Movies are leaping over to TV quite regularly now. Hannibal is an outstanding success. Bates Motel is apparently a worthy entry to the Psycho canon. Other movies are considering it, even if some of them don’t sound too appealing. I still can’t see how Scream is going to work as a series. But I thought it would be fun if I asked my fellow bloggers what should be next. Therefore, everyone put some answers together – mostly Nolan movies – and below are their verdicts.
ORACLE OF FILM – JURASSIC PARK
With Jurassic World coming up, fans all crowd into groups, reminiscing on what came before and wondering what the new movies will have in store for us. Instantly, we all jot down a mental list of what we want to see and what we think we should see. Please, bring the raptors back, but properly. Not the remastered ones from Jurassic Park III and not the pussy raptors that get beaten up by fourteen year old girls. The original, kitchen-stalking raptors. But what about the T. Rex? That roar. That ripple in the water. Just the atmosphere of when that massive Tyrannosaurus strolls onto a scene and the audience hold their breaths. Every time, Rex shows up, shit goes down. Guaranteed. But don’t we want new dinosaurs? Something ocean-based like the Liopleurodon. What about a Troodon? Uh, hello… if the new Jurassic Park movie doesn’t have an Iguanodon, I am demanding my money back! There is just too many possibilities (making it slightly more painful Trevorrow has decided to go with a made-up genetically mutated dino instead), and whatever new or old dinosaurs show their faces, a lot of the crowd will be disappointed.
Then make it a series. Suddenly we have all the time in the world to explore the world of dinosaurs. Suddenly none of the writers have to pick which baddie should get the starring role, because the Raptors and T. Rexes (sigh… and Spinosaurus for the hipsters out there), can take turns being the main antagonist of the movie. Those dinosaurs that you want to see pop up, but know they won’t, because they don’t have the narrative impact to move the story forward would have a chance to show their faces. Better yet, the characters don’t have to suffer. Jurassic Park 3 had zero new characters that you cared about, because there was no time to develop them, something that television shows do very well out of. Imagine a Jurassic Park, where Julianne Moore didn’t have to carry the whole thing. Sure, the main problem is the budget, but I think that if the right people got together and made sure that this didn’t become a money-grabbing cop-out (which is the fear I would have if a Jurassic series got announcing tomorrow), Jurassic Park the series could be one for the history books.
WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE – THE CROW
I feel like The Crow would have made a great TV series. Rather than releasing a series of progressively crappier movies they could have developed a TV show where the crow sought out a different victim every episode who then went out on a mission for revenge. I think there would be a couple of different directions you could go in but I’d like the idea of each season having a story arc relating to one big event and the different characters affected by it and in need of vengeance. It would have a cool, dark atmosphere and the opportunity to create loads of out there characters. It could totally happen since everything at the moment is a reinvention of something else… well either The Crow or a Despicable Me show that was 99% MINIONS!!!
VINNIEH – THE CRAFT
According to this picture, the opening credits would play to ‘YMCA’.
I loved The Craft since the first time I saw it. The mix of teen drama, alienation and witchcraft amongst a quintet of young girls really fascinated me. Plus it boasted a rock soundtrack that was so infectious and for the 90’s, some really good effects. But I’ve always had that feeling that The Craft would have made a good TV show. I mean it’s a good movie, but there’s definitely something more to add to the story. For those who don’t know the plot of The Craft, here’s a brief synopsis. Sarah moves to a Catholic High School in Los Angeles, bearing internal wounds of a troubled past. Feeling alienated she falls in with a trio of girls who practice witchcraft; Goth Nancy, shy Bonnie and abused Rochelle. As they practice witchcraft, Nancy becomes consumed by the power and slowly loses herself. I’ve always felt that the story could have been expanded to see the more devastating results of Nancy’s destructive behaviour and the fracturing of her relationship with Sarah. Another thing that would benefit The Craft if it was a TV show would be examining Sarah’s hinted at past and the power that is suggested beneath her gloomy demeanour. There are so many burning questions that could be answered in exciting fashion. If The Craft was a show, it could be quite effective and like Charmed and Buffy before it.
