CW plans for a new Robin Hood series

[MacLeod]

Prancer the Sith wrote:

---

I don't see why CW should care about a TV show that used to air on BBC, just as CBS couldn't care less about BBC kicking ass with "Sherlock". Not that I'd ever watch "Elementary", but still...

If you note I said my view, others are free to have a different view.

[Mach5]

MacLeod wrote:

---

If you note I said my view, others are free to have a different view.

None of us here have anything but views.

Except when we cite facts. Which I clearly didn't do.

[tighr]

There are so many different (and contradictory) legends behind both Robin Hood and Arthur that there is no such thing as the "definitive" version of either. Every version out there is one person's interpretation.

The goal behind a re-envisioning shouldn't be to simply make a new film/series, but to tell a certain story or moral about that character. If the CW wants to make a series about Robin Hood, great. Just have a reason for doing it.

I was one of those who watched Smallville back on the WB, but after around season 5 or so it started to wear a little thin. It stopped being about telling the story of Clark growing up and coming to terms with his heritage, and started being about the CW trying to desperately cling to ratings using an aging tentpole.

[Christopher]

tighr wrote:

---

I was one of those who watched Smallville back on the WB, but after around season 5 or so it started to wear a little thin. It stopped being about telling the story of Clark growing up and coming to terms with his heritage, and started being about the CW trying to desperately cling to ratings using an aging tentpole.

But then when the original showrunners left after season 7 and their subordinates took over in season 8, it was revitalized, and for the first time really started being about Clark embracing and working toward his heroic destiny, rather than avoiding it as he'd spent the previous 7 seasons doing. And in season 8-9, it was a good show again. Although it kinda went off the rails again in season 10.

[Forbin]

What was that about Tom Welling's tentpole?

[Donald Draper]

Smallville seems to have a couple different of audiences. Many fans who actually did like the early conception of the show probably did not like its later years. Particularly fans of characters/actors who left the show.

I never really liked the early concept of the show. While I think it made improvements later it was still tied to its early history. But also like most long running show the later seasons seemed really low budget. So while the ideas became more ambitious they did not have the money to show them. It was going to the cast. Which always happens, the longer the run the higher the salaries are to keep the original actors.

Looking back now, the production values seem lavish on the early seasons. Not just do to more money but they were working within their limits. The production crew did not have the experience to really pull of the demands of the later years. Watching the old Superboy show is interesting in contrast to Smallville. VERY LOW BUDGET. But at least they had more effective shot physical stunts and the flying wire rigging. Without the gloss of modern CGI which Smallville used to dress up its really dull fight choreography.

[Christopher]

Donald Draper wrote:

---

Smallville seems to have a couple different of audiences. Many fans who actually did like the early conception of the show probably did not like its later years. Particularly fans of characters/actors who left the show.

Well, part of that was the media landscape changing. When Smallville began, superheroes had less widespread acceptance, so the goal was to take the fundamentals of the Superman story and reinvent it in a form that stripped away all the comic-book elements and recast it as a WB-style (later CW-style) teen drama. (The WB tried to do the same thing with Tarzan a couple of seasons later, setting it in Manhattan and making Jane a cop. It lasted 9 episodes.) But as comic-book movies became smash hits, the show became freer to embrace those elements.

Another part of it was simply that the show went on so much longer than expected. Past a certain point, they could no longer justify making a show that was about Clark before he became a hero, so they had to begin telling a different kind of story. In the final couple of seasons, they essentially were telling Superman stories, even if they avoided the name and costume.

But also like most long running show the later seasons seemed really low budget. So while the ideas became more ambitious they did not have the money to show them. It was going to the cast. Which always happens, the longer the run the higher the salaries are to keep the original actors.

Which is why the series had so many cast changes -- new actors don't cost as much as the old ones. And why the final season of the show was down to only four regulars and had to struggle to make do with so few.

The production crew did not have the experience to really pull of the demands of the later years.

Actually I felt that in season 9, at least, the visual effects were quite good compared to previous seasons. Maybe they didn't have more money, but they really improved their design and composition, and the action thus felt much more effective than it had in earlier seasons.

[Gaith]

The first three years of Smallville had some truly awesome production values - lots and lots of great-looking location shooting, tons of extras, and big explosions. But that's not-exactly on-topic...

tighr wrote:

---

There are so many different (and contradictory) legends behind both Robin Hood and Arthur

Wait - stop right there. Robin Hood and Arthur? Teaming up? Money. Let's make it happen!

[Christopher]

Gaith wrote:

---

The first three years of Smallville had some truly awesome production values - lots and lots of great-looking location shooting, tons of extras, and big explosions.

Oh yeah, the location shooting in the majestic mountains of Kansas.

Wait - stop right there. Robin Hood and Arthur? Teaming up? Money. Let's make it happen!

T.H. White already did it in The Sword in the Stone, although it was more a guest cameo by Robin than a full team-up.

[Gaith]

Christopher wrote:

---

Oh yeah, the location shooting in the majestic mountains of Kansas.

When Seeking a Friend for the End of the World tries to pass SoCal off as real-world New Jersey, it bugs the hell out of me. But putting mountains and a port city in a comic-book world Kansas? Doesn't bother me at all. In such a fantastical context, it's better to be interesting than to be accurate.

Christopher wrote:

---

T.H. White already did it in The Sword in the Stone, although it was more a guest cameo by Robin than a full team-up.

Great! If anyone cries foul, we'll say our concept has "roots in esteemed literature."

[Temis the Vorta]

Gaith wrote:

---

Wait - stop right there. Robin Hood and Arthur? Teaming up? Money. Let's make it happen!

Sometimes you are downright scary. Throw in Sherlock Holmes, Joan of Arc and Spartacus while you're at it.

[Forbin]

Gaith wrote:

---

When Seeking a Friend for the End of the World tries to pass SoCal off as real-world New Jersey, it bugs the hell out of me. But putting mountains and a port city in a comic-book world Kansas? Doesn't bother me at all. In such a fantastical context, it's better to be interesting than to be accurate.

Jackie Chan's Rumble in the Bronx! All those wonderful chase scenes along the New York docks with the Cascade Mountains in the background!

And check the background of this classic scene from the original Captain Scarlet, where he mans a checkpoint at "one of the entrances to New York City":
http://www.inpayne.com/temp/newyork.jpg

Here's an actual entrance to NYC - the tollbooths at the George Washinton Bridge:
http://www.inpayne.com/temp/gwb.jpg
Plenty of time for a nice isolated chat with the bad guys in their car, eh?

In case y'all don't know how NOT mountainous and wild it is around New York - here's a picture I took from the window of a plane landing at Newark Airport, looking west over New Jersey:
http://www.inpayne.com/temp/jersey.jpg

[Christopher]

I always wondered if the Los Angeles-area landscapes we saw in M*A*S*H were even remotely like the area around Panmunjom, South Korea, so I did some Google searching for pictures of the latter area. And I was pleasantly surprised to find that they really did bear a moderate resemblance to one another, although some of the specific vegetation was different.

[Forbin]

My all-time favorite is an episode of Mannix that was supposed to take place in Washington, DC. There were palm trees everywhere.

[tighr]

Christopher wrote:

---

I always wondered if the Los Angeles-area landscapes we saw in M*A*S*H were even remotely like the area around Panmunjom, South Korea, so I did some Google searching for pictures of the latter area. And I was pleasantly surprised to find that they really did bear a moderate resemblance to one another, although some of the specific vegetation was different.

Likewise, I always wondered if exotic, mysterious worlds around the galaxy all looked like Griffith Observatory in LA, and after watching numerous episodes of Star Trek, my theories were confirmed!