sf/f TV development news - 2013

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Temis the Vorta, Oct 10, 2011.

  1. Temis the Vorta

    Temis the Vorta Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Not interested in the OUAT spinoff (and without Sebastian Stan bringing in his fanbase, I wouldn't hold out a lot of hope for it, assuming it ever gets to air) but the Wachowski-Straczynski collaboration interests me a lot!

    Netflix will allow them to have quite a bit of creative freedom since they probably can get by with 2-3M viewers, which means they can appeal to oddball niche tastes and create something unique.

    As for the broadcast vs Netflix debate, keep in mind that Netflix is in the brand-building phase of its existence and might consider HoC an investment in their future as opposed to making $$$ right now. Netflix needed something that demonstrated they can play with the big boys, and they did that. Wall Street loved them for it. Mission accomplished.

    The game is far from over and I expect Amazon to counterpunch with something big (haven't seen indications of that yet), but Netflix has opened up a big lead in the image/branding contest.

    So it's not at all Netflix vs broadcast but rather Netflix vs Amazon vs some other major competitor who might be launched with a lot of money behind it, because now everyone must be aware that either Netflix or a competitor is the future of TV, and nobody can afford to be left behind.
     
  2. DarthTom

    DarthTom Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I'm surprised that Apple hasn't jumped in as well. They've got several hundred billion in the bank right now and Wall Street has not been thrilled lately with their lack of creativity since Jobs passed away.
     
  3. Temis the Vorta

    Temis the Vorta Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Yeah Apple or Google could spoil the party pretty quickly...

     
  4. Temis the Vorta

    Temis the Vorta Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    WTF SyFy...

    So wait...the government thinks they brought down the plane using a meteorite, which somehow also caused them to sleepwalk? Sounds like the kind of TV show my brain creates when I go to sleep after eating too much pizza.
     
  5. Enterprise is Great

    Enterprise is Great Vice Admiral Admiral

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  6. Vendikarr

    Vendikarr Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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  7. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    ^Reubens has a lot more to his range than that. He's done effective voice work as a rather malevolent Bat-Mite on Batman: The Brave and the Bold and as the even more malevolent Pavel on TRON: Uprising. I'd rather hear him expand his range even further than demand that he limit himself to a role he was known for decades ago. (Not that I have any interest in the show he'll be doing.)
     
  8. Vendikarr

    Vendikarr Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I know he has range, I just think the Peewee voice is funny.
     
  9. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    :eek: Yeah, not quite sure what to make of that. What exactly do government agents and sleepwalking have to do with a meteorite? Usually I try to give SyFy the benefit of the doubt but what they've revealed here doesn't even make sense.
     
  10. Enterprise is Great

    Enterprise is Great Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I think the deal there is that a meteorite really brought down the plane but the government thinks it was a terrorist attack. This stuff is written by PR hacks so they may be somewhat off in describing the premise. The original description for Revolution said that all forms of energy stopped working which isn't the case since people are still alive and fires still ignite.
     
  11. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Of course a 2-sentence summary is not going to represent the entire concept. And of course they're not going to want to give away too many details in the initial press release. So don't mistake deliberate vagueness in the initial publicity for actual vagueness in the creative process.
     
  12. xortex

    xortex Commodore Commodore

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    I think they mean all forms of electricity. Fire is another element. The supernatural though is capable of making things that must work not work and things that don't work or shouldn't work, work. See King's 'The Langoliers' for fire that doesn't work. But let's face it, JJ doesn't know what he's doing or not doing, so.. as evidenced by Lost and Fringe.
     
  13. Nerys Myk

    Nerys Myk A Spock and a smile Premium Member

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    Yeah, because Lost and Fringe were canceled after half a season. Oh wait, they weren't. And of course JJ's involvement in both was pretty limited after the initial launches.
     
  14. Temis the Vorta

    Temis the Vorta Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I posted that description because I enjoy incoherent series descriptions. :D We'll find out eventually what they really mean - assuming the show goes to series.
     
  15. Temis the Vorta

    Temis the Vorta Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    It's April, spring is in the air and broadcast pilot buzz has begun. Just focusing on the genre stuff (cuz everything else is completely boring), here's the rundown so far.

    ABC
    S.H.I.E.L.D. - considered a lock
    Big Thunder, Gothica - contenders
    The Returned - dark horse

    FOX
    Sleepy Hollow - contender
    Inhuman* - possible
    Delirium - nothing yet
    *Not sure if that's the final name - that's the JJ Abrams robot cop show.

