sf/f TV development news - 2013

[DWF]

Kegg wrote:

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I doubt that's important. I mean, to put it another way, it's an American remake of a foreign TV series. The US Office, Homeland, etc. most of these shows don't assume or require that there is an audience which is familiar with the original program.

As with Battlestar Galactica if it wasn't for the original series audience there'd really be no talk of a remake. The BBC doesn't own Blake's 7 anymore so it's likely that we might see a region one release of the original series.

[CorporalCaptain]

DWF wrote:

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As with Battlestar Galactica if it wasn't for the original series audience there'd really be no talk of a remake.

If the original series audience is the only reason why there's talk of a BSG remake, then talk is all it'll ever be.

[DWF]

CorporalCaptain wrote:

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If the original series audience is the only reason why there's talk of a BSG remake, then talk is all it'll ever be.

And yet Universal refused to sell the series to Richard Hatch who had a buyer set up to buy it from them. They never would put the eps. together for the VHS movies or put out the series on DVD. If there wasn't an interest from the fans there'd be no reboot.

[CorporalCaptain]

I'm confused, which reboot are you talking about? (Ron Moore's) nuBSG?

You spoke in the present tense.

[Bob The Skutter]

DWF wrote:

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As with Battlestar Galactica if it wasn't for the original series audience there'd really be no talk of a remake. The BBC doesn't own Blake's 7 anymore so it's likely that we might see a region one release of the original series.

The BBC never owned the rights to Blake's 7, it was Terry Nation's and then B7 Productions or whatever they called themselves.

[Enterprise is Great]

Out Of My Vulcan Mind wrote:

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NBC has ordered Dracula, starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, straight to series with a 10-episode commitment. Deadline has the story here.

More vampires...ugh...way too much of that for my tastes.

[Jeff O'Connor]

Enterprise is Great wrote:

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More vampires...ugh...way too much of that for my tastes.

Just one is more than enough for my taste, but eh. Wait for the wheel, as they say. The fad will die. Eventually. Probably. I think.

And one day, space opera will return. Probably. Maybe. I think.

[RJDiogenes]

Hopefully. I wonder if there's any news on RHW's series.

[DWF]

Bob the Skutter wrote:

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The BBC never owned the rights to Blake's 7, it was Terry Nation's and then B7 Productions or whatever they called themselves.

The BBC owned the rights when the VHS tapes and DVDs came out, before Sky bougth the rights.

[Bob The Skutter]

DWF wrote:

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The BBC owned the rights when the VHS tapes and DVDs came out, before Sky bougth the rights.

Ah, sorry, I was thinking we were talking about the rights to produce more of it.

[Christopher]

Jeff O'Connor wrote:

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Just one is more than enough for my taste, but eh. Wait for the wheel, as they say. The fad will die. Eventually. Probably. I think.

You'd think so, but I can't think of a time in the past several decades that vampires haven't been fashionable. Before Being Human and Twilight, it was Blade, before that it was Buffy/Angel, before that it was Forever Knight and the Dark Shadows remake series and Bram Stoker's Dracula, and before that it was The Lost Boys and Anne Rice's novels which started the whole vampire fad in the '80s. Although there was certainly vampire fiction on a continuing basis before then -- the original Dark Shadows, a whole series of Dracula movies, I Am Legend and its periodic movie adaptations, The Groovie Goolies and The Drac Pack in animation, Grandpa Munster, Count Chocula, you name it. Like its subjects, the vampire fad seems to be undying -- or at least prone to frequent resurrection.

[Kegg]

We definitely have more vampires on TV here in 2012 than we did in, let's say, 2006, so it's a fair enough observation.

DWF wrote:

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As with Battlestar Galactica if it wasn't for the original series audience there'd really be no talk of a remake.

But the original series audience has nothing to do with American remakes of foreign TV shows - except, obviously, that since those shows worked in their domestic markets, the same premise transposed to the American market may also work.

[Greg Cox]

Christopher wrote:

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You'd think so, but I can't think of a time in the past several decades that vampires haven't been fashionable. Before Being Human and Twilight, it was Blade, before that it was Buffy/Angel, before that it was Forever Knight and the Dark Shadows remake series and Bram Stoker's Dracula, and before that it was The Lost Boys and Anne Rice's novels which started the whole vampire fad in the '80s. Although there was certainly vampire fiction on a continuing basis before then -- the original Dark Shadows, a whole series of Dracula movies, I Am Legend and its periodic movie adaptations, The Groovie Goolies and The Drac Pack in animation, Grandpa Munster, Count Chocula, you name it. Like its subjects, the vampire fad seems to be undying -- or at least prone to frequent resurrection.

You beat me to the punch. Vampires aren't a fad. With the possible exception of the 1950s, when alien invaders and radioactive mutants briefly eclipsed Gothic horror, there hasn't been a decade when vampires haven't been popular. On top of the stuff Christopher mentioned, let's not forget Hammer Films, Blacula, Count Yorga, Vampirella, Marvel's TOMB OF DRACULA (which spawned Blade), Morbius the Living Vampire, The Night Stalker, etc.

(The latter was once the top-rated TV-movie of all time, and that was back in the seventies, before Anne Rice or Buffy.)

Vampires have been hot since at least 1819. They're not going anywhere soon.

(Did I mention that my first book was a non-fiction history of vampire literature, published by a small academic press?)

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

Variety reports that FX is still developing Powers. The first pilot was rejected, but FX has ordered a rewrite and may shoot a second pilot with an entirely new cast (although there are no immediate plans to do so).

[Temis the Vorta]

Kegg wrote:

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I doubt that's important. I mean, to put it another way, it's an American remake of a foreign TV series. The US Office, Homeland, etc. most of these shows don't assume or require that there is an audience which is familiar with the original program.

Homeland and The Office are from genres that are generally healthy in America, the thriller and the workplace comedy. They could be pitched just on that basis alone.

But trying to sell in a show from a genre that isn't so healthy nowadays is going to require more persuation. If they can't point to some kind of cult following in America, then what are they going to use to make their case? What is the value of Blake's 7' vs Generic New Space Opera Series? Or even worse, vs Yet Another Vampire or Fairy Tale Show?

CorporalCaptain wrote:

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If the original series audience is the only reason why there's talk of a BSG remake, then talk is all it'll ever be.

My theory is that the remake phenomenon on TV is more about making the suits comfortable with the notion of taking a risk, especially for sf/f which is inherently risky, and not so much about appealing to a fanbase which may not even be around in any large numbers by the time the remake is made.

This is the only way I can think of to explain the sheer weirdness of green lighting something because it's a known property and then proceeding to ignore the substance of that property. Clearly the image and not the substance was what was green lighted in the first place.

But even so, there needs to be something to that fig leaf. Show X was a success at some point, so the remake is more likely to be a success, even if it has little to do with the original, like BSG and now The Munsters. The problem with Blake's 7 is, it doesn't even have the fig leaf. So how are they going to sell it?