All of Your Favorite Movies Are Becoming TV Shows

JaredJones

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All of Your Favorite Movies Are Becoming TV Shows



Training Day, Red, Taken, and The Island of Dr. Moreau are just a few movies set to receive the small screen treatment.

Just as comic books have become the new movie screenplays, it appears that movie screenplays are becoming the new TV pilots. (Did that make sense? I don't care.)

Last week, we reported that was being turned into a TV show [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/142460-Stephen-Kings-The-Mist-Headed-to-the-Small-Screen], no doubt thanks in part to the cult hit Frank Darabont's 2007 film adaptation has become. But that was only the tip of the iceberg, ladies and gents.

As it turns out, The Mist is only one of nine (!!) movie properties announced to be receiving a television reboot in the past week, and that doesn't even include the Limitless spinoff which premieres tomorrow on CBS [http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/09/20/limitless-pilot-review].

So now, in no particular, are the eight other movies with TV pilots currently in development at various studios (but mostly NBC and CBS).

-"Training Day" (CBS): Word hit last week that former music video director turned actual director/producer Antoine Fuqua (The Equalizer, Southpaw) was shopping around for a studio willing to turn his 2001 cop drama (which earned Denzel Washington an Oscar) into a serialized show. CBS apparently bid the highest [http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/training-day-cbs-television-series-pilot-1201569764/], and now Jerry Bruckheimer will be involved as the show's executive producer, with former LAPD detective turned screenwriter Will Beall (Gangster Squad) writing the pilot.

-"Taken" (NBC): Yup, a prequel series based on the trilogy of movies that saw Liam Neeson save his family from various Eastern European scumbags is heading to the small screen [http://www.theverge.com/2015/9/20/9360259/taken-tv-show-ordered-nbc]. "Taken" will center around a young Brian Mills and how he came to develop his "particular set of skills." Original writer Luc Besson will serve as executive producer, but the show is still searching for a series writer and showrunner.

-"Rush Hour"(CBS): Produced by Warner Bros., here [http://screenrant.com/rush-hour-tv-show-pilot-cbs/].

-"Red"(NBC): Jon Hoeber and Erich Hoeber, the writers of the 2010 film and its 2013 sequel (which itself was based upon a limited comic book series from Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner) is currently in the works over at NBC [http://deadline.com/2015/08/red-movies-tv-series-adaptiation-nbc-1201499540/]. Details are sparse, as no cast has announced for the project, but according to Deadline, the series will be "set in a more grounded and authentic world, focusing on the characters' darkly hilarious struggles to survive civilian life as they simultaneously fight for and against the very organization that threw them out." If Betty White does not land a role in this, all will be lost.

-"Behind Enemy Lines"(FOX): Based on the 2001 action flick that starred Owen Wilson, the pilot of this "high octane military thriller" will be written and directed by Homeland's Jeffrey Nachmanoff. Set in Latin America this time around, Behind Enemy Lines will focus on "an American flight crew that is shot down while on a secret mission over the jungles of Latin America, their commanding officer aboard an aircraft carrier fighting to bring them home, and a female CIA officer in Washington who stumbles into a sprawling conspiracy that unites them all." (via Deadline [http://deadline.com/2015/09/behind-enemy-lines-tv-series-fox-1201527059/]

-"To Live and Die in L.A."(WGN): Telling the story of "a fearless Secret Service agent will stop at nothing to bring down the counterfeiter who killed his partner," To Live and Die in L.A. was a critically praised cult hit released in 1985 that starred William Petersen, Willem Dafoe, and John Pankow. Original director William Friedkin will direct and executive produce [http://www.slashfilm.com/to-live-and-die-in-la-tv-series/] and Robert Moresco will script the series and also serve as an EP.

-"In the Line of Fire"(NBC): NBC is *also* developing a series based around Wolfgang Peterson's 1993 political thriller, which starred Clint Eastwood as a disgraced secret service agent and John Malkovich (who earned an Oscar nomination for his performance) as assassin Mitch Leary. Carol Mendelsohn and Josh Berman -- the team behind CSI -- are set to write the series.

-"The Island of Dr. Moreau"(CBS): The legendary novel from H.G. Wells which has been adapted into films and other works on no less than a dozen occasions -- most notably, the 1932 classic The Island of Lost Souls and the 1996 disaster of the same name starring Marlon Brando -- is currently in development at, you guessed it, CBS [http://comicbook.com/2015/09/19/the-island-of-dr-moreau-tv-series-in-the-works/]. Sleepy Hollow co-creator Phillip Iscove will write the script, which will switch the role of the titular doctor to that of a woman. "Dr. Katherine Moreau expands the boundaries of medicine through bold and revolutionary scientific experimentation and treatments in her privately funded island hospital."

The one similarity I'm noticing between all these movie-to-TV projects? None of the original casts are involved, which in the cases of Rush Hour, Taken (aka Straight Tooken starring the incomparable Liam Neesons [http://www.cc.com/video-clips/xwnjlx/key-and-peele-liam-neesons---uncensored]) and especially Training Day, was all but tantamount to their success. Hooray for fresh blood, I guess?

But hey, at least they're not doing something as insane as turning Big into a TV show, right? RIGHT?!! [http://variety.com/2014/tv/news/fox-buys-big-tv-show-remake-from-enlisted-team-1201317410/]

Source: Deadline, Variety


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bartholen_v1legacy

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Holy shit, the times are indeed a changing. The tables have completely flipped: previously successful tv shows were turned into (often not so good) movies, and now successful movies are getting turned into tv shows. Except tv series are living a new golden age, so I'd hardly consider this bad news.
 

