sf/f TV development news - 2013

[Chemahkuu]

RJDiogenes wrote:

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Penny Dreadful does sound like it has possibilities. Nice title, too-- Penny Dreadfuls were the precursors to the Pulps.

Indeed, the Dreadfuls ran from 1830's onwards and never exactly ended, just becoming several spinoff pulps into the 1950's and 60's when mass market comics took over.

Only Frankenstien (1818) and Carmilla (1825) really predate them.

Which is what worries me, all the titles given are of standalone horror novels, not the actual Penny Dreadful series like Varney the Vampire (although I have the compendium volume, it's massive, so maybe that's why).

[Temis the Vorta]

Thanks for updating the title, mods! Just in time for the fall season news to start ramping up. Update from the CW.

The Vampire Diaries is getting a spinoff set in New Orleans, starring Klaus. Eh, he's a big reason why I'm no longer watching, I find him boring, but I'd probably have bailed in any case.

While the CW is yet to order its first pilot this season, it already has a serious contender for next fall in The Originals, a Vampire Diaries backdoor pilot centered on Klaus (Joseph Morgan) and the Original family of vampires living in New Orleans. “You’ll have the melting pot of New Orleans and deal with a lot of voodoo and everything that goes with it,” Pedowitz said, adding that he is a “big believer that if you have something that works you can use it incubate other shows.”

A retooled version of Selection is back where the project was exactly a year ago — in contention for a pilot pickup. “The script just came in and it is very well done,” Pedowitz said.

Also awaiting word is Amazon, the proposed Wonder Woman origins drama, which is doing preliminary casting of the lead. “We’re waiting to see the script and are busy casting Diana,” Pedowitz said.

One project that is not happening is previously rumored adaptation of the Japanese film Battle Royale. The explanation of what happened with the project was vintage Pedowitz, with his attorney pedigree on full display. “Nothing occurred and it predated the current events that occurred.”

2013 is young but so far, that's the Quote of the Year.

[RJDiogenes]

Chemahkuu wrote:

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Which is what worries me, all the titles given are of standalone horror novels, not the actual Penny Dreadful series like Varney the Vampire (although I have the compendium volume, it's massive, so maybe that's why).

Yeah, that sucker's huge. I've got it on my Nook and it will probably take me the rest of my life to read it.

Temis the Vorta wrote:

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The Vampire Diaries is getting a spinoff set in New Orleans, starring Klaus. Eh, he's a big reason why I'm no longer watching, I find him boring, but I'd probably have bailed in any case.

I'm reminded of Buffy. When they spun off Angel and Cordelia, they got rid of my two least-favorite characters and made room for a parade of new characters that I liked a lot.

[Greg Cox]

Varney is pretty unreadable. I made a stab at it back in the eighties but finally surrendered in defeat. It's like reading three years of GENERAL HOSPITAL plotlines in prose; it's a long, pointless, unstructured mess that is clearly being made up as it goes along.

To paraphrase some critic (whose name escapes me), the lesson of Varney is that dead vampires should kept away from moonlight--and writers should never be paid by the word!

[RJDiogenes]

^^ I don't disagree, which is why I'm not going to read it straight through. But, as a lover of archaic genre literature, I feel compelled to go back to it from time to time.

[Greg Cox]

RJDiogenes wrote:

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^^ I don't disagree, which is why I'm not going to read it straight through. But, as a lover of archaic genre literature, I feel compelled to go back to it from time to time.

Well, that's probably the way to do it. To be fair, it was never meant to be read straight through like a modern novel. It was a magazine serial that ran as long as the public kept buying new installments. So, ideally, the way to read it would be one chapter a week for however long it takes. Like watching a soap opera or whatever.

(I remember that the old Dover edition ran to two thick volumes.)

[Kegg]

Chemahkuu wrote:

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Which is what worries me, all the titles given are of standalone horror novels, not the actual Penny Dreadful series like Varney the Vampire (although I have the compendium volume, it's massive, so maybe that's why).

It's name recognition. Varney the Vampire is not exactly a household name. (Sweeney Todd kind of is, though, which makes his absence more noticeable).

On the other hand, a TV series cannot subsist on three characters alone. It could be that Varney and his penny dreadful kin show up for standalone episodes, as recurring characters, or as the rest of the main cast. It depends how much the show commits to being a pastiche of Victorian horror (and though not penny dreadful, appearances of Irish horror icons like Melmoth the Wanderer and Silas Ruthyn would be nice, there's more to the tradition than Dracula, even if his abdunance of media appearances would say otherwise).

[diankra]

RJDiogenes wrote:

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Penny Dreadful does sound like it has possibilities. Nice title, too-- Penny Dreadfuls were the precursors to the Pulps. Also, we have a local "Horror Host" here down in Bridgewater who uses that name-- nice publicity for her.

Might conceivably have to change title to avoid problems with the British comedy group The Penny Dreadfuls (think of The League of Gentlemen, but sillier). But suspect not.

[Bob The Skutter]

Freemantle Media are remaking a French Zombie Film in to a TV show with British Writer/Producer Paul Abbot.

link

Shameless and State of Play scribe Paul Abbott will adapt French supernatural thriller Les Revenants for the English-language market as part of his first-look deal with FremantleMedia.


Abbott, who signed a development pact with FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME) several years ago, will turn Les Revenants into a series called They Came Back (wt). No broadcaster is yet attached.


Les Revenants tells the story of a group of men and women in a small Alpine village in the shadow of a vast dam, who find themselves in a state of confusion, trying to return to their homes. What they do not yet know is that they have been dead for several years, and no one is expecting them back.


Originally developed as a feature film, Les Revenants was adapted for TV by producers Haut et Court for the premium French pay-TV channel Canal+.


Zodiak Media last year acquired distribution and remake rights to the series, known in English as Rebound. It retains these in all territories excluding the US and UK, where FME will work with Abbott’s prodco AbbottVision to develop the project.


“The scripts are a fantastic distillation of the emotional content honed from the film and crafted into a five star TV series, with highly rewarding expansion, suspense and depth,” said Abbott.

[Borgminister]

Sound like the 6th Sense in a way. But unsustainable one would think.

[lennier1]

Borgminister wrote:

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Sound like the 6th Sense in a way. But unsustainable one would think.

Depends on the length. While the concept itself has been done before, this take could make for a nice single-season series (longer than a miniseries, but 26 episodes at the most).

[Bob The Skutter]

Borgminister wrote:

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Sound like the 6th Sense in a way. But unsustainable one would think.

Given it'll be a British show I would expect it'd either be short series or no more than 12 episodes anyway.

[Temis the Vorta]

I wondered where the dramatic hook was, too. So, people realize "hey aren't you supposed to be dead?" And then what? That's a situation, not a story premise, but the premise is in the link:

“Determined to reclaim their lives and start over, they slowly come to realise that they are not the only ones to have been brought back from the dead,” runs the show’s promo material. “Their return augers torment for their community when a series of gruesome murders bear a chilling resemblance to the work of a serial killer from the past.”

So...an undead serial killer is running amok and the "good" dead people must stop him? Only a ghost can stop a ghost! Yeah, that could be fun.

[Kegg]

Not inclined to trust Abbott's involvement that much. I know he was only minimally involved with Hit & Miss but that was a pretty disappointing show. I guess the original French series sounds interesting enough to maybe look at.

[JD]

Penny Dreadful, and Under the Dome sound cool. Not sure what to make of Rebound yet.
Has anyone said whether or not Stephen King will be involved with Under the Dome?