Cancelled Locke and Key TV Series Trailer Surfaces

[The Wooster]

Cancelled Locke and Key TV Series Trailer Surfaces

​

The trailer for the cancelled TV adaptation of the Eisner Award winning comic book Locke and Key has been released so fans of the series may wail and lament.

Fox is kind of known for making odd decisions [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly_%28TV_series%29] when it comes to its show lineup. A particularly weird one was the decision not to pick up the TV adaptation of Joe Hill (whose full name is actually Joe Hillstrom King, you may have heard of his dad [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_King]) and Gabriel Rodriguez's absolutely fantastic comic book series, Locke and Key.

The pilot for the series was screened for attendees at the San Diego Comc-Con 2011. The trailer above, confirmed to be the real thing by producer and writer Josh Friedman, was apparently cobbled together from footage of said pilot as a prototype TV spot for Fox's advertising department, presumably before Fox decided to say "no thank you."

When Fox declined to pick up the pilot, producers pitched the show to other channels, but eventually rising costs forced them to abandon the project altogether. This trailer and the pilot it's based on will be all we'll ever see of the series. A shame, because judging by the trailer, all the right ingredients are there. Sure, they seem to have replaced happy-go-lucky kiddywink Bode with a nasally goblin, and Kinsey seems to have abandoned her punky stylings in favor of overwhelming blandness (though that does match her character arc in the comics) but the rest of the cast seems dead on. Particularly Tyler, who is suitably surly, and the stunning Ksenia Solo [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ksenia_Solo] who plays the scheming well-dwelling, mega-bastard Dodge.

For the uninitiated, Locke and Key follows the trials and tribulations of the Locke children, who move into their father's childhood home after his violent murder at the hands of a teenage psychopath. There, they discover the house holds a series of keys which have numerous, plot twisting powers. One can open any door, another can open a person's mind allowing people to pluck thoughts and ideas out of them, while others can change their gender or race, or even turn them into giants. The series is endlessly inventive, funny and very tense. Oh, and the art is really pretty. [http://gabrielrodriguez.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=240#/d1wkl4k]

TV series or no, Locke and Key is still going strong. Issues of Clockworks, the series' fifth story arc, are available in comic books stores right now.

No word on if or when, we'll get to see the pilot in its entirety.


Permalink

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

As a fan of Joe Hill and "Locke and Key" allow me to say:

FFFUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCKKKKK! Why does Fox hate humanity?!

 

[Redem]

While I'm not familiar with the source material, it look a bit too weird for me

 

[XT inc]

They should shoot it over to AMC, I mean they know the walking dead is pure diamonds and returning jesuses.

They can see the value in this story and spin it around. People get into a rut, and by not challenging them and only catering to their comfort zone of boring crap, nothing cool ever gets made.

Maybe I should watch an episode of combat hospital, I never watched it because the name was so vanilla lame I thought nuts to this.

It's like Doug Stanhope said"Advertising doesnt work, If you sell a good product, people will willingly buy into it, How many people here do drugs? and How many Ads do you see for them? None" Point made."

 

[Eternal_Lament]

While I would like to see Locke and Key on some screen (TV, movie, or even game), I will say that I actually thought that none of the cast looked like they matched their character. Ty seems more like just a broody New York or Vermont kid rather than a more traditional style Mid-West teen who is deeply traumatized and disturbed, Bode seems way to tense, more than his comic counterpart, Kinsey lacks any of the emotion that her comic counterpart has (In some ways that would match, but not that early on), Mrs. Locke perhaps could match, but the person playing her seems to lack any of the disturbed and mournful personality which makes Mrs. Locke so interesting, and Duncan just seems like a prepy hipster with a childlike demeanor rather than a seemingly normal yet deeply conflicted voice of support. And of course Dodge's current female form actress doesn't seem like the manipulative and deadly witch like persona seen in the comics, she just seems too young, and while I guess Dodge is technically a teenager, Dodge also seemed to be alot more mature and frightening than what's being seen here.

So on the one hand, yeah I guess it sucks that no adaption is in the works now, but on the other hand I'm not sure if I would've of liked the cast or the style that this show seemed to be going for (seems like a standard "Here's a dark horror kids can enjoy, and by dark we mean just Halloween imagery and by horror we just mean there will be unnecesarily evil villans" style rather than a "This is a dark horror that uses the imagery and imagination of children orientated stories, but uses these ideas to show how dangerous and life ruining these concepts can be when used by an adult with their own dangerous personality" style)

 

[ThaBenMan]

Meh, it didn't look that great. I think this is a case where it's a good thing that an adaptation isn't gonna be made. I'm totally content with the comics alone. Although I'll probably at least watch the whole pilot if it becomes available to me somehow, just to give it a chance.

And who knew that his name is supposed to be pronounced "Boe-dee" - I figured it was just like the word "bode".

 

[DustyDrB]

They should shoot it over to AMC, I mean they know the walking dead Mad Men and Breaking Bad are pure diamonds and returning jesuses.

Fixed that for ya.

OP: I can't judge a show based on two minutes of footage, but this at least looked like it might have had potential. I don't know what else is on Fox these days (I pretty much just watch AMC and NBC), so I've no clue if whatever is airing instead is worthwhile. AMC does seem like a good fit, though. They gave Rubicon a chance, which was a pretty good show that just took too long to get going (though Mad Men is quite the slow burner too. But it has the wonderful 60's aesthetic working to keep people hooked while the narrative trots along).