    CBS
    Intelligence - contender

    NBC
    The Sixth Gun - early front runner
    Believe - contender
    Wonderland, Bloodline - nothing yet

    CW
    The Originals - considered a lock
    The 100, Oxygen, The Selection - contenders
    The Tomorrow People - nothing yet

    My horses this year are S.H.I.E.L.D., Inhuman, The Sixth Gun and Oxygen (terrible title, I hope they change it). Hopefully me rooting for them won't be the jinx it usually is. ;)

    Anyone else want to pick their ponies? Descriptions can be found here.

    To gauge how accurate last years' April buzz was, check this out.
     
    Last edited: Apr 6, 2013
  16. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I'm not even sure how involved he is with Revolution. As far as I know Supernatural creator Eric Kripke is the showrunner, and I don't think I've really heard JJ Abrams mentioned very much anymore. In fact I don't know if he's ever really been that involved in the story or world building, pretty much everything I've read discussing them seems to indicate it is Kripke coming up with the majority of the stuff.
    Other than the beginning of Lost, I don't think he's been very involved with the creative aspects of any of the show's he's produced the last few seasons.
     
  17. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    He did write and/or direct a few Fringe episodes, but not many. For the most part, these days his personal focus is on movies, and while he may co-develop Bad Robot's shows and often co-write or direct their pilots, he's not the main creative force behind them anymore. It's just that his production company makes them.
     
  18. xortex

    xortex Commodore Commodore

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    Yea, that's because he has no idea what they're about really, and once again we get another guy that didn't really like Trek or TOS and didn't know those characters and in the hands of his hired guns. I think my plumber can do that. He's just a hideously clever uber nerd bloviating on one topic to the next without any real plan or anything behind him except mindless insideous writers all because he's a popular son of a suit.
     
  19. Nerys Myk

    Nerys Myk A Spock and a smile Premium Member

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    No, it means he's an in demand director and producer. He's in demand because he's successful.

    Liking and knowing Trek and TOS is no guaranty of success and quality. Though, not all the "hired guns" at Bad Robot are unfamiliar with TOS and Trek and I'm pretty sure the "hired guns" who worked for Gene Roddenberry on TOS didn't know the characters either. Back then hire guns made up the bulk of a TV shows writers.

    You complaining about someone bloviating is the height of irony. You've often demonstrated a complete lack of understand of the writing process, television production and the film industry, yet will go on and on about them in an endless stream of nonsense.

    Again, his "popularity" is based on success not being a "son of a suit", what ever that is.
     
  20. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Right. It's common knowledge that Harve Bennett and Nicholas Meyer weren't that familiar with Trek before making The Wrath of Khan, and while I'm not crazy about that one, most people consider it one of the best Trek movies ever. And of course you can go on Fanfiction.net and find countless people who love Trek passionately and know its minutiae intimately but whose stories are still utter crap. So the notion that there's any correlation between one's love for Trek and the quality of one's writing is just plain silly.


    Indeed not. Roberto Orci is a devout fan and Damon Lindelof is a moderate-to-strong fan, and I think Alex Kurtzman is moderately familiar with it. The strength of Abrams's "Supreme Court" is that it includes a whole range of perspectives from devoted fan to disinterested outsider, which helps them craft movies that work for audiences at both ends of that same spectrum.


    Again, absolutely right. You don't need prior familiarity with a subject to write a good story about it, because there is a thing called research that writers do all the time. If you need to write about a subject you're not familiar with, you study up and learn what you need to know. TV series have documents called writers' bibles whose purpose is to familiarize freelance writers with the basics of a show. Often freelancers are given copies of episode scripts or sent videos of sample episodes so they can get a feel for the show's format and style, character voices, etc.

    And of course the show's own writing staff rewrites freelance scripts to make them fit the characters and continuity better. On TOS, Roddenberry himself rewrote the scripts to give them a consistent style and continuity -- which is why there was more out-of-character writing in the third season when Roddenberry stopped participating directly in the production.

    I suppose he's referring to the fact that both of Abrams's parents are or were producers of TV movies. But of course you're right -- it's nonsense to think that that alone would make him popular. After all, the viewing audience doesn't care (or even know, for the most part) who his parents were, they just care whether they like his shows/movies or not. And lots of people do like them.