Apple TV has acquired the sci-fi disaster thriller Waffle House Index, a film that stretches the restaurant chain’s reputation for staying open through almost any crisis to its logical extreme. The deal was reported to be worth seven figures.
The story follows a Waffle House waitress as a series of escalating disasters unfold during her night shift. It begins with an armed man, then a flood, before spiralling into killer crocodiles, nuclear explosions and, eventually, aliens.
Cast and Production
Inde Navarrette, recognised for her role as Nikki Freeman in the horror film Obsession, is set to star in Waffle House Index. For the first time in her career, she will also take on the role of executive producer.
The screenplay was featured on the 2025 Black List, an annual survey highlighting the most admired scripts that have yet to be produced. Its inclusion signalled significant industry interest ahead of the acquisition.
What the Waffle House Index Actually Means
The title draws on a real informal metric. The Waffle House Index is used to gauge the severity of an event, typically a storm, and is organised into three levels: green, yellow and red.
A green-level event indicates that the restaurant is fully operational, with power available and the complete menu on offer. A yellow-level event signals that power is either unavailable or supplied by a generator, or that food supplies are running low, though a limited menu remains available.
A red-level event denotes that the restaurant has sustained severe or critical damage and is no longer open for business. The metric has become a shorthand for measuring how serious a situation has become, based on whether a location that prides itself on operating around the clock has been forced to close its doors.
The film applies this concept to a night of increasingly implausible catastrophes, using the chain’s near-constant availability as the backdrop for its escalating chaos. Waffle House Index joins Apple TV’s growing slate of original film projects.
Source
Image: appleinsider.com
