Following the theatrical release and relatively positive reception received by The Visit in 2015 – not to mention the positive word of mouth already building up ahead of the release of his latest film Split – writer, director, and producer M. Night Shyamalan has been mounting a bit of a come back of late. Despite suffering a series of critically divisive releases over the course of the late 2000s, Shyamalan’s recent fare has performed admirably on both the big and the small screen.

After working as an executive producer on the science-fiction mystery series Wayward Pines for FOX – in addition to his forthcoming work on the reboot of Tales from the Crypt for TNT – Shyamalan appears determined to reclaim his seat among the more notable talents working in Hollywood today. On that note, it would appear he is making another bid for continuing acclaim with general audiences — but in a medium and genre that Shyamalan has yet to explore professionally.

According to Variety, Shyamalan will be serving alongside co-executive producer Alex Carter (Family Guy) in the production of an original animated comedy for FOX called Eleven Little Indians about three branches of an extended immigrant family living in America. The series is based on an original script penned by Shyamalan, and will detail the interweaving lives of an established nuclear unit living in relative domestic bliss, a household just recently finding their footing in the US, and a grouping of relatives that haven’t had the easiest time assimilating to a new culture.

The Visit Shyamalan Poster Excerpt FOX Developing Animated Comedy From M. Night Shyamalan

Seeing as how Shyamalan will be devoting his time to both FOX and TNT in the development of Eleven Little Indians and the Tales from the Crypt reboot – in tandem with a specially curated horror genre block of original programming for TNT – the filmmaker will have his hands full going into 2017. That being said, potential viewers who might be expected to tune in to watch Shyamalan’s work on the small screen may be waiting to see how the release of Split works out first come next January.

Films like The Sixth Sense and Signs served to make Shyamalan into a household name in the late 1990s and early 2000s, though their respective prestige hasn’t always served to cement the filmmaker’s status among general viewers. Tackling an animated comedy in the form of Eleven Little Indians is certainly something that Shyamalan fans haven’t seen before, though the difference in thematic content that it presents could make or break the show when it finally airs on FOX.