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

They should shoot it over to AMC, I mean they know the walking dead Mad Men and Breaking Bad are pure diamonds and returning jesuses.

Fixed that for ya.

OP: I can't judge a show based on two minutes of footage, but this at least looked like it might have had potential. I don't know what else is on Fox these days (I pretty much just watch AMC and NBC), so I've no clue if whatever is airing instead is worthwhile. AMC does seem like a good fit, though. They gave Rubicon a chance, which was a pretty good show that just took too long to get going (though Mad Men is quite the slow burner too. But it has the wonderful 60's aesthetic working to keep people hooked while the narrative trots along).

Mostly just reality shows. Hell's Kitchen, Dancing With the Stars, X Factor, that sort of thing. At least, that's all I'm aware of.

 

[PinkiePyro]

never heard of the source but someone should pitch it to syfi channel or TNT bet they would take it

both already have popular shows of a similar geeky flavor (Eureka and Falling skies respectively) so they might be easily persuaded into snapping up a second

 

[The Wooster]

Bummer. That looked pretty freaking good actually. Probably shouldn't be surprised that something so unconventional didn't resonate with network tv, but still..

On a happier note, this has made me discover the book. I'll be picking up the first issue as soon as I can find it.

The original issues are long gone -I've had my local comic book guy searching for them for months with no luck - but you should be able to pick up the collected editions at any decent bookstore.

 

[octafish]

snip ...Mrs. Locke perhaps could match, but the person playing her seems to lack any of the disturbed and mournful personality which makes Mrs. Locke so interesting... snip

Oh Miranda Otto can give you all the mournful and disturbed you could ever want or need.

Basically everyone misses out when Miranda Otto doesn't get a show.

 

[Eternal_Lament]

snip ...Mrs. Locke perhaps could match, but the person playing her seems to lack any of the disturbed and mournful personality which makes Mrs. Locke so interesting... snip

Oh Miranda Otto can give you all the mournful and disturbed you could ever want or need.

Basically everyone misses out when Miranda Otto doesn't get a show.

Perhaps. I haven't seen her in much so I can't realy say, but I'll take your word that she can pull characters like this off.

Judgeing from the scenes shown though it seems that she wasn't trying as much, maybe its the scenes themselves or perhaps the lack of context for the scenes, but it just seems like either she didn't care about/know what to do with the character or the director didn't know how to use her and just stuck her with safe but bland acting till he got his grip.

Either way, it would be interesting to see how the pilot plays out if its ever released, but based on how they were trying to advertise it I'd say it's probably not going to be spectcaular.

 

[ThaBenMan]

Bummer. That looked pretty freaking good actually. Probably shouldn't be surprised that something so unconventional didn't resonate with network tv, but still..

On a happier note, this has made me discover the book. I'll be picking up the first issue as soon as I can find it.

The original issues are long gone -I've had my local comic book guy searching for them for months with no luck - but you should be able to pick up the collected editions at any decent bookstore.

On kind of a sidenote - do you prefer the smaller traditional-style comics for series like this? I definitely prefer the collected "graphic novel" editions myself - they seem more durable, and you can just keep reading instead having to stop and find the next issue. And the hardcovers available for Locke & Key are really nice - they even have little bookmark ribbons!

 

[newwiseman]

They pitched this to FOX? Ya that wasn't going to work; add a bunch of gratuities sex scenes and try Showtime.

 

[The Wooster]

Bummer. That looked pretty freaking good actually. Probably shouldn't be surprised that something so unconventional didn't resonate with network tv, but still..

On a happier note, this has made me discover the book. I'll be picking up the first issue as soon as I can find it.

The original issues are long gone -I've had my local comic book guy searching for them for months with no luck - but you should be able to pick up the collected editions at any decent bookstore.

On kind of a sidenote - do you prefer the smaller traditional-style comics for series like this? I definitely prefer the collected "graphic novel" editions myself - they seem more durable, and you can just keep reading instead having to stop and find the next issue. And the hardcovers available for Locke & Key are really nice - they even have little bookmark ribbons!

Now the Locke and Key collected editions are really nice and I got into the series a little too late so they're my only option when it comes to the first two volumes, but for the most part I prefer picking up comics per issue for a few reasons:

1: Money for the creators. For the kind of comics I read (I.E ones without people in capes)I'm not sure if or when a collected edition will be released. More comic sales means a higher chance of an eventual collected release.

2: I like collecting comics. It's kind of like owning a first edition. For comics you really, really like, having those first run comics is really nice.

3: It's how they're designed to be read. This is a bit of a purist thing, but comics are designed to be read with a gap between each issue, this makes the cliff hangers and such more punch and allows the reader more time to mull over the contents. A good comic author uses the delay between issues to good effect. Also, sometimes you don't get the comic covers in collected editions, which is a shame.

Finally, if you're worried about durability, always make sure you pick up a bag and a board [http://psychoandycostello.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/bagsnboards.jpg] for your issues. If you're a regular customer, your comic guy will probably give them to you on the cheap, but if not, you can order them in bulk to save some money.

This is of course, just a preference. For my absolute favorite runs, I usually end up picking up both.

 

[dmase]

And now I remember how much I liked the series when I read the first collection. I'm gonna go out and drop probably 50 dollars on the ones that are out.