FLIXCHATTER – INTERSTELLAR
The first thing that came to my mind is INTERSTELLAR. Maybe not as a regular series but as a 3-4 part miniseries. I think there’s enough going on in terms of conflict and characters that could be expanded into a miniseries. There are tons of flashbacks that could be utilized to flesh out the characters more, especially the older version of Murph (Matthew McConaughey’s character’s daughter) that didn’t get much screen time in the film.
SILVER SCREEN SERENADE – INCEPTION
Dammit, Abbott. You do know how to ask the tough questions, don’t you? 😉 Really though, this is a good one. Turning movies into TV shows is a fun trend, and I’m glad that, for the most part, it’s been pretty successful lately. But as far as what I would turn into a TV show…Okay, maybe it’s just because I really love this movie, but how cool would Inception be as a TV show? It’s not that the movie is lacking–I think it’s brilliant. But it’s such an interesting concept that I’m kind of craving more. Seeing more from a gang similar to Cobb and his “dream team,” if you will, would be great, but I also think it would be cool to see the beginnings of the dream-sharing technology. Heck, or even the future, letting us see how the technology has progressed and showing us more ways it could be used. Inception is one of the coolest, most creative films I’ve ever seen. If a TV show came out of it, the sky would be the limit.
THE IPC – INTERSTELLAR
THE FUCKING SOCIAL NETWORK!!!! I hate that fucking movie more than anything and it wasn’t even better than a shitty summer filler TV drama. How did that get made into a movie?? Damn you David Fincher!!! How about you go eat some shit??!!!?!!! Shitmouth!!
Oh wait. What was the question? Interstellar. It felt like it was three hours long because it was but they probably could have gone True Detective on it and stretched that out into eight episodes and explained more. Since I watched it at home I had to pause it three times to piss and I would have missed a lot in the theater. Think of the viewer, Nolan!!! SHITMOUTH!!!!!
EMMAKWALL (EXPLAINS IT ALL)
I was finding it difficult to decide on a film-to-TV idea for QOTM. After Luke’s chaser email (which also banned dick pictures – and so fragmented my initial ideas) I really started thinking hard. Then thankfully – I had the inspiration to look up from the sofa, towards my DVD collection.
And luckily I am a nerd. And luckily my films are alphabetised. I was looking at the first shelf, far left corner….and then I saw it.
AMERICAN PSYCHO
I saw the DVD spine straight away – nestled between American History X and Attack the Block – and I thought HELL YEAH. Now that is a film I could see being turned into a TV show. That would be really cool! Not just because of the bloody murders but the whole 80s yuppie, Wall Street thing as well. It could definitely translate to television and be pretty darn interesting too. The lifestyle, the money, the suits, the restaurant reservations – the business cards. They’d be a whole array of interesting characters and dialogue. And of course we’d have the super interesting element of killing hookers and feeding kittens to cash machines as well. Plus it’s based on a book so if there isn’t enough narrative there for at least one season – speak to Bret Easton Ellis, yeah?
MOVIE ROB – INDIANA JONES
I personally have not been a fan of recently TV adaptations of movies – Fargo, 12 Monkeys, Hannibal etc. I feel that these shows all just capitalized on the name without expanding the stories from the movies. In the 90’s, there was an attempt to do the same thing with Indiana Jones which didn’t work out so well despite lasting for a bit more than a season.
I think that adapting Indiana Jones’ adventures (as an adult, not child or adolescent would be a great TV show). We could have new stories every week or have certain stories last more than one episode. Because of the nature of his job, every week, he can travel to new and exotic locals and every week we would then get a whole new slew of supporting characters, there’s even the possibility that Indy could be the only recurring character every week. If it isn’t a chronological and jumps around thru the years and his adventures, we could have a show that would be a mix of Quantum Leap (without taking over other peoples bodies obviously), The Amazing Race and still have lots of daring do thrills with a new mystery adventure every week.
