The Twilight Zone being rebooted by Bryan Singer and CBS

[Sindatur]

I've only seen a few of the Forest Whitaker episodes, but, I've enjoyed all the ones I've seen, The Monsters on Maple Street one, the sequel to It's a Good Life and the one were Jessica Simpson was the baby sitter of the girl with the dolls (Jessica Simpson can't act her way out of a wet paper bag, bt, I thought he episode itself was pretty decent)

I'd be up for a new Twilight one, and I agree, I'd like for them to include SciFi and not limit it to Horror.

[Christopher]

Michael Emerson as the host is an inspired suggestion.

[Captaindemotion]

Up till recently, there was talk of another movie version. And unlike the 1980 version (notorious for the on-set deaths of Vic Morrow and other actors), the proposed movie would feature one story, not a compilation of remakes from the old show. Seemed absolutely pointless to me.

A tv compilation show is where TTZ belongs, but compilations seem to be a hard sell to modern audiences. More so than serialised shows, this will rise or fall on the quality of the stories, as it won't be able to rely on a strong cast or even an ongoing arc to attract viewers. So it's far to early to predict how it will do. But I suspect that it's going to have a job finding a niche in today's audience.

[Christopher]

Captaindemotion wrote:

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Up till recently, there was talk of another movie version. And unlike the 1980 version (notorious for the on-set deaths of Vic Morrow and other actors), the proposed movie would feature one story, not a compilation of remakes from the old show. Seemed absolutely pointless to me.

Except that, as mentioned in another thread, two recent movies, Real Steel and The Box, have been adaptations of Richard Matheson stories that were previously adapted as Twilight Zone episodes, from the original and '80s versions respectively.

The point, from the studio's perspective, is to use the TZ episodes they own as a source of material for making movies. Maybe the TZ label would be incidental in that case, but if we can get some interesting movies out of it, does it matter that much if they exploit the branding? (And I assume the idea would be to do a series of movies under the TZ brand, get a franchise out of it.)

[Captaindemotion]

^No, as long as the movies are good, I don't care. It's just that as I say, the idea of the TZ as anything other than a compliation of stories seems odd (dare I say alien?) to me. But yeah, I can see the marketing logic behind it.

[Christopher]

That's why I figure they're planning it as a franchise. That way, the multiple movies together would form an anthology series of sorts. Didn't they already try that with a couple of Tales From the Crypt movies some years back?

[Captaindemotion]

^I'm not sure. Didn't the Creepshow movies feature several stories?

[Temis the Vorta]

Christopher wrote:

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Michael Emerson as the host is an inspired suggestion.

Seconded! Or thirded as the case may be.

[C.E. Evans]

Dream wrote:

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I would be quite surprised if CBS puts this show on their schedule. Are they finally going branch out from the crime dramas and do Star Trek next?

I doubt it, because a new Twilight Zone series would still be cheaper to do than a Trek series, especially if most of the stories are set on present day Earth and don't require a lot of VFX. They can save a ton of money by reusing sets from existing CBS shows too.

[Captaindemotion]

^I think TZ wll appeal to people who wouldn't necessarily watch a space opera. My dad loathes most sci-fi but he would watch things like TZ or Outer Limits.

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The 80's version was my favorite.

[Christopher]

Captaindemotion wrote:

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^I'm not sure. Didn't the Creepshow movies feature several stories?

There have been quite a few anthology movies over the years, including those. I'm talking about something different, a series of full, self-contained movies that are released under a blanket title. Something where each individual movie tells only one story, but collectively they're packaged as an anthology series under a blanket supertitle. The two Tales From the Crypt films Demon Knight and Bordello of Blood (and the third DTV one Ritual) were like that, but I think there must have been others. Maybe the various National Lampoon's-branded movies would qualify.

[davejames]

I'm not against remakes, but this is one where I don't even know why they bother trying.

The original had SO many great things going for it-- Rod Serling's brilliant writing, the stark and inherently creepy black and white imagery, all those great character actors of the 60s who were compelling as hell to watch, the fact most of those stories hadn't been told before, etc-- that there's no way a remake could even come close.

Unless they got, like, Vince Gilligan to run it or something, who would be allowed to be as dark and edgy as he wanted. But I doubt that would ever happen.

[Gaith]

black and white presentation or gtho

[Christopher]

davejames wrote:

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I'm not against remakes, but this is one where I don't even know why they bother trying.

Every so often, someone wants to bring anthologies back. But anthologies are a tough sell these days, so it makes sense to go with an established, successful name. And the most successful SF/fantasy anthologies, the ones that are best remembered today, were The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits, with the former tending more toward fantasy and the latter more toward SF. So those are the names it's natural to gravitate toward.