Zontar

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bartholen said:
Holy shit, the times are indeed a changing. The tables have completely flipped: previously successful tv shows were turned into (often not so good) movies, and now successful movies are getting turned into tv shows. Except tv series are living a new golden age, so I'd hardly consider this bad news.

Actually successful movies getting television adaptations is about as old as television is, as its been around since the 1950s, and it's television series getting a movie which is more the exception then the rule (I think Trek may have started this trend).

Though series based on movies rarely tend to do well, with things like The Odd Couple or Stargate where the show became more well known then the movie which spawned it are the exception, not the rule.
Johnny Novgorod said:
Look at all the TV I won't be watching!
Indeed. Why the hell is this garbage getting television adaptations when there's plenty of better work which could be given the small screen treatment?
 

Ihateregistering1

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The only one of these that I could potentially see being good would be "Taken", but that would only be if they nailed the action and violence, which TV shows (especially ones on Network TV) very rarely do.
 

Xeros

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My favorite movie is Serenity. When can I expect a television adaptation?
 

theSovietConnection

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You missed one other movie getting the TV show treatment.

Fox is making a show out of Minority Report. [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4450826/]

It at least looks a bit interesting. Not too certain on the others, though I may give Rush Hour and Taken a shot.
 

Silentpony_v1legacy

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Oh great. More quasi-political soap dramas about growly people growling. Oh, I wonder if the bad guy is gonna be eastern European or middle eastern. Oh the drama!

And yet Pacific Rim 2 is still cancelled. Fucking great!
 

hermes

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You know, I don't have so much of a problem with this as other people.

Maybe it is because we are in a golden era of TV. Decades ago, the best TV has to offer was Seinfeld, Friends or Alf. Now we have things like Breaking Bad, Lost, True Detective and House of Cards. "Made for TV" is not the same it used to mean.

Maybe it is because some of them are adaptations to begin with, so it is not like Hollywood gets dibs for doing it first...

Or maybe it is because many of the properties has been on the ground more than people give them credit. Movies like "Taken", "Rush Hour" or "Red" has grown worst and worst with each iteration; others like "Training Day" and "In the Line of Fire" were great but the chances of getting sequels are really low; and others like "Dr Moreau" (with Brando) and "Behind Enemy Lines" were never any good to begin with. If anything, it is the chance for Doctor Moreau to get a decent adaptation in almost 80 years.

So, yeah. Sign me up... statistically, some of them are likely to be better than the source material.
 

hermes

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Silentpony said:
Oh great. More quasi-political soap dramas about growly people growling. Oh, I wonder if the bad guy is gonna be eastern European or middle eastern. Oh the drama!

And yet Pacific Rim 2 is still cancelled. Fucking great!
To be fair, "quasi-political soap dramas about growly people growling" are a lot easier to translate to a TV budget than 300 feet robots fight equally big monsters for the future of mankind... unless it is a Tokusatsu.
 

SecondPrize

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No Goonies, No Trainspotting, no Stripes or Caddyshack. You sir, are a liar. Also, wheres the Warriors tv show? Lying liar.
 

Dango

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I can't wait to see all the budget versions of good actors in TV shows meant to appeal to teenagers who don't care.
 

Olas

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So the only thing linking the "Taken" series to the movies is the main character? And he's not even being played by Liam Neeson? What exactly is the point in making this an adaptation then?
 

SupahEwok

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Xeros said:
My favorite movie is Serenity. When can I expect a television adaptation?
Too soon.

It will never not be "too soon."
 

Caffiene

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JaredJones said:
None of the original casts are involved, which in the cases of Rush Hour, Taken (aka Straight Tooken starring the incomparable Liam Neesons [http://www.cc.com/video-clips/xwnjlx/key-and-peele-liam-neesons---uncensored]) and especially Training Day, was all but tantamount to their success.
I would put Red in that group as well. Perhaps even more strongly than the ones listed. Its very much a "look at celebrities you recognise doing crazy things" movie, almost to the extent that Id put it in a category with the Expendables.

Dr Moreau could be ok if they keep its scifi/horror-ish style. I thought maybe Behind Enemy Lines could be fun until I saw it was from Fox. The rest sound like boring stuff thats already been done (how can Training Day come off as anything but just another cop procedural as a TV series and without the original talent?)
 

Sarge034

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Taken sounds like it might work, in an episodic Bourne kindda way, but the rest just hurt my brain. A lot of them were self contained stories and THAT'S why they were good. Training Day was one instance, Behind Enemy Lines (which I actually enjoy no less) was one instance, oh well. Hollywood gonna Hollywood.
 

FPLOON

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Training Day: The only thing I got to say to this is that it shot me in the ass before it even needed to... :p
Taken: Like we need a prequel to how Lian Neeson became a bad ass... (That was suppose to be Star Wars's job... :p)
Rush Hour: You almost have both my curiosity and my interest... Too bad you might only get one of those things... :p
Red: Given the OG source material, I could see this work with Betty White in it... :p
Behind Enemy Lines / To Live and Die in L.A. / In the Line of Fire:
http://images.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw47_130003312039.png
The Island of Dr. Moreau: At first I was like...
https://mlpforums.com/uploads/post_images/img-3499291-2-img-3371628-2-tumblr_ndo6dzJaqG1sknypko2_400.gif
But, then I was like...
http://dashie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw7698-117181_-_animated_applejack_macro_yeah_whatever.gif
Other than that, knowing myself, I would try to find my way of watching the first season of each of these when they come out... (I don't even...)
 

Strazdas

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and i have no problem with that. Nowadays Television is far more inventive and higher quality writing than hollywood. This decade is a rebirth of television and i find myself rather sitting down for an episode of a good tv show than a movie more and more.