THE FLUFF IS RAGING – THE THIRD MAN
The Third Man would make an excellent 8- or 10-part series; as well as including all the moments from the film, it could expand on the relationship between Harry Lime and Holly Martin (there could be an entire episode in flashback to their schooldays). The atmosphere of Vienna after the war is too rich not to develop. The black market, the four sectors, the beginnings of the cold war, the rationing, and of course, the music, as well as the memories of the city before the war and before the Anchluss. Now that Matt Weiner has finished with Mad Men, perhaps this is the perfect period for him to explore.
SIDEKICK REVIEWS – CLOUD ATLAS
The Wachowski’s adaptation of the Cloud Atlas novel was highly ambitious. Clocking in at just under 3 hours, 2012’s Cloud Atlas interwove a huge cast of characters in 6 stories across the past, present and future. The end result was an over bloated, mess of a movie where very few of the stories and characters resonated. While it’s difficult to imagine watching even more of Cloud Atlas as a mini-series or season’s worth of television, a case could be made for it. If the Wachowski’s took their visual concepts and collaborated with a proven screenwriter, each of the stories could have been given more breathing room to develop in an episodic format. Also, Cloud Atlas could have been more cohesive if it had the time to better interconnect the stories and themes.
SPORADIC CHRONICLES OF A BEGINNER BLOGGER – HARRY POTTER
Maybe the TV show could even shake things up a bit with something radical like acting.
So, my first pick a while ago would have been Hannibal, but we have been extremely lucky to see that brought to the screen. So thinking on this some more I settled on picking the Harry Potter movies. Why? Because I hated them. There, I said it. I feel that they were really wasted potential, and I think a really big problem is that they started the movies before the books were finished, so they didn’t know what was important. Also, there are so many things happening all the time in the books you could conceivably make a pretty solid series from it. There are enough characters and events that not much would need to be added or changed, and a series means that everything would actually be given its due for development and all the little things could actually be included this time around. Yes, I am a major Potter junkie, and I really think that this, in the right hands, could be something beautiful.
SNAP CRACKLE WATCH – OFFICE SPACE
For my choice, this may be a weird one because there has already been a show like this, but honestly in my opinion this would be totally different. I would love it if the movie Office Space was made into a television show. I would love it if they expanded more on Peter Gibbons and told us what led up to him being so fed up with his work. Also how Bill Lumbergh came to be the boss. Maybe he was a co-worker and did some crazy stuff to become the boss. I mean really they can create anything with the characters of the movie and create a whole new funny show. If it was on HBO it would be even better, they could cuss and get into all kinds of trouble without any censoring. I find that movie so freaking funny, that having a show of it would make me so happy!
WHAT ABOUT THE TWINKIE – DREDD
We’ve had two attempts at a Judge Dredd film so far. One was laughably bad, but makes a great drinking game FYI, and the other is a cult hit, that despite its acclaim is nowhere nearer to a sequel than Charles Xavier is to being able to walk again.
With that, Dredd could make a seamless transition from big screen to small. Similar to Marvel/Netflix’s Daredevil, the character of Dredd could be re-worked into a gritty, bloody TV show running for say, 13 episodes. Budgets for TV shows are getting bigger all the time too, so there would be no need to worry about how good Mega-City One would look. Another plus would be getting Karl Urban back in the role he played so well in 2012’s Dredd. Urban has already worked in TV and would be no stranger to the concept, while getting an able cast of supporting character actors should be no problem.
If Netflix are reading this, make it happen.
(Editor’s Note: Out of nothing but pure interest, I googled the Judge Dredd drinking game and decided it would be the perfect way to end April’s QOTM. Thank you for your answers and I will be in touch very soon.)
Take a drink when any of the following are said:
•Law, laws
•Judge, judged, judging, judges
•Justice
Take one shot when someone says:
•I knew you’d say that
Hmmm, another idea for a video just blossomed…