Lost Executive Producer: Franchise Won't "Sit Idly Forever"

[Sarah LeBoeuf]

Lost Executive Producer: Franchise Won't "Sit Idly Forever"

We have to go back: Lost could return to television someday with new writers and a new cast.

When Lost ended its six-year run in 2010, fans were Digital Spy [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escapist-podcast-movies-and-tv/9752-The-Escapist-Movies-and-TV-Podcast-The-Most-God-Awful-Ever-TV-Endings], Cuse said, "Disney owns the franchise, it made them a lot of money, it's hard to imagine it will just sit there idly forever."

Cuse compared Lost to The Chronicles of Narnia, the seven-book series by C.S. Lewis: "They all visit Narnia at different times and different configurations and different ways." Don't expect Cuse to return to write more adventures for Jack, Kate, and Hurley, though; Cuse imagines that Lost's return would be helmed by a new team. "Damon (Lindelof) and I told our story in that world and I assume someone will come along... and want to tell their own story... Someone is going to come up with a way to tell another Lost story. I think it's inevitable."

A return to the island that felled Oceanic Flight 815 is just a pipe dream at the moment, but it's not unbelievable that Disney would want to resurrect the franchise. Maybe in the hypothetical relaunch, Sawyer will learn how to button a shirt.

Source: Variety [http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/s10/lost/news/a599933/lost-return-is-inevitable-carlton-cuse-compares-show-to-narnia-novels.html#~oRKTPjq6Cb1BOF]

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[frizzlebyte]

No. No, just no. No. No, no. Nonononononononononono. Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. You do not get to do a do-over. You messed up LOST the first time, and you don't get to go back and "fix it". No. The only reason you still had viewers by the last season is because they wanted answers. And then you delivered a resolution about as skillfully as Bioware with Mass Effect 3. You lost. Go away now. Never come back. You are the weakest link, goodbye. Leave. Forever. Don't let the doorknob hit ya where the good lord split ya.

Or, you know, this could be an opportunity for someone else to take a crack at the mythology. Despite the polarizing final acts of LOST, I can see how a Dharma Initiative-centric series or movie could be interesting.

The good thing is that it is such a broad show that new talent could utilize the best parts (great atmosphere, intriguing characters, and mysteries galore) and chuck out the worst parts (meandering plot, unsatisfying answers to aforementioned mysteries).

I'd totally be down for a new entry into the franchise, apprehensions aside.

EDIT'd for way too many mentions of the show name.

 

[Callate]

"Lost" at this point is less a setting than a series of dangling plot threads. My suspicion is that any return attempt that ignores them is quickly going to lose audience interest, and any attempt that does try to resolve them is going to end up feeling like a fanfic.

In either case, watching it would be a bit like rubbernecking at a car accident. And in the rare event that a second attempt actually does cohere into something worthwhile- why would you ever watch it on anything but a post-completion Netflix or DVD set? Even doing it right runs the risk of being cut off in an early and unsatisfactory conclusion.

So in short: this is probably a bad idea.

 

[ryazoph]

Terrible title phrasing. Should be "executive producer of Lost says franchise may not stay idle." Otherwise it's poorly phrased.

 

[Grumman]

Or, you know, this could be an opportunity for someone else to take a crack at the mythology. Despite the polarizing final acts of LOST, I can see how a Dharma Initiative-centric series or movie could be interesting.

You're missing the point. It wasn't the final acts that ruined Lost, all they did was reveal the rot. There is no mythology to rescue, just a pile of bounced checks.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Only watched series 1 and 2 and was sick of the show. They really need to let the show die.

 

[Vault101]

why is everything a franchise thease days? whatever happened to finishing a thing and moving on?

 

[Fox12]

No. No, just no. No. No, no. Nonononononononononono. Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. You do not get to do a do-over. You messed up LOST the first time, and you don't get to go back and "fix it". No. The only reason you still had viewers by the last season is because they wanted answers. And then you delivered a resolution about as skillfully as Bioware with Mass Effect 3. You lost. Go away now. Never come back. You are the weakest link, goodbye. Leave. Forever. Don't let the doorknob hit ya where the good lord split ya.

The show went on way longer than it needed to already. Why on earth would they think the show needs to continue?

However, if they got all the original people from the show to work on it, I would support this 100%. In fact, I would fund them for a further ten years. That will keep them too occupied to work on anything else. Keep in mind that the people who ruined lost are currently ruining Star Wars. We'd basically be paying J.J. Abrams to not make movies, while making him think that he's still being useful.

 

[Brockyman]

No. No, just no. No. No, no. Nonononononononononono. Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. You do not get to do a do-over. You messed up LOST the first time, and you don't get to go back and "fix it". No. The only reason you still had viewers by the last season is because they wanted answers. And then you delivered a resolution about as skillfully as Bioware with Mass Effect 3. You lost. Go away now. Never come back. You are the weakest link, goodbye. Leave. Forever. Don't let the doorknob hit ya where the good lord split ya.

