 6, and 7.  So one possible way to get future info is to follow him on Twitter.

We have not seen Tremors 6 or 7.  But we would have continued trying to do what we always did, keep the creature rules consistent, never make fun of people dying, and make the movies both scary and funny without being nasty,  gross, or farcical.

Doesn’t seem likely.

No. We wouldn’t have written anything like what appears in the movies after Tremors 4.

We appreciate your comment.  Other than T5, we have not seen them and have no intention of doing so.  It is frankly too painful.

We’re not sure what this question refers to.  Perhaps the Tremors TV pilot with  Kevin Bacon that did not sell?  If so, we know nothing about it and have not seen it.  If not — please clarify and we’ll try to answer.

This question comes up a lot.  I understand fans’ interest.  So SS Wilson’s  new compromise idea is to post a synopsis of our version of T5.  He’s working on it now (Mar 2021), so we hope to have it up soon.

Hello, Estonia. We have not seen Tremors 7, so have no comment.

Maddock and Wilson wrote the full original script for “Gummer Down Under.”  Effectively none of it was used in the final production.  They wrote the stories for Tremors 3 and Tremors 4, but since they were directing and racing into pre-production, didn’t have time to do the screenplays.

Come on gang, we don’t know.  Universal studios tells us nothing about their plans for Tremors after firing us off of T5.

Yes, we are.  There was no way it would have been fair to expect him to say no to Universal when they were asking him to keep playing the character he created, regardless of our involvement.

Yeah, not a question.  But we enjoy that fans are forever coming up with new sequel ideas even though we don’t get to work on them.

We did not work on those films and don’t know why the writers/directors made the decisions they did.

Actually, our original script for Tremors 5, mostly not used in the final movie, included the idea that the Australian graboids were different from the U.S. ones. And it’s something we’d have liked to explore more had we continued with the series.

We hadn’t considered it, but always enjoy learning all the different ways fans come up with for expanding the Tremors universe!

As we had nothing to do with those films we can’t say why creature designs were changed. Generally, studios lock up all rights to material like that, so it’s unlikely they were unable to re-use the old designs, and more likely they just wanted to change things up.

No, our version of Tremors 5 was a stand-alone story. We all felt that, except possibly for the series going forward, the franchise had about run it’s course, and the idea in T5 was to introduce a younger character who seems like he might carry on Burt’s traditions.

Tremors 5 is flat out awful.

Have not seen T6 or T7.

It was for the website Unseen Hollywood. This link should work:

https://www.oneheatminute.com/articles/unseen-hollywood/2021/06/22/fair-dinkum-terror-graboids-down-under

For us, from a writing stand point it’s a bad idea to present the audience with an easy escape from your monster. You’re saying, from then on, anyone with a gun needn’t worry about being eaten by a graboid.

We get versions of these questions from time to time, so feel we should respond in some way. We understand that fans want more Tremors and have dutifully watched each incarnation. But other than T5, which was incredibly worse than we ever could have imagined, we have chosen not to see the rest, and thus don’t have opinions.

We have not seen the Kevin Bacon Tremors TV pilot. We don’t know anything about its graboid design, etc.

Fans also ask us to weigh in on what we think of over movie worms, but a) we’ve often not seen them and b) this seems to go beyond the intended scope of this FAQ.

You make a compelling case. We may have to concede the point.

No. As with the original Tremors, we did minimal description in the script and didn’t imagine much beyond it. That’s the joy of working with world class creature designers. They do the heavy lifting!

Fans can see the synopsis referred to here:
https://www.oneheatminute.com/articles/unseen-hollywood/2021/06/22/fair-dinkum-terror-graboids-down-under