"One Way Out" Michael Bay develops competition-reality TV series

[jefferiestubes8]

Director Michael Bay is making his first entry into unscripted television, teaming with "Top Chef" producers Magical Elves to produce "One Way Out."

...death-defying challenges, and stunning visuals, we are reinventing the genre, showing just how far people will go when they are stripped of their bare necessities and forced to do whatever it takes to survive.”

...the intimidating locations will allow a true primal test of endurance to unfold.”

http://livefeed.hollywoodreporter.com/2010/04/michael-bay-reality-series.html

It sure sounds like "Fear Factor" (which hasn't aired since 2004) meets "Survivor". Throw in "American Gladiators" the sports challenge series redux from 2008 and it sounds like this with helicopters shooting from far away and also extreme closeups even though it will be in 1.78:1 HD instead of typical Michael Bay Cinemascope 2.35:1 widescreen.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

How weird to see Magical Elves in this context. We've just started a project at work with them, and I'm going to have to bite my tongue about how much I LOATHE reality TV now! Oh well, maybe the whole thing will fall through.

Back to the topic - I assume this will take place in some remote jungle context. Wouldn't it be gutsy for them to place it in some big city, preferably someplace where the developed-nation security net is not in place?

 

[Aragorn]

Will there be a lot of explosions and babes in tight clothes?

 

[jefferiestubes8]

Wouldn't it be gutsy for them to place it in some big city, preferably someplace where the developed-nation security net is not in place?

Highly unlikely.

we are reinventing the genre

No they aren't. Surely in the years since "Survivor" and especially "The Real World" (1992) there are many shows that comparisons can be made but I think my initial choices in the original post will be close.
the genre:

Competition/game shows [also hybrid reality-competition shows]
the format of a non-tournament elimination contests. Typically, participants are filmed competing to win a prize, often while living together in a confined environment.

via Wiki

promises "a game with no rules"

wrong...if it is a competition it has rules.
Even on a show like "Big Brother" 2nd or 3rd season the African American guy started messing with the other 'contestants' by creating puzzles like stacking furniture and stuff to fool them and then the producers had to have a talking with him to stop it. I liked the stuff he was doing. It sure was unique and 'broke the rules'...

...when they are stripped of their bare necessities

tanned hardbodies of course

and forced to do

well they signed up for a competition-reality show

whatever it takes to survive

probably not just surviving or we could just watch Survivor. I wouldn't be surprised if Michael Bay ends up having this show air on NBC since it is higher profile than Bravo which is where "Top Chef" airs and Bravo is owned by NBC Universal.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Yeah, it sounds like a lot of noise for some very standard crap. I know very well nobody would have the guts to let some pansy-ass whiteys loose in Rio or Jakarta. That's a bit TOO real.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

...nobody would have the guts to let some pansy-ass whiteys loose in Rio or Jakarta. That's a bit TOO real.

to have 'contestents' interacting with the real world these days is just not going to happen.

You have the docu-soaps like "The Hills" which shoot over 6 months but to have actual interaction with people is just not practical unless you have a sound person with a boom mic over their head and with a camera in a person's face and a microphone over their head people just do not behave naturally. They 'act'. they 'perform'. Call it what you want but taking a camera crew of 2 behind a subject in Rio just is going to draw attention.
Look at all the paparazzi media attention now in Miami because those kids from 'Jersey Shore' are shooting what will be 1/3 of their show's season 2 actual episodes in Miami at the moment. With Twitter and location-based Internet stuff the public let other's know that these people are at a location and the mobs of people just show up...

A typical competition-reality show shoots around 39 days or so. If a 'contestent' gets eliminated then they are sequestered at a location. It's a formula.
For one show I know of that was shot in NYC in the Wintertime the sequestered kids were holed up at a New Jersey Golf course that was closed for the Winter but had a small hotel or rooms on site which was also closed to the public until the final elimination.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

'The Great Escape' reality show on TNT

It sounds like these two shows will be competing for similar show format:

TNT is plotting The Great Escape with producers Brian Grazer and Ron Howard. The brian-grazer-ron-howardcable network has shot an action-adventure competition reality pilot produced by Imagine TV and Fox TV Studios.

The show, which has a MacGyver-flavor to it, puts ordinary people in extraordinary movie-like situations challenging them to escape using only their everyday skills, team work and what they can find around them.

yep.

The action-adventure reality genre is hot, with another top filmmaker, Michael Bay, recently teaming with the Magical Elves for One Way Out, which is being shopped to the networks.

April 19, 2010
TNT's 'The Great Escape' to Reality TV