The story didn't mention "doing it over". Just that other stories could be told in that universe, like Star Wars Rebels or Shadow of Mordor (LOTR). I don't think they should re-do it. As unsatisfying as the end was, the series overall was fun an interesting, and honestly, as much hype as it had, the ending would have been underwhelming no matter what it was. I think they were going for something thought provoking and just couldn't quite nail it.

In fact, ABC series Once Upon a Time has had several lost reference (Oceanic Airlines, Apollo Candy Bars) ((as well as a TRON reference, the kid was playing Space Paraniods in one episode), so they may do it through another series or link the 2 in someone way.

 

[frizzlebyte]

Or, you know, this could be an opportunity for someone else to take a crack at the mythology. Despite the polarizing final acts of LOST, I can see how a Dharma Initiative-centric series or movie could be interesting.

You're missing the point. It wasn't the final acts that ruined Lost, all they did was reveal the rot. There is no mythology to rescue, just a pile of bounced checks.

Not sure how I'm "missing the point," really, nor do I think the mythology has to be "rescued." Ronack said they shouldn't give LOST a do-over because the series crapped the bed, which actually nowhere in the post did it talk about "redoing" anything. Cuse was saying someone else could do something with it, building on top of the original show's themes and plot.

To that point, regardless of whether you think the show was "rot" underneath, there *is* a mythology to the show (as evidenced by this site here [http://lost.wikia.com/]), and all of it could be used as a springboard for more stories.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

It won't be a sequel, everyone hates those. It'll be a prequel.

 

[Mahorfeus]

Well, the show did keep me intrigued up until the very end. Looking back even now, up until the last episode, I watched it because I genuinely liked it, not because I felt obligated to finish it. That being said, I would just be beating a dead horse by saying how unsatisfactory it was.

Honestly, while I might not go out of my way to watch it, I wouldn't mind a spinoff or expansion or whatever. Just an example, it's not what's being proposed, but I'd love to see more about how Hurley and Ben ran shit (asides from their recruitment of Walt).

 

[f1r2a3n4k5]

Maybe LOST should sit ideally by. In fact, maybe it should be lost (haha) to the sands of time.

Let's just say the series lost all credibility with me. I liked the "bounced checks" simile above. The writers just kept promising answers without ever actually providing any before ending the show exactly as they said they wouldn't. What is there to go on from there?

Sure, there's a bunch of "mysteries." But unanswered questions are easy to generate. Cohesive answers are far more difficult.

Can we collectively agree as a people to forget that LOST was ever once a major cultural event?

 

[x EvilErmine x]

why is everything a franchise thease days? whatever happened to finishing a thing and moving on?

The idea of 'Mo money' happened. Why create something new when you already have something popular that you can just milk to death? It's way easier than coming up with something new.

OT

After the disappointment that was the last one then colour me uninterested.

 

[Punkster]

Although the whole thing clearly didn't have end goal, overall I loved the show despite the poor reasons for the mysteries.

That's the problem with creating good mysterious stories, the resolution is never going to be as satisfactory as the actual questions raised in the first place. Although it could've been handled better.

That's Lindeloff's writing though, you can see all the same tropes in his other work too. Which is the reason as to why I dislike Prometheus as much as I do. He seems to think that vagueness is akin to clever writing and it isn't.

So I would like to see this world come back in a different guise but just make sure the writing knows where it is headed before starting.

What is Ben Yahtzee Croshaw up to?

 

[Thyunda]

LOST isn't a franchise. It was a TV show. It had a run and it finished. A franchise surely requires multiple entries in different media in order to justify a 'universe', otherwise we have to ask whether or not the Friends franchise is just going to sit idle forever, or if the Only Fools and Horses franchise is just sitting idle.
If you don't have a story to tell, don't write a TV show.

Apparently common sense to everybody but executive producers.

 

[Something Amyss]

why is everything a franchise thease days? whatever happened to finishing a thing and moving on?

New ideas are hard.

Which is why I expect a Lost reboot by 2018.

 

[Scarim Coral]

It sounds like he want to make it as if it was the Caprica to Battlestar Galactica as in a preclude. I suppose that would be the better angle to go for the franchise since another similar synopsis would be somewhat distasteful given how the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has not been found.

 

[Pinky's Brain]

That's the problem with creating good mysterious stories, the resolution is never going to be as satisfactory as the actual questions raised in the first place.

I'd settle for okay.

Memento did okay, Fight Club did okay, or if you want a TV series Supernatural did okay (by not trying to extend the original plot arc for as long as the series kept running). Lost did not do okay.